Living off a $100 dollars a week in Sydney isn’t just hard … It is impossible

The cost of living crisis is leaving plenty of people trying to cut back their spending … so how far will $100 get you in Australia?

Receipt reveals big problem. Source: Mary Madigan

I live in Sydney, the most expensive city in Australia and, last week, I tried to live off $100 and failed – I failed like Channel 7 trying to find a host that isn’t Sonia Kruger.

In my defence, inflation is currently at 7 per cent, and the cost of living is the highest I’ve ever seen.

Everyone I know wants to complain about their grocery bill, and small-talk has become, “Did you see the price of broccoli this week?”

I’ve been feeling the pinch for a while but I also thought I had myself to blame.

I love ordering a daily $5 coffee; weekend brunch is mandatory, and I once spent $30 on shrubs thinking they’d turn into flowers.

I also usually spend between $300 and $500 weekly, swanning around Sydney.

My boyfriend and I are also trying, and I use the word trying because we aren’t succeeding to buy a house or an apartment, perhaps even a shipping container at this point!

Like, anyone in this market we are trying to add more and more to our deposit, to help combat rising interest rates.

So I decided to try and see if I could keep my costs down in an effort to pocket more cash for our deposit, realistically if I only spent $100 a week on food and transport and $400 on rent, I could save the rest of my pay cheque.

So, I decided to experiment and see if I could make $100 last for the week, accounting for all of my transport and meals.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2021 the average household was spending about $220 on food a week.

That’s no doubt gone up now thanks to the cost of living crisis, but basically I halved that and tried to make it work.

In my mind $100 is still a lot of money, but the reality is it won’t get you far in Sydney.

It isn’t easy being frugal during a cost of living crisis.

I couldn’t afford to eat and get public transport, so I walked more than Michelle Bridges last week, and I lived off a diet of cheap carbs and $1 chocolate bars.

There were the obvious things to cut out.

No daily coffees, no fun $15 sandwiches from the place near my work and no cheeky $10 white wines with the girls.

There were also cuts I didn’t see coming.

It became clear that the best way to eke out my $100 was to go vegetarian and embrace cheap carbs.

It isn’t revolutionary for me to point out, but the unhealthy options are cheaper.

So, I swapped fresh salads for instant ramen noodles, meat, and three vegetables for more affordable meals such as pasta and risotto.

Monday: $13.60

I started my day by cutting out breakfast; call me Gwyneth Paltrow because I’m intermittent fasting, if anyone asks.

By the time lunch rolls around, I’m starving and have my $1.80 spicy ramen. I also buy a chocolate bar for $1.70.

Firstly, it isn’t ideal to eat something soupy at your desk, I make a real mess, and the person beside me flinched at some point during my slurping.

Ramen is a food group right?

Receipt reveals big problem. Source: Mary Madigan

A good 10 minutes later, I’m back to being starving again, so I get some hot chips with chilli sauce on the way home for $5.50.

My dinner plan is sorted; I’ve gone back to the pasta I used to make during my university days.

It is a $4.70 recipe. I have oil, so I don’t need to buy that, and otherwise, all I need are two red chillies for $1.20, a clove of garlic for $2.50 and some pasta for 99 cents.

It is delicious but lacks any real, nutritional value.

Tuesday $23.10

I decided to splurge and buy instant coffee and milk to keep at the office so I’m not entirely caffeine-deprived.

The nestle instant vanilla coffee costs me $7.60, and the milk sets me back $3. I like this instant coffee because it tastes similar to a $10 Starbucks drink.

For lunch, I carb up again, have the leftover pasta, and then treat myself to a $1.70 chocolate bar – a Crunchie.

I’m pretty sure I tell every single person in the office about my budget. I feel like I’m Oliver Twist in Gorman.

I’ll just pretend this is better than what my barista makes.

Honestly an incredible meal.

One of my friends texts and ask if I want to go and get dumplings for dinner, I have to decline because I can’t afford such a luxury. Seriously, dumplings go for like $12 bucks these days and that is just for pork and chive.

Instead, I stay home and decide to finally try all those $1 dollar face masks I’ve bought from Kmart over the years.

For dinner, I go rogue and buy a 10-pack nugget meal from McDonald’s for $12.50.

Wednesday. $49.40

I continue depriving myself of breakfast, but I have a sandwich for lunch today.

I bought a $4 loaf of bread, cheese slices for $6.50, salami for $3.70, beetroot relishes for $5, lettuce for $1.80, tomatoes for $2 and onions for $1.20.

This is easily enough stuff to last me all week – yes, I absolutely should have done this sooner – but also it’s a treat to eat meat again.

I go for a walk at some point and buy another $1 chocolate bar – this feels like an addiction now, but at least it is an affordable one.

I make a mushroom risotto for dinner to give myself a break from the pasta train.

This pasta became my life. Source: Mary Madigan

I splashed out on this meal, and it cost me $24.20. The rice was $1.40, the mushrooms were $6, butter was $2.60, garlic was $2.50 and onion was $1.20.

The vegetable stock was $4, and the white wine was $5.

It tastes pretty good and I’m feeling a bit smug.

But also, these carbs are making me constipated.

I should have done this sooner.

I can admit the risotto doesn’t look that great.

Thursday $1

No breakfast, leftover mushroom risotto for lunch and dinner – and yes, risotto is beginning to look more and more like sludge.

I am so depressed from my dinner that I walk to the shops at night and buy myself a $1 chocolate bar.

I ring my nan to tell her how hard I am doing it … and she brings up surviving the Great Depression to try and outshine me.

Friday $9.45

I am grumpy and sick of my budget. I think I actually dreamt about lamb chops last night.

I buy myself a $5 Chai Latte for breakfast, by the time I get to work I realise I’ve completely forgotten my lunch.

So, I go to Subway and get some garlic bread that only costs $2.95 and a cookie for $1.50 – all the tricks I learnt in university are really paying off.

I have now spent $98.35.

Leftover pasta forever.

This is honestly so good.

Saturday

Originally the plan was to make this last until Sunday, but I’m out of funds and there’s some more pasta in the fridge but I don’t think I can stomach it.

I’m bloated and desperately craving some greens.

So can you live off $100 in Sydney for a week? Look, maybe, but even if you made slightly more savvy food purchases than me you’d still be pretty stuck.

$100 a week in Sydney gets you no social life, possible contsipation and far too much pasta.

Originally published as Living off a $100 dollars a week in Sydney isn’t just hard … It is impossible