Is this something you could do?

[Sweet Venus]

With the economy being the way it is, we are all looking for ways to cut back on expenses and get more for our buck. There are even reports that people

may even begin taking MORE drastic measures....by becoming survivalists.

 

Anyway, I have been pondering this and I realized that while I am probably a

little spoiled as MANY of us are with the way I normally spend money..I wondered if I could survive with the BARE minimum. Food, just the clothes I have, not going out to restaurants, just eating what I can AFFORD, not having ANY luxuries...ie, a monthly pedicure, nails done, yada yada.......basically all the added expenses that we do not NEED to live.

 

So for two months I AM going to live like this. I think it is a scary reality that it is coming to this....but I truly think at heart I am NOT a materialistic person and can live on practically nothing. My family was pretty much poor

growing up..and I am sure I have dealt with worse hardships...

 

So...could you all do this? What are you willing to cut back on in order to survive??

[maritalbliss]

I think you're making a good decision to live like that - and hopefully you find it so good (to your budget) that you decide to keep it for more than just 2 months

 

my husband and I are both college students and will be for about 3 more years (for him to finish completely) and 4-5 for me. So yes, we ONLY have the bare minimum for survival... which means we only buy basically what we need.

 

I suggest to you to start by making a monthly "budget" where you first calculate what you make income wise per month.

THEN you write down all your "set" expenses like your rent, electrity, cable/internet (we do w/o the cable), water bill, groceries, credit payments, and savings etc. THEN write down all your "movable" expenses like going out, spending in general, etc... the stuff you don't HAVE to pay that are easy to adjust or eliminate if need be.

 

Then you can really see if you're coming out on top or below farely easily; we do our budget this way - except we really don't have any "movable expenses" anymore.... can't afford to. But hey, we're proof you can live like that!

 

Gifts for us are usually cash or we like giftcards to clothing places or food places... so in a way, we get our clothes new only around birthdays/christmas and use the gift cards to eat out.

 

hope that helps a little

[waveseer]

I think I could do it, but I doubt I would do it unless I really needed to.

[Sweet Venus]

Thanks Marital....those are helpful hints.I know it sounds crazy but because I AM a

borderline health nut I am making certain foods "mandatory"...BUT the one caveat is that for a full one week period I will be eating the SAME thing everyday.LOL

But so as long as it's reasonably healthy I will be OK.Heck even black beans and rice is

healthy and cheap...I just don't wanna sacrifice my health. So for instance..this week I will eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No biggie to me, as long as I eat.

I am buying more tuna and more beans. It's fairly simple for me.

 

I am also going to save whatever money I would NORMALLY use for those frivolous

things...should be interesting to see exactly how much I really waste.

[HeartGoesOn]

I think it's a great idea, and it's something we should all be doing in this bad economy.

 

I'm starting to cut back...Thanks for the reminder!

[yellow_sweater]

Living a "low impact" lifestyle is very important to me. By low impact, I mean not consuming more resources than I actually need, being conscious of the effects of my decisions, doing my best to purchase local goods & services, bartering, etc. Fortunately, a low impact lifestyle is not only environmentally sound, but saves you $$$.

 

For example:

--Take the bus or bike to work.

--Go vegetarian. Since I live and cook alone, I buy enough food for a week and then eat the same meal for breakfast (cereal and soymilk), lunch (salad & PB&J), and dinner (vegetarian dinner) for an entire week.

--Thrift store for clothing. Learn to sew & you can have a really awesome wardrobe of clothes that fit and look great.

--Insulate your house as much as possible. Extra plastic over the windows in winter, don't run the AC at night during the summer, etc.

--Reduce first, then reuse second, and then recycle third.

--Just stop buying crap.

--Decide what you need v. what you want. I haven't bought makeup probably in years. I don't get my nails done or my hair colored. Guess what? I think I'm actually quite pretty and very natural looking. I don't need all that warpaint to convince myself that I'm beautiful. And, perhaps not coincidentally, I never thought I was beautiful until I stopped buying things that are advertised as "you won't be beautiful until you try the new mascara to get lashes 50% longer!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

The list goes on...

[NowandZen]

There is a theory that all habits are bad. Bad in the sense that living habitually destroys awareness. That being said, I think it's good to change up your life and not do the same things year after year. Whether it's being wasteful or being frugal.

 

That' what I like about Lent.

[maritalbliss]

lol we don't really eat the "same thing" everyday though We have a (somewhat small) variety of things to eat throughout the week - all based on a $25 grocery budget per week. We get by pretty well - I don't feel we sacrifice our health at all. We eat A LOT of chicken in different dishes usually paired with rice and veggies (we get a huge bag of assorted frozen veggies that's less than $4 and lasts us up to 2 months!!), we get frozen fruits and a big bucket of plain yogurt and make our own smoothies in the summer (just add milk and sugar/substitute). Easy, cheap, and very healthy.

 

-We still eat whole wheat breads and rice... not whole wheat pasta though (too expensive)... have "tacos" almost every morning that are eggs with potato, eggs w/onions and bellpeppers, eggs w/cheese, and for rarity: chorizo &egg or turkey bacon and egg, sometimes taco meat and egg (less healthful but good variety once in a while)

 

BUt see, lots of options ... you just have to budget yourself so that you can afford more variety (as in, we buy what we truly need one w/ $25 and then the next week buy "new" items with the $25, and so on... we only have a few items we need to replace weekly (like bread, milk almost, and juice)....

 

hope that helps

[circi]

If you are going to give up what you do not NEED to live, then consider that TV and Internet would fall into that category, as would cell phones MP3 players, etc

[metrogirl]

As far as pedicures and manicures, you can actually do them at home yourself, not as fun as getting them done at a salon but you will save lots of money there.

 

Brown bagging is an excellent way to save money. I would sometimes spend as much as 10.00 dollars a day for my breakfast and lunch while I was at work. Now I pack both meals. Usually some cereal or something inexpensive like eggs with onion and green pepper wrapped in a tortilla. For lunch I will usually bring whatever I made the night before. I don't buy a soda from the machine anymore as they cost a fortune.