How to live on 500 rubles for one week

An acute financial crisis in a single wallet. A situation familiar to most people. I didn’t calculate the expenses, there were unforeseen expenses - and now one week is left until the next salary and the question is: how to live on 500 rubles all this time?

Instruction manual

First of all, count all the expenses that cannot be avoided in the next week. This can be transportation costs, payment for a mobile phone or the Internet, cigarettes (for smokers) and so on. Think about whether you can minimize them. For example, use the service "promised payment", live for several days without access to the network, walk and so on. Subtract unavoidable expenses from the amount you have. Everything else is for food.

Inspect stocks of products available in the home. A bag of vegetables lying in a corner of the freezer, leftovers from cereals, pasta or preserves

Now is the right time to put them into action.

Do not make two common mistakes of people who save on food. First, do not try to buy “instant noodles” or other products prepared on the basis of “just add water” for all the money you have left. Contrary to popular belief, this is far from the cheapest way to eat. Packaging of regular pasta can be bought at almost the same price as a box of "disposable" noodles - and you can eat them for a couple of days.

Secondly, do not divide the money you have for 7 days and do not try to buy food "for a half a day" every day - to make a weekly menu and buy products for it is much more reasonable. For example, a whole chicken goes beyond the daily budget - but with proper planning it can be eaten for a whole week (two days - fry legs, two more days - eat breast, and enough leftovers for a huge pan of chicken soup).

When planning a “crisis menu”, focus on soups (both hearty, inexpensive, and long enough), egg dishes, cereals, pasta, seasonal vegetables, and other cheap products. For example, breakfast - oatmeal, lunch - lean borsch, dinner - pasta fried with an egg.