How much do you spend per day on food? This guy challenged himself to live on just $3 a day.

Ahh, the monthly budget! I don't care how much money you make, or don't make, it's essential for keeping your finances in check. Those of us who have counted calories our entire lives can pretty much use the same method. Track every dollar like you do every calorie.

That was my slick attempt at trying to segue into slicing your budget when it comes to how much you spend on your food. Get it? Slicing? Food? Pun!

I will admit, I'm terrible at sticking to a food budget. I spend way too much money on food. I would say next to my rent and school tuition, it's the largest expense in my monthly budget.

Cue the guy in the video.

He challenged himself to spend just $1 per meal, 3 times a day. Yeah, that might seem a bit extreme, but his suggestions are very practical and useful. For example, he doesn't waste ANYTHING. He walked into the store with just $20, and had no other choice but to use only that amount. The good news for you and I is the techniques he uses to cook up the cheap foods be bought seem basic, and healthy! In other words, he's buying the right foods, and is conscious of how much each costs.

Yes, you could get away with spending under $20 per week on foods that are not healthy (lack nutrients), but that is not what he did here.

If we can use just some of the suggestions in this video I think we can chop up our budgets pretty well. If I had to guess, I probably spent close to $65 on food last week. That's for a single person!!

I'm not going to go as extreme as this guy, but I will be trying to trim my food budget down. That just made me sick thinking about how much I spent.

By the way, one tip I've learned through other sources is to walk into the store with only your budgeted amount of cash, no plastic. This way you're forcing yourself to stay within your limit, and maybe you'll have some change to ride the store pony.

Good luck!

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