I Tried Living on $5/Day for a Week — Here’s What I Learned
The morning I started this challenge, the sun came through the window like it was mocking me. Five dollars. Twenty-four hours. Hunger, boredom, temptation. I'd read enough blog posts to know it wouldn’t be easy—but I hadn’t lived it. Not like this. I wanted pain. I wanted clarity. I wanted to feel what it meant to truly need. To be broke, by design. So I set the rules: no borrowing, no stockpiled snacks, no help. Just five bucks a day, all in, food, coffee, anything. Let’s see how capitalism feels when it’s personal. Day 1: Cereal, Coffee, and Cravings First stop: discount grocer. One loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, one banana, and a tiny coffee from a bodega. $4.82. The cashier looked at me like I was prepping for prison. I smiled and walked out with breakfast and dignity. The bread was dry. The eggs, rubbery. But I was eating, and I was surviving. The cravings started around 3 p.m. Chips, soda, noise. But I drank water and stared out the window like a monk in detox. Day 3: Weakness ...