SURVIVING IN LA WITH $100

LA is a very expensive city to live in. Rent prices, eating at restaurants even just parking can cost more than two or three times than in the suburb or other states.  On top of that, prices on all of these services keep rising.

Based on my experience, $100 a week is usually the budget first movers have.  When I first moved to California this was pretty much what I was spending, but I did live in the Eastside, where things are cheaper and I didn’t have an addiction to ordering things from Amazon.

What I found I spend the most on is Food, ubers, and anytime my friends and I go out. Just a drink will cost $18, or more than $5 for a coffee.

So on my first day (Friday) I had to get groceries. I got pretty basic things like oats, bananas, eggs, ground coffee and skipped the snack aisle. My total was $40.13

On day one I had the oatmeal with bananas and doing the math it came up to be .75 cents for a bowl that I would’ve spent $5 on.

I wasn’t tempted to spend more money because I was home for the most part, that was until my friends wanted to go out for drinks. I got a ride from one of them, but could’ve easily have taken the train for $1.75 and everybody thought it was cool that I was trying only to sip on water.

The next day I made an omelet for breakfast. A dozen eggs had cost around 1.35 and coffee. My bestfriend had spent the night so that was two breakfasts that only cost like $0.15 each.

I still had $59.87 dollars and decided to look up places with “Happy Hour”. $3 dollars for tacos and $6 margaritas + tax & tip = $11.70 for dinner. Such a great deal and the free chips and salsa were amazing.

Sunday’s in LA, when you’re in your 20’s, means that everybody goes out for brunch and gets bottomless mimosas, which usually turns out to be $60 and today, I wasn’t willing to spend more than $10. So I got a breakfast burrito and split that with my friend $7.50 + tax +tip =$10. And then we decided to go to a FREE Louis Vuitton Exhibit, and luckily found FREE parking.

For the next five days, I worked at the office. I usually don’t eat at work so that didn’t change much and, on the last day, I was left with $18, but, I decided to keep them.

I didn’t want to include rent, utilities and basic month to month expenses. But from speaking to other people around my age, I’ve realized that the average 20 -30 year old living here has this specific budget at first, which, doesn’t have to keep them from having fun.

When your budget is so tight it is important to put the most into a savings and spend as little as possible on recreation and entertainment. Hope you liked this article and find new ways to be responsible with your money.