What do you spend per week just to live?

What do you spend per week just to live?

by Liv | Published on November 8th, 2009, 9:41 am | Life

Life is expensive. There's no doubt. Some of us maintain a better ability for micro-managing cost than the rest of us, but still.... it's not cheap. I'm reminded by this fact each month when we hit a certain week of the month when we have no incoming money, and we have to really watch what we spend. I'm not talking bills here, like mortgage, power, water or cable... I'm talking the money to live. What does it take to facilitate your life for a week?

Food alone is a big one. Just making a nice dinner can cost us $30.00 a night with food from the grocery store. This week meals will be $5-$10. Gas is our next big one. On Fridays I we put on almost 150 miles just running the kids to school and Shan to work. We're averaging about two tanks a week which comes in about $60.00. Then there's the lunch money, the field trips, and all that jazz.

It get's real expensive, real quick. This week will also involve a trip to RDU to pick up family, (another mouth to feed) a doctors visit for one of the Kids, and supplies for a cake Shan is doing. Somehow I've got to manage this all under $100.00 I have budgeted. Which doesn't seem a lot, but then I think about how many people out there would love to live on $100 a week, and I wonder... is my life just to extravagant? How do people do it? I mean really?

My parents grew up in the Great Depression. They learned how to STRETCH money till it screamed. And they never stopped stretching it until the days they died. Which was sort of sad... because they got to a point where they could have done a little enjoying of their nest egg. But they preferred to take little trips to the mountains over any fancy trips elsewhere.

Meh...

It's all relative. As a student I lived frugally, but spent my money in different ways than my friends. I enjoy cooking and good food so I learned how to use the less popular cuts of meat (pork jowls, hocks, belly, lamb shanks, liver etc) not to mention road killed rabbits (I got quite good at getting the wheels either side so as to kill them without squishing them). I didn't go as far as a friend who would go to the park and entice ducks with bread and then scrobble them in his backpack.

I ate a lot of stews and braised dishes, you can make the meat go a long way with potatoes, swedes (rutabagas), carrots and onions. My chief item of cookware was the pressure cooker.

At the time the cheapest place to buy beer was at a pub, so entertaining at home was rare, we might have a meal there but then head down to the nearest pub.

I owned a car but didn't drive it much by myself, if I had passengers, they had to pay their share of gas, if not then I would hitch hike -which I found surprisingly quick.

The hot water heater in my shared house was never turned on, we used the kettle to heat water for washing up and washing clothes and showered at the University

But I splashed on the things that were important to me, scuba kit, climbing gear, good HiFi.

So yes, I know what it's like to be short of cash. But that's in the past now. My trusty pressure cooker needs new seals and is retired and I eat better quality cuts and fewer stews.