Frugal Survivor

[Duchesse]

FRUGAL SURVIVOR

What a great idea for one of those reality shows. I'd like to be one of the contestants.


What would be the least you could survive with $25 , $50 this amount would be for the month . Of course rent or utilities are not included.

This includes everything else even toilet paper and of course your food. No freebies or cheating. ie growing herbs in your room etc.

Anyone else like to be a contestant?

[jeffrey]

There was a show like that in Japan - given $100 for a month for all food and utilities and transportation.

[Duchesse]

Did you watch it? How did it go?

[jeffrey]

Haven't seen it since I got back - not sure if it is still running or not since I don't watch much TV these days. I would watch it on ocassion - it spent most of the time focusing on meals and cooking cheap...

[veronak]

Wow, I am not sure I was thinking $400 which is a little high for one person who lives at home

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by Duchesse

This includes everything else even toilet paper and of course your food. No freebies or cheating. ie growing herbs in your room etc.

Anyone else like to be a contestant?

i dunno, i think freebies and allowing people to be creative would give frugality a better name and show how it can be enjoyable done creatively, whereas forcing people to use just their $50 could likely give the impression that frugality sucks.

if freebies and creativity are allowed, i'm in. DH is likely to gracefully decline.

[BCHGRL]

What is the prize? I don't know; it might defeat the point of being frugal if the prize at the end is a mil or two like it is on the real survivor.

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by BCHGRL

What is the prize? I don't know; it might defeat the point of being frugal if the prize at the end is a mil or two like it is on the real survivor.

oooooooooh: they could pay off all your debt!!! i'm in!!!

[simpleyme]

tinapbeana-not fair to fraugalitess contestants who are black belts that have no debt!


I would say it would as long as it was not stealing or begging freebies should be encouraged in the contest;-)

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by simpleyme

tinapbeana-not fair to fraugalitess contestants who are black belts that have no debt!

lots of folks without other debt still have a mortgage that could get paid off...

but hey, just to cover everyone: how about options? pay off all your debt, a fully funded roth every year until you retire, or an all expense paid trip around the world?

on second thought, i'll take the second option, and i'll still be in!

[MonkeyMama]

I think it would be interesting.

I think most of the US would be bored to tears - LOL. Not sure if the general population would embrace it as much as us. Hmmmmm....

[LuxLiving]

I think Fruggies would be glued to catch the slightest thing that they've overlooked themselves for adoption into their frugal arsenal, but like MonkeyMama think most would be bored. I mean me and lrjohnson refilling our never ending soap dispensers just wouldn't make all that exciting television!! But, I can see where if you got the right evil minded competitive people together the backstabbing and setting up for failure stunts could really pick up if the prizes were right!

[tinapbeana]

you know what? there's a shopping channel, where's the fruggie channel? other than DIY and commercial free movies, that is

[Duchesse]

I think the prize should be money just like all the other survivor shows. Make it worthwhile.

If all of the contestants were frugal I think it might get boring, but for those big spenders. Now the fun would begin. They'd probably need medics for the starving and the fighting . over food and soap and whatever else. You know that most people are not going to survive with $50 for the month.

[fairy74]

A fruggie channel is a great idea, unfortunately it might be a little self-defeating as I would be unable to tear myself away from it....witness the amount of time I spend here!

[Gruntina]

I dont think freebies is actully a frugal thing. It would mean somone has to sacrafice in order for someone else to get some things free.

I probably end up with dumpster diving on that contest lol!

[dossin1]

I'd be game, as long as it was no longer than a month!!

[PRICEPLUS]

Ditto. Sometimes things are taken to an extreme and that is not good either way!

[Duchesse]

Originally Posted by tinapbeana

i dunno, i think freebies and allowing people to be creative would give frugality a better name and show how it can be enjoyable done creatively, whereas forcing people to use just their $50 could likely give the impression that frugality sucks.

if freebies and creativity are allowed, i'm in. DH is likely to gracefully decline.

I agree with you here. Creativity is the name of the game. When I say no cheating I was thinking the name of the game was to see what you could do with that amount of money and still be creative.

Since you only have a month the most you could do is grow sprouts in your room. You can't walk in with an envelope filled with coupons and rebates, and freebies coupons. That's cheating. If you know where to go you can get all you food from the USDA for free. I don't partake but I know where I can get two bags of groceries for free every Wednesday, that's cheating.

This challenge woud be easy for many of us we know that we could win we have the tools. To tell you the truth many of us would "save" some of the money. LOL

This challenge is for the big spenders, the Jones',and those that try to keep up with them, those who don't know a week without a restaurant meal, etc.