How to live with 20 euros a week
Trying to survive with a very small budget
Hi, my name is Anna and Saturday, October 5th I took on the challenge of living with only 20 euros a week. The purpose is to stop spending so much on everyday things like transport, food and impulse purchases. I have to premise that I am vegetarian and intolerant to dairy products and gluten. Living with a so tight budget is really challenging, and for me it could be even more difficult considering that the integrators I need cost at least 5 euros per week. Moreover, if on a side I save money not buying meat and fish, on the other side, because of the lactose and gluten intolerance, I have to buy gluten and lactose-free products, that generally are more expensive compared to the traditional ones.
That is I have only 15 euros per week to dispose of; If I happen to meet extra expenses (transport, parties and so on) I will think about a solution at the moment. I thought that shopping once for the whole week would prevent me to make impulsive expenses later. With a mental plan of my meals for the week ahead, I shopped around for the best deals at the supermarket ( I also downloaded Penny’s app which gives you for free a selected product every day, so I could take soya milk for free). With 12,43 euros I bought everything I need for the next week (vegetables, quinoa cakes, yogurt, milk, eggs, legumes, jam, fruits), considering my allergies and saving 2,57 euros for eventual extras. Obviously, I didn’t buy bottled water to avoid waste and to save 1,50 euros as well.
So this is my shopping list for the week:
- 10 apples
- 6 eggs
- 1 tin peas
- 5 carrots
- tomatoes
- 4 jars of yogurt
- 1 soya milk
- quinoa cakes
- salad
- 3 tins beans
- jam
- spreadable cheese
- lentils
- 1kg rice
On Saturday afternoon I received a message from my roommate, offering me to finish some of her leftovers as she wouldn’t be there all weekend. I could not eat many things, but I was able to prepare a dinner of rice with vegetables. The following day, the graduation party of one of my friends allowed me to have dinner without using my food and to start the week with no extra expense incurred.
