My name is Molly and I live on $50 a week all 52 weeks of the year. So I am not really accepting Ryan’s challenge, since budgeting is something I already do in my everyday life, but I am going to tell you about how I live of $50/week and why budgeting and meal planning is so important to me. First, a bit about me and how I know Ryan.
My Story
I live in Kelowna, BC and work in communications for a local charity. My hobbies include reading copious amounts of books and cooking delightful meals. I only started cooking 3 years ago but I think many of my friends will attest that I have come a long way in that time. I met Ryan in my time at Okanagan College as we worked towards our degrees and as active members of Enactus Okanagan College.
My Debt
Like many college students, I racked up a boatload of debt over my 4-year degree. When I graduated I was 21 with my degree in hand, debt up to my eyeballs, and had never budgeted a day in my life. My super supportive friend group had always liked to learn things and better ourselves together, so as part of our weekly friends’ family dinner, we started taking Financial Peace University (FPU) by Dave Ramsay. Doing this really opened my eyes and literally changed my life. I have implemented strategies from this course over the last 2 years and this last year alone I have paid off $12,000 in debt and my fiancé and I are on track to having a debt free wedding in September.
Saving up and paying for things in cash is pretty liberating! I no longer worry if I will be able to make ends meet because I have a plan in place and tell all of my dollars where to go. I make my money work for me, not the other way around!
The Strategy
I operate on a “Zero Based Budget” every month. This means: Total amount of household income – total expenses = zero. For us, expenses include debt repayment, savings, food costs, spending money, etc. We use Dave Ramsay’s Monthly Cash Flow Plan to map everything out. Here is a link to the cash flow plan if you are interested: Monthly Cash Flow Plan
There is also an online budgeting tool by Dave Ramsay called Every Dollar, but I’m a pen and paper kind of gal, so I print this off and write it down every month.
The Challenge
Ryan’s challenge was to pick a week and live of $56 for variable expenses. The thing is, the way I budget, the only thing that is variable is our spending money. We are privileged and diligent enough to make things like food a fixed cost in our budget. Each month, we spend $400 on food for 2 people. I shop once at the beginning of the month with $200 and once in the middle of the month on $200. If you break it down though, that is $50 per person per week, which comes out to $7.14 per day, and we often have days were we don’t spend nearly that much. That being said, I am excited to share how I get this done. So, challenge kind of accepted!
I will report back in one weeks’ time on how I plan my meals in order to live off $7.14 a day and the type of meals I prepare. I know I was surprised to find that it is actually very manageable to live off this amount of money when working on a tight budget and I think you will be too. Stay tuned…
