A TYPICAL $10 DAY
I actually have two main types of $10 days. Either a $10 a day or less on a workday and a $10 non-workday.
Let’s do the $10 workday. On a $10 workday there are actually two kinds within this category. There are they days were I work a double, by which I am working all day and all night, working both lunch and dinner. Then there are the days that I work just dinner so I have a few hours to my self depending on what time I get up.
OK, let’s do the day that I just do dinner and go into work about three in the afternoon. I get up around 11 am and usually just lounge around for about 45 minutes to an hour. I make myself breakfast that cost me around 60 cents to make.
Maybe I have some Ramen Noodles with 1 fried egg. Or I may make a Ham, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich, either way it just cost me an average of 60 cents to make.
So I have my breakfast, then I get my butt out of the house and 99% of the time I’m going to a café to have a coffee, sit relax, read, and write, sometimes I’ll meet a friend to hang out and chit chat. I used to, for year go to a caffe where I used to spend $4.00 to $4.50, double of what I spend for coffee now. Once I got my first laptop and needed to work on it, but the owner of this Italian caffe does not allow computers in his caffe. Really can’t say I blame him. Anyway, I was forced into going to Starbucks and other cafes around where I could get a regular coffee for about $2.oo, usually a bit more, and with a quarter tip, it usually come to a bout $2.40. After I while, figured out that by not going to the Italian Caffe where I spent between $4 to $5 a pop and I’d go there about 10 times every week, I realized that I was saving about $70 a month. That’s about $840 a year. “That’s a lot.” That pays for my Plane Ticket for my 1 big vacation a year.” That’s good! Anyway, have
60 cents for breakfast and $2.40 for my coffee, that’s $3.00 so far. I take the Subway to work, which with my discount cost me $1.75, so now we’re up we are up to $4.75.
Most of the time I’ll take the subway home, I often walk home which cost me a Big Zero, nothing, and I usually take a cab home tow nights a week, so I have to average out what it cost me to travel back home after work in the evening. The average is $3.25. We are now up to $8.00 on days that I work just for dinner.
Now to the days that I do a double, working lunch and dinner. These days I usually treat myself to a coffee and either a Bagel or Buttered Roll which cost me just $2.00 for both. It’s $1.75 for the Subway so, I’ve started up the morning spending $3.75.
I always have to take a little break on the days I do a double. About 3:30 or 4:00 I go to the café for a coffee for about 45 minutes. The coffee is about $2.25, so we’re up to $6.00 for the day. I usually always take the Subway home or even walk when I do a double as I don’t get out too late. We’re up to $7.75 for the day.
So on the days I work, I average $8.00 on the days I just work dinner and $7.75 on the days I do a double. Wow I didn’t relieve that it’s just about $8.00 each day, $7.75 for the one type of day and $8.00 for the other. Let’s just say it averages to $8.00 even. So I spend even $2.00 less each day. I have a extra $10 to spend on the weekend if I want, so I can actually spend $30 on my two days off, or $15 for each of those two days.
My days off. Typically the day will start off with me having a 60 cents breakfast at home. On my days off, I usually have 3 coffees at my café stops for a total of $7.00.
That’s $7.60 so far. I can spend another $7.40 if I want. Usually I’ll have two very small meals at home which cost me, lets say $1.30. That’s $8.90. I usually eat about $1.10 worth of sweet that I bought at The 99 Cent Store or the supermarket, or CVS. I’m up to $11.00. Now, I might go somewhere on my day off whereby I need to take the Subway, but this is usually 1 days out of five so if a round-trip on the Subway cost me $3.50 and I divide that by 5, it comes to an average Subway expenditure on my days off to .70 cents. We are now up $11.70 on my day off and I have $3.30 left to spend. Sometimes I’ll treat myself to 2 McDonald’s Cheeseburgers which cost me $3.05. Sometimes I’ll go and get 2 orders of the delicious Pork Dumplings at Dumpling House, this cost me $2.00. other times I’ll get a Hotdog at Papayadog for $1.25, so my average for these treats is $2.01. So my average expenditure on my days off is $13.71. I spend $13.01 two days a week and $8.00 five days a week for a total on the week of just $66.02 for a whole week, for Food, Transportation, and Entertainment. That’s an average of $9.43 cents a day.
Fifty-seven cents a day under the $10 a day average. Multiply the .57 cents by 30 days and you have $17.10 left to socialize with. I usually go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art once a month and give a $2.00 donation. I now have $15.0 extra to do with whatever I want.
Well, I guess I really can’t live on just $10 a day all the time, but I would estimate that I do it about 250 in a year, which is quite great. Not including housing or clothes, I spend just $2,500 a year in 250 days time. The other days I may spend substantially more, but never throwing my money away or insane expenditures. The average person who is pretty much in the same financial bracket as me (not much) may spend 3 ½ times that $10 a day I spend at least 250 days a year, and even $35 a day is not too much to spend at all. So they probably spend about $8,750, which is not a lot of money to spend for food, transportation and recreation for 250. I spend about $6,250 less in a year for those same 250 days. That’s Money In my Pockets, $6,250 to do with what I want. This is my vacation money, money to take a least 1 other small trip a year, usually to New Orleans to meet up with my brother, and still have maybe $2,000 to put in the bank. Now that’s good! Wouldn’t you say?
