I thought I’d give all of you a rest from blogging about the amazing Beijing weekend, seeing as you can read about it on iSpyShanghai and Dingle Speaks.
Regular readers will know that last summer, way before there was any hint of a recession, a few of us took the 150 rmb challenge, dressing up for a night on the town and limiting the value of all our clothing to a total of 150 rmb.
Little did we know that we were setting a trend for thrift that would spread across the planet. Beijing based office worker Wang Hao seems to be one of the people we influenced. He devises a challenge of his own by deciding to limit his daily spending to just 100 rmb per week and blogged about, it while inspiring others to join his challenge.
This exercise in turn seems to have inspired The Guardian’s Stuart Jeffries to attempt to live for 7 days on just 10 pounds. I have to admit, I have trouble limiting my daily spending to just 100 rmb, so as much as I would love to try the 100 rmb (per week) challenge (and get some amazing blog material in the process), I think it would be impossible. And I am sure I don’t need to point out that if everyone tried this, the global economy would collapse completely!
But anyway, if any of you think it can be done, I’d be happy to hear your thoughts and ideas.
For Chinese readers, you can find Wang Hao’s blog here (in Chinese).
April 9th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
“My spending – perhaps like yours – veers wildly between functionally pointless parsimony and bank-manager-exasperating profligacy”
“I find a DVD of Eric Rohmer’s 2007 film Les Amours d’Astrée et de Céladon, a bucolic romance about nymphs and shepherds”
They should pay us 10 quid a week for wading through his article
April 9th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
James – Yeah, life is too short. I bookmarked it for “reading later”.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I find ur title offensive but then u never ever took me serious.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I think your Beijing trip showed us all some great money-saving tips. For example:
1. Party the night away in a cheap bar where you get 24 shots for 100 kuai.
2. Sell fake alcohol to unsuspecting visitors from out of town, thus lowering your costs (and theirs on the following day, as they sleep off a severe hangover)
3. Fall asleep in the bar, thus avoiding any expenditure
I’m sure there are many more
April 9th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
4. Know the lovely lady who owns the bar so that she charges us 120RMB for a solid 2 hours worth of drinking and singing!
April 9th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I save about half my paycheck, and set aside 500 yuan a week for spending. This is usually more than necessary and I’ve easily gone for a week with only spending 200. 100 yuan for a week would be too hard for me though.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Sue – What do you find offensive about the title?
CP – And forget to bring any money so your friends have to pay for every meal!
James – Yeah but we did provide free live music for the other guests.
Tripfriend – That is impressive. 200 is doable I think, but 100 is just nuts. Even the bus costs me 20 rmb a week. That’s a fifth of the weekly budget! But Xi An must be cheaper than Shanghai for pretty much everything.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
GREAT idea!!!
I will also do a budget!!!!!
I have to write it on my blog!!1
Serious, thank yoU!!!
April 9th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
what’s a “budget”?
April 9th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
10 pounds for 7 days? bet accomodation is not included.
can do that too for a challenge but what for? short of attention?
off i go shop myself out of the recession tonight…..
April 9th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Shouldn’t we all try and spend more weekly? You know, to give this world economy a little kick start….
I think that going out this weekend we will try and spend at least 1000 RMB a night. I think we’ll manage, this last week we averaged about 500 a day – and that was mainly on drinks – its been a rough week.
Yep, these next few weeks we will be doing our part by going on our own “Save the world through frivolous spending” tour.
April 10th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I was just reading Angie in Texas’ blog, christ that’s 10 minutes of my life I’m never getting back.
April 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
John – Sorry, the only blogs you’re allowed to make fun of here are iSpyShanghai and Dingle Speaks!
Mark – I think you are on to something. Forget thrift, let’s go on a huge spending spree. I like it!
D – Yes, accommodation and other monthly outgoings are not part of the 10 pounds.
Shopgirl – I look forward to the results but doubt you can do 100 rmb without cheating.
Angie – Damned if I know!