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Blog Thread 4; Live Free or Blog Hard - 'cos we all like blogging

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nekowafer:
The boyfriend and I spend at least $150 a week on food... some of that is that he has expensive tastes (like, almost refuses to get generic brands of anything), some of it is that we are both big people and we eat a lot. I feel pretty guilty about it, to be honest. And this doesn't even factor in work lunches which are generally fast food/restaurants...

LTK:
I'm not sure where I fit in. If I buy my own food every day of the week, it costs me around €24 ($32/£20), I estimate. Spending fri-sun at my parents' brings that down to €16 ($22/£13). On myself I live like Scrooge McDuck, compared to what I get to eat at my parents'. My breakfast and lunch are two slices of bread, one peanut butter, one dark chocolate sprinkles (an American friend thought eating a sandwich with just chocolate sprinkles was really weird) and I snack on apples or bananas. I make my own dinner 9 times out of 10, buy everything fresh because I don't have a freezer, and make enough for two meals so I can eat it again the next day. I drink tea or tap water, and I don't buy any other food or drinks. I might be able to knock a few euros off if I went full vegetarian, so I can kind of see how May spends so little money, but if I bought even cheaper food I'd start to worry about my health. Long-term, that is; I'm sure that I can live entirely on cheese omelettes and vitamin C pills while still functioning, but not for say, five years.

I think what we're forgetting (before 8 new replies were posted) is that the average 18-year-old probably spends as much money on booze as we do on food. Factor in two beers every night at the local pub, or a six-pack from the supermarket once in a while, and I'm sure you hit £50 in no time.

I'm still rather surprised you can live off so little, May. Can you get food especially cheap? Or does buying in bulk make that much of a difference?

What I'm also surprised by is that it appears that I'll have about €20 left after my rent is paid for this month. Usually I have to withdraw some allowance from my savings account to break even - which is accounted for by my deposit of a year's worth of external student financing. I guess having fuck all to do for an entire month really makes a difference!

Papersatan:
Sometimes there is a bonus to them estimating high.  My school estimates $18,196 for Sept-April for books and supplies, room and board and 'miscellaneous'.  Because I have no income I can borrow up to that much each semester to cover my cost of living.  If I were single that would be more than I need, but I stretch it to provide for two people, and it is not quite enough. 

Barmymoo:
LTK, there are probably several factors - one is definitely that buying in sort-of bulk (as in, I buy on 3 for 2 offers if it's something I'll definitely have bought anyway, because of my freezer) does cut down the price. Another is that I get my vegetables from the market which halves the price. I don't eat meat, which is expensive. And really, I don't eat very much. I realised this when I went on a calorie counting diet and actually had to increase the amount I was eating to hit their "reduced" daily goals, and had it confirmed whenever I fed the xB and when Jens came to stay - both of them ate at least four times as much as me.

Edit: wanted to restate the fact that the sums which I quoted are the amount which you have to show that you have before you're accepted onto the course. It isn't just an estimate of what you'll need (and then because you are an adult you are expected to decide whether or not you actually have it). It is a financial barrier to study.

Zingoleb:
I'm getting frustrated with food. I don't have any income and I've been stealing a ton of food whenever I go "shopping" (buy ten bucks worth, get a hundred dollars worth!) but it's honestly not enough to live on. I can't even cook because the oven's not working, and on top of that we don't have anything like bread, milk, butter...

I'm supposed to be getting ~3,000 calories per day (remember, I am a huge person - ask May!) but I'm usually barely cracking 1,000 when I bother to count.

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