Well, between me and my boyfriend, we earn about $24,000 per year and about $380 per week and together pay about $180 per week on bills, not including the Fitness First membership of about $45 per week. We eat healthy about half the days but it does chip in to all the other things we could do - like buy bicycles as well as deal with dental problems and the like.
Sometimes, it's hard not to look at $2.50 minimum hot chips in bread with gravy to feed the two of us -- or to look at $3.50 for a pack of forty dim sims (two-three dinners for the two of us) that can be deep fried at home and eaten with bread and tomato sauce -- and just think about all the things we could do if we didn't spend so much on food. On the healthy side, there's camping goods, bicycles, snorkelling and holidays (we can't road trip because we can't afford a car - even bus trips to family need to be budgetted in). On the unhealthy side, there's computer upgrades, videogames, alcohol and cinema tickets.
Of course, all that flies out the window for people who use fast meals meals. Two large meals that could barely feed the two of us for one meal costs around $18. Most cookable meals cost around only $5-$6 more (though take far longer to prepare) and give yummy left overs for the following day - thus supplying two meals).
