Budgets

[Strider]

Hey, I'm moving out on my own again tomorrow, and it so happens that I have about $10 left for the rest of the month once I pay rent. I don't have a job yet, and I also need to amass $440 for the next month's rent somehow. I guess I can borrow some money from my parents, but I'd rather not.
Tips for surviving on 50 cents a day? Obviously gonna spend all effort possible on finding a job and quick, but unless it's something that pays in immediate cash I'll have to wait until the end of the month anyway.

[Lithium]

I'm in a very similar position to you. I'm moving out again from where I have been for the past year, barely have any money and my job has stopped giving me shifts. Just buy really cheap food (bread, canned stuff) for the month. Drink lots of water throughout the day so you're less hungry, home cook all your meals. I mean 50 cents a day is a bit extreme but I was in the same position last year. Should be sweet if you just spend it on food and eat minimal haha. Thats coming from someone who is horrible at budgeting.

Do you get government funded money as well? What is the employment rate like where you are?

[Shad Shadson]

I budget incredibly well because I don't spend money. That's pretty much it. I've already planned out all the money I should have before I go back to school and it's about $2400. I live at home with my mom (which I don't mind), I'm going to college and it only takes me ~ half an hour-an hour via bus. I wouldn't even PLAN of moving out until I had a stable job and could reasonably fund myself rent money + 100-200 dollars for food + payments for everything else with around 200-300 dollars for random spending that month.

That's just the way I think about things. I honestly can't see me doing that immediately either, and it sucks but I'm not going to give myself trouble because I wanted to move out and reasonably can't.

I dunno how you're gonna survive on 50 cents a day, honestly it's pretty damn hard to eat period and harder to eat WELL. I don't really know what to tell you.

[Raymond]

I find it surprising that your moving out on your own when your not really in a financially stable position. Why not just wait until you get a job before you move out? I mean it's going to be tough living on $10 for the rest of the month. Not to mention trying to save $440 for next months rent. I know you can use your parents as a fall back to get the money, but what about the next few months rent? You will owe double or triple if you plan to pay your parents back and you can't always rely on them, unless they are financially wealthy. Stock up on Ramen. There's a lot of sodium in the Ramen flavour packs, so eliminating the water after it's cooked makes it a bit more healthy for you if your one of those fitness junkies.

When showering try not to use hot water, the gas needed to heat the water will raise your gas bill a lot. If possible when showering, turn on your water to rinse your body down, then shut off your water while you wash up and then turn the water back on to rinse off. It will probably lower your water bill a lot more than you think.

Obviously make sure you turn off TVs/lights/fans/air conditioners/gaming consoles/etc when your not using them. If you need stuff from the store and you have a car, but no money, walk. It's good exercise and it saves on gas. If you had more money I would recommend buying in bulk and storing food in your freezer or cabinets so you can cook your own meals. Plus doing it all at once saves on gas and most of the time you can buy things in bulk cheaper than buying them one at a time. All these little things add up.

Also if it's warm where you are right now and your neighbours are elderly or lazy, you can offer to cut their lawn or something for $20-$30 depending on how big their yards are. Also if you live in a populated neighbourhood, you can see if a paper route is available. They don't pay too good, but it's easy to walk down the street and put papers in peoples mail boxes or on their door step. I did that for awhile to make some extra money. If you have a car you can see if your area needs people to hand out phone books. I remember I was given one lump sum of money to hand out phone books to like 300 houses. It was pretty good money and you can probably do it in less than a week if you don't have another job. But I definitely recommend getting a job if your going to live by yourself.

[tuna]

get a roommate so you can split the rent?

[Jojishi]

Buy oatmeal. It will only cost you $1 a bag but should last at least a week, plus it's energy dense and probably healthier than ramen. Get some tinned food with meats, veges etc. don't bother with fruit since it's expensive and just has a lot of fructose anyway, veges are much better and cheaper. Exercise a lot. Exercise won't cost you anything and you'll need it to combat what could be a sub-standard diet. 1 hour of walkin only burns 100 calories off so don't worry about using energy.

If you need the Internet, go to a library. They should have broadband, otherwise you'd be stuck with dial up. It shouldn't cost you anything to use a library computer. All the books and movies at libraries are free. There's a lot of manga and anime too if you're into that (you'll need physical things to burrow if all you can use is a library computer).

[qbeef]

I'm not in your position yet, but because I'm impatient I've already read up on how to survive when moving out. A lot of places suggest invest in ingredients to cook your own meals. If where you live doesn't come with some kind of kitchen situation, a slowcooker can help out a ton. Rice and Oatmeal is really cheap. You can buy a buncha vegies and make some stirfry with rice or pasta and stuff. Just really resist going out with friends or buying fastfood. Other than that, you should really be worrying on finding a source of income, maybe it'll take your mind off of the hunger

[Strider]

Do you get government funded money as well? What is the employment rate like where you are?

I don't at the moment since I'm not studying anymore, just graduated high school. Taking the year to just work. Not sure about employment rate exactly, but I should be able to find a job if I search enough.

Thanks everyone else for the tips too, I've mostly thought of the things you mentioned. I will most probably only live off oatmeal and some occasional cheap fruits. I've also come to the conclusion of selling some of my MTG cards, that should be able to net me around 50-100 bucks pretty quick.
And obviously I'm gonna be spending all my time on finding a job. Luckily I have good chances of getting some math tutor jobs. And I'm just generally gonna try to find a full-time job or the equivalent with several part-time jobs. This month might be tight, but I should be able to figure it out from here. But yeah, thanks for the advice (y)

As to why I'm moving out in the first place, it's a life-long story, but I really just need to live on my own.

[Axon]

buy a cat to hunt food for you

[SIFTER]

buy a cat to hunt food for you

A monkey is better if you ask me.

[Josh]

A monkey is better if you ask me.

You don't tend to find monkeys in Denmark tho.