Can you live on DKK 50 a day in Copenhagen? A student experiment

I came across a study of student finances a couple of months ago from DM, the Danish trade union for academics. It set off a strange mixture of shame and curiosity in me.

26 per cent of students who took part in the study said they live on less than DKK 1,500 [or EUR 200] a month after expenses.

I spend about four times that amount.

I initially thought that I must have some sort of vulgar overspending problem. This is spite of the fact that with a student job, the Danish SU student grant payout, and a reasonable rent, I can afford it.

On closer inspection, I’m not exactly living in luxury. I avoid specialty shops, my clothing budget is minimal, and I have no expensive hobbies. But I still don’t flinch at the city’s grotesque draft beer prices at bars and cafés. And I walk into the supermarket with peace of mind.

My life is financially balanced, I’d say, all in all. Surviving on DKK 1,500 a month sounds downright impossible.

But then my curiosity kicks in: What does daily life look like when you only have DKK 50 [or EUR 6.7] to spend per day? Can you still enjoy yourself? What’s possible — and what’s not?

I could, of course, ask some of the students in that 26 per cent group.  But why not try it out myself? At the very least, it’s a good excuse to put some money aside. And who would say no to a full-blown lifestyle experiment in the month of February?

»Extreme, but not impossible«

Cutting 75 per cent of your spending from one day to the next is no easy feat. I’m going to need all the life hacks I can find if I’m going to get through this experiment in one piece.

So I call up Sune Bjørn Andersen.

I’ve come across him in the media, where he’s the Danish front figure of the so-called FIRE, or (F)inancial (I)ndependence, (R)etire (E)arly, movement. It is an eccentric corner of financial freedom culture that’s mostly about spending less than you earn, saving up, and retiring early — or at least having the option to do so.

For a number of years, Sune Bjørn Andersen worked at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and was responsible for its digital exams system. Then he was headhunted by investment platform Norm Invest as an investment expert. Now he writes about money and freedom on his own platform, Frinans.

He knows, in other words, a lot about how to save money. I shared with him my own thoughts about my upcoming experiment.

»Cutting 75 per cent of your spending is obviously extreme — but not impossible,« he says.

»Basically, it’s just about setting a budget and sticking to it.«

Budget! The word feels like a punch in the face. I associate it with something restrictive — a kind of financial straitjacket. But, according to Sune Bjørn Andersen, a budget is actually the opposite.

If the budget is to be my path to liberation, I’ll have to fall in line.

The savings expert’s master plan

The budget is fairly straightforward, says Sune Bjørn Andersen. On paper.

»If you take your cue from the budget categories on the [popular Danish TV] show Luksusfælden, you really only need to focus on your food expenses and on miscellaneous spending. Because the experiment doesn’t include your fixed expenses,« says Sune Bjørn Andersen.

Go for the dried lentils — otherwise you’re paying for water

Sune Bjørn Andersen, savings expert

From what I gather, I basically need to eliminate everything from the miscellaneous category. This means no takeaway coffee. No energy drinks. No splurges of any kind.

I can’t get around the food category. Still, it’s relatively easy to plan.

Everything I consume, I have to make myself. No pre-packaged meals, no shortcuts. It all has to happen in the kitchen, which during the course of this experiment is to be transformed into a factory. Sune Bjørn Andersen reckons that I can save a lot by capitalising on the economies of scale that come from cooking large batches, and from meal prepping.

Shopping is to be done once a week. Supermarkets, you see, have the psychological edge over me.

»Every time you go into a supermarket, you’re tempted to buy all sorts of things. That’s how supermarkets are designed. The less you go shopping, the less chance there is that you succumb to temptation,« is how he puts it.

As for what goes into the shopping basket, Sune Bjørn Andersen recommends that I keep it green. The only ‘hunting’ you will be a part of is the hunt for special offers.

Seasonal vegetables are by far the cheapest, but it can sweeten your life a little to be able to get budget-friendly pasta and legumes without blowing your budget, says Sune Bjørn Andersen, who suggests a beluga lentil bolognese.

»The trick from the food bloggers that everyone’s talking about is making a spaghetti bolognese with beluga lentils. It has ‘bite’ and tastes damned amazing. But it has to be dried lentils — otherwise you’re just paying for water.«

Pull a mental trick on yourself

Meal plans, bargain hunting, bulk cooking: Got it. But the budget is actually the easy part, according to Sune Bjørn Andersen:

»You have to remember that a budget is just a plan for how you want to spend your money. It’s not a guarantee in terms of how you actually end up spending it. The hard part of the experiment will be sticking to the budget,« he says.

And this is where, I gather, it is the right mindset that gets you to go the distance:

»If your attitude going into this experiment is that you’ve only got DKK 1,500, then any thoughts about going over budget are, in principle, irrelevant. Because then it’s just about getting the numbers to add up.«

But to be realistic, Sune Bjørn Andersen adds, the experiment is doomed to fail if my budget strays too far from my usual habits. I will constantly be fighting my natural impulses. And the odds of winning that fight are not good, he reckons.

»Breaking a habit is incredibly difficult. Breaking several habits at once is well nigh impossible.«

So is the experiment even achievable? How can I stick to the budget without breaking habits that up until now have led to spending four times that amount?

Sune Bjørn Andersen suggests pulling a mental trick on myself to outsmart my instincts:

»Instead of trying to eliminate your habits, try finding the cheapest alternative to them.«

This trick sounds promising. But what if my instincts get the better of me and I suddenly feel like ditching the meal plan to go buy a pizza?

»That’s when you’ll need to include discipline in the mix. One motivation might be to not come across as an idiot who can’t control themselves,« says Sune Bjørn Andersen. He adds that I can always try to fit a pizza into the budget if it really means that much to me.

So far, so good. Meal plan, offers, batch cooking, a mental life hack, and with a bit of discipline included. How hard can it really be?

I ask Sune Bjørn Andersen how he thinks the experiment will go.

»The first week will be fun and straightforward, because you’ll have momentum. But I think it’ll get really tough around week three, when you run the risk of burnout. The last week will then probably be a bit easier again, because you’ll have the end in sight.«

Follow the experiment — which takes place in the month of February — here on the University Post.

This article was first written in Danish and published on 30 January. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.