Living on $35 Dollars a Week

Week One Report

This week was really more about testing my self control and seeing if $35 a week was even possible.

Granted, I wouldn't be so motivated if I didn't have a lease ending in January with little to no hope of renewing it and no savings to speak of for another down payment. The living on $35 dollars a week experiment was really born out of desperation. If I can manage it, I should have enough saved up for a new apartment by the time January rolls around. Cross fingers.

$35 a week is impossible for many people. I considered it possible for my individual circumstance for several reasons: where I live, the fact that I am single with no dependents, I hate stuff anyway especially when I'm about to move, I work at a place that often feeds me for free or at least majorly discounted, and I wasn't going to include the obvious gas and rent bills that are set standards for my checking account anyway.

Food for thought; I only try to get gas once a week and only pay $20 for however much I can get. It seems to me that whether full or almost full, my tank will still a refill every Thursday for $20 so does it really matter if I fill it to that last gallon at all?

The $35 experiment will only work in cash. If I try to use card, it's too easy to forget that what savings I do have is not for paying taxes or buying stuff that is "almost in budget." If I'm going to succeed, it has to be cash. There is nothing more strict, or final, than cash.

Week one I did succeed. I only went shopping three times. Once at Smiths ($26.38), twice at Walmart (total $7.30).  Spending a total of $33.68.

In the end, I got a really good sense of determining what I need vs. what I will actually use within a week period. This includes actually eating what I buy vs. buying what I have good intentions to eat. Every item I considered was weighed against what I had left in my wallet because it's embarrassing to realize I don't have enough cash to pay for what's in my cart and it would be too easy to finish a purchase with my card.

I won't say it bought the healthiest food, but it bought what would go the longest. Suddenly, $4 dollars for only six snack times in a week really didn't seem worth it compared to a bag of carrots.

Trying again for $35 next week. This seems to be working.