It is very easy for me to spend a good amount of money eating out and entertaining myself throughout the week. The amount of money spent can add up very quickly. It is amazing that I believe this money is a necessity and not a luxury. Well that is what I used to believe.

In 2004 I was living in Denton, TX and working in Lewisville, TX, a suburb of Dallas. I was living with three other guys and we would frequently head out for great food and entertainment. One night while sitting in my room working out my budget and I realized how much money I was spending on food and entertainment. While I was not too surprised by the number, it made me wonder how little amount of money I could live on and still enjoy life. So I decided to create a plan to see how little I could live on.

Immediately the number 20 came to mind. I would attempt to live on 20 dollars a week for at least a month. After that month I would reevaluate and decide whether to lower that number.

I think we all know that 20 dollars is not that much money. I can easily spend 20 bucks on one meal out. I was going to have to come up with some strict guidelines for my experiment. But first it needed a name to make it more real. So I thought the name “20 Dollar Experiment” would be fitting.

Let’s take a look at the guidelines I set for myself. (I just spent 15 minutes looking for the original piece of paper I wrote these on with no success at finding it. So I must depend on my memory):

• Only spend 20 dollars a week.

• Take out 20 dollars in cash at the beginning of the week.

• If I have money left over from the previous week I can use it the next week.

• Living expenses and gas are not included. (I will explain below.)

• All groceries, toiletries, medication, food, and entertainment are included.

• No mooching allowed. I can not take advantage of others to get what I want.

• Before I begin I must eat all the food I have at the house or if non-perishable, relocate and not eat during the experiment.

I think I covered everything I remember from the original list. This list was very important to me because it helped me set boundaries to successfully carry out the experiment. I kept this list on my desk and referred to it weekly as a reminder.

I would take out cash on Sunday that would be used throughout the entire week. I used cash because it made it easier to keep track of my spending and made it less tempting to cheat. By the way I never cheated.

If by some chance I had money left over from the week before I could use it the following week. This was to encourage myself to save for special outings with friends. I could plan to go see a movie or eat out several weeks in advance and save for it.

My living expenses were not included in the 20 dollars. I have received some criticism because of this, but let me explain why I made this decision. Obviously I could not pay rent, utilities, gas for my car, and food with only 20 dollars a week. I would find myself living on the streets and probably losing my job since my car would have no gas. My objective was not to see how little I could live on over all, but just how much I could live on concerning food and entertainment. However it makes you think how difficult it could be for someone with no money even if they have a job. They may have to take a bus to work and have a very difficult time getting approved for an apartment. But that discussion is for another time.

I decided to include everything that would be purchased at a store, except for gas. This included toiletries and medication. I have never taken much medication. I like to take as little as possible. The only medication I took then and to this day is an inhaler for my asthma. I know that medication should probably be considered a necessity but I included it because I believe it adds more reality to the experiment that must be considered when making a strategy for my weekly budget.

To make this whole process easier I could just eat my roommates food, get them to pay for my meals out, and even resort to begging. But none of that was allowed. Mooching and begging would not result in an accurate outcome for this experiment. And being on the receiving end of mooching is never fun and gets annoying very fast. Which brings up a good point. I am trying to maintain a social life while doing this experiment and not become a hermit that can’t have any fun. Mooching would only put more strain on my social life. It was already hard enough going out to eat with friends and explaining why I was only going to drink water.

Last on my list was that I must eat or store any food currently in the pantry. I did this so I would not start my first week with stock piles of food to fall back on. Again I made this decision so the outcome of the experiment would be accurate. This wasn’t too hard for me because I didn’t have much food in the pantry at the time.

So now that I have explained the rules I set for myself you may be wondering how it went. Surprisingly it was not as hard as I had thought. The first week took some getting used to. I had to convince myself several times that I should not cheat when I was out with friends and everyone was enjoying good food and drinks. During that first week I would frequently think that this was a stupid experiment and I should just quit and enjoy myself. There were also times I could not go out with friends because they were doing something I could not afford.

I found myself eating a lot more healthy foods. This was a goal I had for myself even though it was not a rule I set. I know that most people that don’t have much money eat fast food and other food that is very unhealthy. I wanted to prove to myself that there was another way.

I ate lots of sandwiches. I would buy the cheapest bread I could find. On the sandwiches I would eat either peanut butter or turkey. The condiments such as mustard lasted me longer than a week which was great for the following weeks. Along with the sandwich ingredients I would buy as many fruit and vegetables my budget would allow.

Every meal for the week was planned out at the beginning of the week. This was to make sure that I was going to be able to eat for every meal. I ate 3 meals a day and would sometimes have some fruit for snacks. No special drinks such as sodas or beer were ever purchased. I drank a lot of water.

The two biggest obstacles I faced during this experiment were my social life and my health. Both of which I overcame successfully. My friends and I ended up hanging out at my house more than before. This turned out to be a lot more fun. We would play games or go out to the volleyball courts and play around. We began to come up with creative ways to hang out that didn’t require spending money. I am lucky that my friends were accepting of the crazy experiment I was conducting.

It took about a week to figure out the best diet for myself to stay healthy and not starve myself. Before I started this experiment I was consuming more food than necessary in one sitting. I learned how to eat the correct sized portions and feel satisfied.

The total duration of this experiment was 2 months and as I said before, I never cheated. Through the experiment I learned that the amount of money I believe I need to enjoy my life is a lot less then I had previously thought. We are a society that believes we should enjoy the pleasures of life and not limit ourselves. I do believe we should enjoy life and live it to the fullest but not at the expense of becoming slaves to materialism. I believe that limiting ourselves from certain things for a brief period of time can teach us a lot about what we should consider important in our lives and remind us that having more things is not always going to make us more happy.

I am not suggesting that everyone do this experiment. I am only suggesting that we all consider what is important to ourselves and whether or not that will ever truly bring us joy.

Photo credit: altemark