The Donner Party...the Shackleton expedition...those soccer players in the Andes -- We've all heard stories of people who have survived hardship under impossible odds, but brace yourself for the tale of Alexa von Tobel. She pushed herself to the limits to find out if she could go one entire day without spending any money in the untamed wilderness of New York City:
Content warning from this point on. Sometimes the things that a person does to survive aren't pretty.
Link via J-Walk Blog | Photo: Business Insider
On Tuesday night I had just returned home after a long day of work and I decided to order in from my favorite restaurant. Forty minutes later, the deliveryman arrived with my pasta primavera and a Greek salad and I handed him $32.50, including tip. Pretty steep for a dinner for one, I thought. I returned to my kitchen counter, brown bag in hand, and it was then that I had a moment: I reviewed my spending for the day and I realized that I had spent well over $80 over the course of the day on menial expenses. I hadn't gone shopping, I hadn't dined out at Cafeteria for lunch, and I hadn't joined my friends for drinks. It dawned on me that the taxicab rides, stops at CVS, the Starbucks lattes, the mid-morning or mid-afternoon snacks, my take-out from the fabulous Italian restaurant, and other trivial expenses really added up; realizing the total cost of it all was a painful but eye-opening experience.
That night, I decided to go on a mission to live a full 24-hour day without spending a penny.
Content warning from this point on. Sometimes the things that a person does to survive aren't pretty.
Link via J-Walk Blog | Photo: Business Insider
Read her replies to some of the comments -
This one is a gem...
"The main point is not that spending zero cash in a day is a feat -- the point is that the average American is overspending and there are simple ways to cut back."
This one is made of LULZ
"I am trying to get 20 somethings to realize how easy this is to do! Starting to build this good habits early is very important. "
On the other hand, it is people who spend lots of money that keep the economy running smoothly.
It was never my intention to spend so much money every day, but it became habit. I had disposal income and networking to do to increase my standing in my profession.
Now that we're a single-income family I hardly spend any money. I miss buying things just because I wanted it.
I, too, live in New York City (although on a drastically lower income). The easiest way to spend all your income is in convenience. It is more convenient to raise your hand and have a car just stop and take you to where you're going. Its easy to buy the milk you forgot to get earlier at the deli that charges $10 for something you can get at the grocery store for $2.
Convenience is expensive. It takes planning and coordination to avoid the incidental purchases.
Yeah, I don't get out much these days...
Just like the "Muslims want to wear their burkas in your country and marry 12-yr-olds" articles.
It doesn't have to be true - just a hot topic.
Hell, my husband and I don't spend anything 5 days a week! We should be rulers of the universe!!!
This Alexa seems to have stepped out of that show into reallife- Is she For Real???? Yes in fact she is- She does live the actual life of those characters in that sitcom that me and my friends smirk at for it being soooo unrealistic- Well, we're proven wrong: For a whole bunch of people, the "Sex and the City" lifestyle is more real than we would dare to believe and Alexa von Tobel is a prime example of that.
And that somehow next to at first instance making me going ballistically mad, also makes me smile a bit in tenderness about Alexa- Incredible how naïeve she lives. This person has so much money that she doesn't think one second about what she's actually doing. From $80,- a her day spending on trivial stuff, others have to live a whole month with a whole family. And yet she is a CEO of a financial advice company for women and she does not even blink on spending a tenner on some coffee underway. Because that is her life! That is how she and all the people in her social network live!
And for lots of people, what she does is the dreamlife they never ever will reach- Ahhhh not even to have to stand still to think that the $7,- on the cab to work could be spent way better on bread for the next whole motnh. Ohhh wow not to have to shiver and feel guilty about spending Three whole dollars on licorice instead of vegetables for 2 persons for 2 days!!!
...And she is amazed to discover that one can actually live without all that spending.... How cute in all that naïevity...! How tragic. How deeply saddeningly tragic.
...Perhaps if all those people who live like that would not spent all that excess-cash on stuff like that but daily would donate that -or even only 50% of it!- to charity, a lots of people that have far less could finally be helped to even decent minimal life standards.........
Amazing...!
Mrs. Arianna Huffington really does exist in a totally different ...Universe...! ("My "aha moment" also came on vacation. It happened a few years ago, as I stepped off a tender to board a friend's boat anchored off the coast of Cannes. ...") from the one I live in......!
And in that universe, Alexa von Tobel is absolutely nothing special whatsoever- over there Alexa is totally average mainstream. That whole place of hers overflows with the kind of upclass "Reader's Digest" sweet nothingnesses like "the importance of mothering yourself", "6 Tips To Recharge At The Office" or "Love What You Have"
... Darn I somehow got to have me such a life too...!
:-P
Can't you go comment on some ecnonomy journal or some shit?
:lol:
She has money. Get over it.
Other than the fact that so many people live like this every day, I'm from Chile, and she might learn a thing or two coming to a quake-stricken country.
I want to do whatever common people do.
Eat breakfast at home? Bring a packed lunch? Crazy stuff!
I think the spoiled cow who wrote it started to realize just how self-absorbed she was coming across and decided to cut the numbers down a little to try to save her reputation at the margins.
"Survival tales" like this are written all the time, usually just the result of a writer on a deadline without an idea. You take an old idea that's been done a million times, exaggerate one aspect of it, and work from there. I've done that myself on many occasions.
In this case, I think she's just trolling for hits to her web site.
I go many days without spending any money. oh goodness!
I wake eat breakfast.
Drive to work ( if you have to bus it I could see a problem)
Work through the day I drink water and pack a lunch.
Go home have dinner and spend time with the family.
Rinse and repeat.
Yes, it's all a good cautionary tale...on how not to be a materialistic d-bag.