Hi I’m Qiuyue, a member of team DICE, you can call me Luna. Here is a dairy of my challenge — living with €20 a week. I wrote down my thoughts to track it to inspire others or be inspired. In next 14 days I will post my spends here, so come with me!
//////MY CHALLENGE
live with a very small budget ( €20 a week )
//////AIM
a possible manifesto of a future home
//////My ASSUMPTIONS of possible ways of living
In 2035 consumerism culture would fade out and everyone live with few necessities — small wardrobe with several clothes, public transportations including car renting & sharing, eat a more balanced diet etc. Citizens would emphasize more the spiritual world instead of material life, so I’m going to lead a low desire life status for simulations.
////// DAY 0 ///////
#previous budget analysis#
I checked my tally book and did some simple accounting to analyze my current budget for a week. I looked up 4 weeks’ cost for living in Milan, and things got really tricky here.
+FOOD
My spend on food in supermarkets for the first 4 weeks are €41.09 / €14.95 / €17.1 / €41.91 — €115.05 in total. That means I spent about €28.76 per week for food only,🤦♀️ it’s already far beyond the aim of €20 per week. I really really need to cut down my food budget.And I also found some useful money-saving tips on the internet — 1.Chewing your food slowly gives the brain time to register the stomach is full (mammy was right) 2.For the best bargains, you should try to shop later in the day 3.Check out the reduced section…Hummm … Well, maybe these can be really useful, we will see. Also, I found out the basic but essential nutrition intake from fruit or vegetables.
+LIVING
There are gas fee, Internet fee, telephone expenses, electric charge for living like a modernist in there, they are averagely €4.19 / €2 / €2.5 / €4.31a week, and €12 in total.
So… here comes a very cruel fact: if I cut down my living expenses from€13 to €9.5 then I will have €1.5 per day for food and also I can’t buy anything else. I didn’t come out with any idea to get free stuff or where can I exchange things, so… wish me luck.
+CLOTHING
I need to use the minimum quota of clothes to embody future life. I name my T-shirts & trousers & coats to record them everyday easily
That’s all money-saving methods I can come up for now…Take actions first, and deal with the coming up questions. Tomorrow will be a real challenging day, like the old Chinese saying: the first step is the hardest!
/////// DAY1 ///////
🕖
I got up early with an empty stomach, then I remembered I ready asked my friend to go for a morning jogging. I need to feed my belly quickly also costless or cheaply. I eat serval pieces of cookies (maybe 6 pcs about 1/7 bag). I couldn’t eat too many, cause I am not sure if my budget is enough…After all this is the first day, leave some possibilities for the other 6 days. Then I drink some water to let myself feel I’m full ( poor girl… ).
Our original plan is to check out the gym with nice swimming pool, but the gym cost €50 a month, so I believe I can find some ways to do exercises without costing a fortune.
🕛
It’s time for lunch, I need times to consider my recipes. I checked my refrigerator look for low-cost materials, then I found Tofu (€1.5 for 4 large pieces), I looked into some Chinese recipes and consider if it fit my expectations. I choose one without any meat but tasting good. I got inspired to come up with some menus with low-cost, but I won’t spoil it here. Anyway, my lunch is nicely home-made Ma Po bean curd with rice. I realized I can use versatile ingredients to cook different food, it’s flavory also delicious.
Normally, I drink diet coke several times a week but I need to stop spending money on them, I think I can take water from campus ( I don’t really like tap water ) But actually it’s good, cause I want to keep healthy, that’s the reason why I like diet coke instead of regular one — too much sugar & calories inside which can become hyperlipidemia easily without attentions. But the artificial ingredients inside diet coke is totally not good for health either. So it’s not bad to quit coke, I decided to look into the bright side☀️
🕝
Afternoon I stayed at home to read some books. They are borrowed from school library.
🕢
Eat a kiwi to balance my diet. They are nourishing. And also I eat too much at lunch…
so my spend today is
• Morning
cookies 50g — €0.18
water — €0 ( from campus )
• Lunch:
*home-made Ma Po bean curd
Tofu ½pc — € 0.19
ingredients — €0 ( from the last tenant )
*Leftovers
rice 40ml — €
• Dinner:
small kiwi *1 — €0.27
cookies 50g — €0.18
- DAY 1 €0.82* in total — a small triumph. Keep going!
Here a quote I think quite fits my assumptions of possible way of lives:
