And so we begin...

Today I got my bar exam study loan.  This is money meant to cover the time between graduating law school and starting a job.  I'm sitting here holding a check for $11,000.

Oh my god, that's eleven thousand dollars.

And it needs to last me through the rest of 2008.

Oh.

On the one hand, just exactly how spoiled am I?  Entire families in the United States survive on less than 10K a year.  Not well, I grant you, but this is a way of living for some people.

On the other hand, this is going to require some radical changes in how I manage my money.  And they need to be changes that stick, because once I do get a job, I'm going to have to start paying back a ridiculously large amount of student loans.

Hence this blog.  We're going to see precisely how difficult it would be to live on ten bucks a day of discretionary money.  Not rent, utilities, internet or cell phone.  Just the rest of life.  Food, drinks, clothes, shampoo.  That kind of stuff.  I'm curious to see what will be simpler than I thought and what the difficult pitfalls are going to be (I know one already).

So far today I've spent $2.50.  But it's a friend's birthday dinner tonight.  I'll be back tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes.