I'm Lucy Fink and for the next five days
I'll be on a fifty dollar spending
budget my dinner is probably cost like
400 bucks this week but that's with my
husband so like 200 according to a
Gallup poll Americans spent on average
151 dollars per week on food alone I
realized is it 23 year-old living in New
York City it is so easy to spend $50 a
week just on lunch first thing I have to
do empty my wall say goodbye to the
credit card the loose change putting
this inside and getting rid of
everything else in monthly Subway pass
in New York City cost one hundred
sixteen dollars and fifty cents by
divided by the number of days in the
month multiply that by five that cost me
eighteen dollars and 79 cents for five
days of a fun limited subway
transportation around New York City if I
take that away from my original 50 I'm
left at $31.21 I need food here's my
shopping list going to the grocery store
now and I'm hoping to keep this list
under $15 I spent more than $15 but only
18 cents more I walked through the
grocery store for 10 minutes and I got
mostly everything on this list some
items I couldn't get but overall we
spent $15 and 18 cents and we're left
with 16 dollars and 3 cents for the rest
of the week Monday was a big spending
day I had to return a pair of boots to
pay rent
yesterday I was so organized I got food
for the week I even cooked myself dinner
and then this morning I wake up I'm out
of contact solution and my deodorant
broke I put my glasses on in the
meantime but these are the wrong
prescription so I cannot see a thing I
went to the drugstore and I stared at
the containers of contact solution for a
good five minutes trying to figure out
if I bought the big one now and spent a
lot of money if in the long term it was
going to be worth it for me
the total for my purchases this morning
was 981 I'm left with six dollars and 22
cents remember it is only Tuesday ramen
or Rolexes food or time the food I
bought should be enough to cover every
meal for the week
obviously breakfast I have oatmeal I've
been adding some peanut butter from my
apartment to give me some protein in the
morning if I split the chicken and the
beans up that will just give you my
protein it's the little things that add
up that really make it tough to be on a
budget toilet paper or dishwasher so
paper towels dishwasher pods are like
nine dollar life is expensive working
late tonight
couldn't cook any of the groceries that
I have at home and to be honest I'm
getting a little sick of rice and beans
so I went out the park of living in New
York City dollar pizza five dollars and
22 cents left so much better than rice
and beans was my $18 jenna tonic worth
it
yeah yeah it was worth it I'm not a
superhero
I needed coffee I was working late last
night I'm up early this morning I
haven't had coffee all week and I need
coffee I read an article that said the
average person spends $1,100 a year just
on coffee that's the price of rent I got
my favorite type of drink and cost me
425
I have 97 cents left I don't want to
talk about it the way my taste is set up
I kind of have hamburger dollars but
caviar dreams I did it I budgeted I had
97 cents left at the end of yesterday
and I gave my spare change to someone in
need it blows my mind that the average
person is spending a month rent worth of
money on their coffee maybe I can start
like French pressing like
I am not normally on a crazy budget but
my takeaway here is that budgeting is
not about extreme restriction it's about
understanding where your money is going
how you're spending it being smart about
it keep enough money aside for the
things you need keep a little money
aside for the things you want and then
keep some money aside for the you never
know what's going to happen fool at the
end of the day when I had a couple bucks
left I splurged and I bought myself a
latte sometimes life is about treating
yourself treat yourself treat yourself
treat yourself if I hadn't treated
myself to that coffee yesterday then I
can't even promise you that I would be
sitting here right now dressed fully I
might be sitting here looking like this
Lucy pink here and I think you should
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