Is it possible to only spend $1000/Yr on food expenses alone? (Note: This budget would only be feeding one person)

Things to remember while reading: - I’m not planning on getting married before 30 - Fortunately, my parents are loving enough to put me through college (God bless them).

Introduction:

Hello, Reddit. I’m currently a 17 y/o in high school who is planning on leaving for college in the next year. While only in high school, I’m already looking into my finances post graduation.

For starters, I’d just like to establish that I consider myself an extremely frugal person. It’s never been important for me to “keep up with the competition” in terms of nice cars, nice cloths, luxurious dinners, vacations, and so on and so forth. I guess materialism has never really appealed to me, as I just see it as blatantly spending money. Even as a younger child, I never really needed 20+ toys (lucky for my parents). So that being said, I can easily keep myself entertained without mass consumption.

Now when it comes to money management, I’ve set up a future rule for myself:

Gross Salary (before taxes): 100-120k (median salary for my ideal major) - Save/Invest 80% of money from net paycheck - Spend 15% on necessities (taxes, food, etc). - Spend 5% on wants (remaining money from this category either goes to taxes or investments).

(Does this model seem a bit too extreme? Please be sure to let me know.)

Now I can’t really give a concrete answer on how much I’m going to have to spend on annual taxes, as there are many factors that one must consider. Hopefully, I’ll be splitting rent with some of my buddies once we graduate from college. But with taxes aside, there’s also the food budget that one must take into consideration. According to “www.simple dollar.com,” the average American spends roughly $2,800 on an annual basis to feed around 2-3 people (are these statistics entirely accurate? No, probably not). When I see these statistics, I’m somewhat assured that $1000/yr for one person is somewhat possible.

Though many might see my tactics as “extreme” or “impossible,” I see it as a phenomenal method of saving some money. My ideal goal is to become a millionaire by the age of 30. Though it may be extremely challenging, I see it as possible with a little elbow grease and determination. 

————————————————————————— 1: My sincerest apologies if I had accidentally broke any one of the server rules.

2: My apologies if I had left any important information out of the text. If you have any questions or concerns, please be sure to let me know.

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Sources:

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/save-money/lessons-from-the-average-americans-food-expense/