Lately I've started to notice that I spend a lot of money. Whether this is due to the high prices for everything or the fact that I'm a spender and can't save, I don't know. I think many of you are facing such a problem. Therefore, I decided to check whether an ordinary person can live for a week on the minimum amount. That's how I started my challenge "To live for seven days on 700 rubles." I'll make a reservation right away that I live in Ulyanovsk, an ordinary provincial city.
To begin with, I identified the most frequent items of expenditure. It turned out to be food, transport and entertainment.
I go to the grocery store every day and spend about 500 rubles. Every day. There have been no potatoes, sausages, sausage, bread in my diet for a long time. I try to eat right, so there are always fresh vegetables in the refrigerator, fruits, berries, greens — all this is quite expensive, especially out of season. I'm also very picky about food. For example, I will not eat ordinary pasta for 30 rubles, I will take it for 100, with a label in Italian. Well, often I don't have enough time to prepare lunch in advance, and I run to the store next to the office for a snack. Extra expenses are obtained. As a result, I spend about 3 thousand rubles a week only on groceries.
I get to work and back every day by public transport. Basically it's a minibus. The fare costs 20 rubles. If I go to a meeting, to a movie or a cafe and stay late, I take a taxi home. On average, about 500 rubles are spent on transport per week.
Entertainment in our city is tight. My typical vacation: going to the cinema or theater, to a cafe with friends, a pub quiz once every two weeks. For a week, 1.5 thousand are spent on entertainment, if rounded up.
As a result, it turns out that I spend 5 thousand rubles a week. I'm writing this and I'm in shock. I spent 5 thousand a week, and I lived on 700 rubles.
I grew up in a family where food is one of the most important pleasures in life, and I'm not used to saving on food. But for the sake of the challenge, we had to find ways to cut costs. That's what I was doing.
I had to spend 60 rubles a day for food (another 40 rubles for travel). It was difficult, I had to give up the usual products. One pack of cottage cheese, which I eat almost daily, costs 75 rubles, so I had to give up such products.
Realizing that daily trips to the store do not help to save money at all, I decided to make a list of necessary products and buy everything in one day.
I decided to check how different the store prices are from the prices of private producers.
In addition to discount apps, you can use coupons and promotions for the products you are interested in. Many stores have personal loyalty cards, bonus cards, with which you can save a lot.
You can chat and eat.
I get from home to work by minibus for about 40 minutes. The one—way fare is 20 rubles, after 8 pm — 24 rubles.
I'm not a particularly party person, I spend most of my time at work or at home. I only have fun on weekends. But if you want to have an interesting time, in our city and with paid cool events are tight, let alone free. Therefore, I faced a very difficult task.
45 ideas what to do on the weekend and not spend a penny →
In seven days I spent 683 rubles.
In general, I am satisfied with the results of my test. I clearly monitored my budget, gave up the habit of buying the first thing that catches my eye, realized that you can have a good rest without spending a single ruble.
Of course, I do not urge everyone to live on 700 rubles or even 1,000. Everyone has different needs and opportunities. But I advise you to try such an experiment. Not to feel how terrible it is, but to understand that you can quite live without the usual expenses and at the same time save a lot.
