The $200 Challenge
The $200 Challenge
$200. 10 days. possible?
Over the past couple of weeks, I have done three things (almost) every day. I used Luminosty (to stretch my brain); Treehouse (to challenge my brain); and Headspace (to relax my brain).
In the Luminosity app, they have various skills that they rate you on (Attention, Focus, etc.). The one I am in the 98 percentile in is Problem Solving. Of course. I’m an entrepreneur.
About a month ago, I had coffee with a friend. He lives in SF with his wife, and own a home. He has a good job, as does she, and make solid money.
$52,000.
That was how much he and his wife lived on last year. Not because they had to, but because they could. They didn’t live in the streets or eat nothing but ramen (the instant kind.) If you weren’t told, you would never know.
The ingenuity necessary to do this is off the charts in SF. As amazing as building a billion dollar company.
Where has my ingenuity gone? I feel like I used to see the lines that allowed me to accomplish interesting things in unique ways. In college and even after graduating, I seemed to be able to live on nearly nothing and still have a decent time.
Am I just being nostalgic for a time that was probably pretty lousy (I lived on a mattress in a beat up townhouse in Georgetown for almost two years)?
Maybe. But, It can’t be that hard, right?
Here is how I am going to challenge myself.
I took $200 out of the ATM, and I am going to live on it for the next 10 days.
Just to make sure it’s clear on what I am going into the 10 days with:
3/4 a tank of gas;
$100 on a clipper card; (I travel to SF 3 times a week, and Palo Alto twice — its like $9/trip + $2/parking);
about 5 or 6 servings of protein power;
a bag of cereal, and a carton of almond milk;
leftover Chinese food from last night.
And I have a couple of rules:
My pets wont suffer my foolishness. So they will still eat as they always have.
Rent, bills, etc is not included in this ten days. Most have been paid anyway. But I am going to work on eliminating at least 1/3 of all my bills.
I have to pay cash for everything.
10 days. $200. Let’s do this.
(BTW: Found this free cookbook. It’s awesome.)