00:00I'm Lucy Fink and for the next five days I'll be on a $50 spending budget.
00:06My dinners probably cost like $400 this week, but that's with my husband, so like $200.
00:14According to a Gallup poll, Americans spend on average $151 per week on food alone.
00:21I realized as a 23-year-old living in New York City, it is so easy to spend $50 a
00:26week
00:26just on lunch.
00:27First thing I have to do, empty my wallet, say goodbye to the credit cards, the loose
00:31change, putting this inside, and getting rid of everything else.
00:36A monthly subway pass in New York City costs $116.50.
00:40If I divide it by the number of days in the month, multiply that by 5, that costs me $18
00:45.79
00:47for 5 days of unlimited subway transportation around New York City.
00:51If I take that away from my original $50, I'm left at $31.21.
00:56I need food.
00:57Here's my shopping list.
00:58I'm going to the grocery store now, and I'm hoping to keep this list under $15.
01:03I spent more than $15, but only $18 more.
01:07I walked through the grocery store for 10 minutes, and I got mostly everything on this
01:11list.
01:11Some items I couldn't get, but overall, we spent $15.18, and we're left with $16.03 for the
01:19rest of the week.
01:20Monday was a big spending day.
01:25I had to return a pair of boots to pay rent.
01:30Yesterday, I was so organized.
01:32I got all the food for the week.
01:34I even cooked myself dinner.
01:35And then this morning, I wake up, I'm out of contact solution, and my deodorant broke.
01:40I put my glasses on in the meantime, but these are the wrong prescriptions, so I cannot see
01:44a thing.
01:45I went to the drug store, and I stared at the containers of contact solution for a good
01:51five minutes, trying to figure out if I bought the big one now and spent a lot of money if,
01:55in the long term, it was going to be worth it for me.
01:58The total for my purchases this morning was $9.81.
02:02I'm left with $6.22.
02:04Remember, it is only Tuesday.
02:08Ramen or Rolexes?
02:11Food or time?
02:14The food I bought should be enough to cover every meal for the week.
02:17Obviously, breakfast, I have oatmeal.
02:19I've been adding some peanut butter from my apartment to give me some protein in the morning.
02:22If I split the chicken and the beans up, that will distribute my protein.
02:26It's the little things that add up that really make it tough to be on a budget.
02:30Toilet paper, dishwasher soap, paper towels.
02:33Dishwasher pods are like $9.
02:35Life is expensive.
02:38Working late tonight, couldn't cook any of the groceries that I have at home.
02:41And to be honest, I'm getting a little sick of rice and beans, so I went out.
02:46The park of living in New York City.
02:49Dollar pizza.
02:52$5.22 left.
02:55So much better than rice and beans.
02:59Was my $18 genitonic worth it?
03:02Yeah.
03:03Yeah, it was worth it.
03:05I'm not a superhero.
03:06I needed coffee.
03:08I was working late last night.
03:10I'm up early this morning.
03:11I haven't had coffee all week.
03:13And I need coffee.
03:13I read an article that said the average person spends $1,100 a year just on coffee.
03:19That's the price of rent.
03:20I got my favorite type of drink.
03:22It cost me $4.25.
03:24I have 97 cents left.
03:26I don't want to talk about it.
03:28The way my taste is set up, I kind of have hamburger dollars but caviar dreams.
03:36I did it.
03:37I budgeted.
03:38I had 97 cents left at the end of yesterday and I gave my spare change to someone in need.
03:43It blows my mind that the average person is spending a month's rent worth of money on
03:49their coffee.
03:50Maybe I can start like French pressing my coffee in the morning.
03:53I am not normally on a crazy budget.
03:55But my takeaway here is that budgeting is not about extreme restrictions.
03:59It's about understanding where your money is going.
04:02How you're spending it.
04:03Being smart about it.
04:04Keep enough money aside for the things you need.
04:07Keep a little money aside for the things you want.
04:10And then keep some money aside for the you never know what's going to happen pool.
04:14At the end of the day, when I had a couple bucks left, I splurged and I bought myself a
04:18latte.
04:19Sometimes life is about treating yourself.
04:21Treat yourself.
04:23Treat yourself.
04:23Treat yourself.
04:24If I hadn't treated myself to that coffee yesterday, then I can't even promise you that
04:29I would be sitting here right now.
04:31Dressed.
04:32Fully.
04:32I might be sitting here looking like this.
04:36Lucy Fink here and I think you should subscribe to Refinery29.
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