Luke Rissacher's Blog
A few years ago I got to wondering - if my work dried up and I had to minimize my expenses, how long could I last on savings? Or, if work continued and I minimized expenses anyway, how little would I have to work to break even?
In the startup world there's an idea called Ramen Profitability, in which your startup has become just profitable enough that the founders can afford to eat ramen and pay their basic living expenses. So, what represents ramen profitability for my freelance career? Would I always have to eat ramen? Or are there healthier options out there for just as cheap, that wouldn't accelerate the inevitable demise of my dear precious body?
My typical food expenses were $600-700 per month; about 50% of that went to restaurants, back in the blissful pre-coronavirus days of 2018. I was fortunate to earn enough to not have to analyze prices much in the grocery store (I mostly bought organic) and although my go-to restaurants were affordable I dined out and ordered takeout from them quite often.
The average US household in 2018 spent about $660 per month on food: $372 per month on groceries and $288 per month on restaurants. But, "household" implies more than one person; so for one 6ft, 190lb guy, $600-700 was definitely on the high side.
