What I Spend In A Week As A Millionaire

What's up, guys? It's Graham here! So if you haven't noticed, we have an exciting new trend going around here on YouTube, and this is so perfect for me, I swear. It's called "What I Spend in a Week." It's where people go and document their normal everyday lives and add up where all of their money goes and how they spend it. Most of it makes me cringe, and some of it is inspiring, but I would be lying if I said it hasn't become like this guilty pleasure of mine to go and watch these videos just so I could silently judge and critique them from behind a computer screen. And also, I am incredibly nosy.

Anyway, this particular trend is especially interesting to me, not only because this is a finance channel but because I built my entire career on the philosophy of living below your means, avoiding unnecessary expenditures, and then obviously just not going to Starbucks. So I'm pretty much obligated now to join in here and contribute to the trend and share with you guys exactly how much I spend in a week as a 29-year-old living here in the very expensive city of Los Angeles, California.

And in the event the YouTube algorithm has pushed this video and you're brand new here, what's up, guys? I hope you stick around! I post three videos a week on personal finance, investing, saving money, and also smashing the like button if you have not done that already. So if that sounds good to you, make sure to subscribe and join the Graham Stephan family. Get it? My last name is Stephan. Stuff family!

Anyway, let's get into how much money I spend in a week. Here we go! So let's begin this video first thing Monday morning. And what do we do on Monday? Well, we eat breakfast. Then when it comes to that, I'm a creature of habit. I love routine, and I love doing the exact same things over and over and over again until the end of time. And that includes what I eat for breakfast. I'll go to Ralph's grocery store and pick up 18 of these bad boys for three dollars and 79 cents. I'll also get a package of this sliced turkey for $2.99, which lasts me about 14 days.

I then get this cheese from Trader Joe's for the bargain price of only three dollars and 99 cents, which lasts me about 21 days. And finally, we've got six generic brand bagels for one dollar and 99 cents and a large spread of generic cream cheese for three dollars and 89 cents. And then we put it all together! Every single morning, I'll make myself two eggs, two slices of ham topped off with a pinch of cheese, which I pair with a bagel and cream cheese.

The total cost for this entire breakfast comes to a delightful one dollar and two cents. After that, I top it off with a cup of homemade iced coffee, of which the total comes to about 20 cents between the cost of beans, filters, and cream for basically the same stuff that Starbucks is going to be charging you for $5. So why not just make it at home instead and save the money?

For the rest of Monday, I really didn't end up spending a lot of money. I worked from home in the morning, and then in the afternoon, I decided to get out of the house for a little bit and go to my office so I can get some real estate work done. Now, in terms of actually getting to my office, it doesn't cost much money. I have a Tesla, so the cost of electricity works out to be one dollar per day because of how little I drive.

Since they always charge the car during off-peak electrical hours, typically between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. in the morning. But when I do go anywhere, I just use the Tesla superchargers for free. As of now, I have almost 115,000 free supercharging miles left on the car because of all the referrals that I got from the viral Tesla video. So usually, I'll charge up my car any time I pass by a supercharger, and then I will try to use that charge as long as I can. So I won't be plugging in my car when I get home.

Anyway, while at the office getting work done, I made myself an espresso coffee, and then for dinner, I had a Healthy Choice frozen meal, which is two dollars and 79 cents from Ralph's. Now, let me be very clear, but this day I was recovering from a stomach bug, and I did not have that much of an appetite. Normally, I eat way more than this, but this is the first day where I started feeling a little bit back to myself, so my appetite was just slowly starting to return.

Anyway, when all is said and done on Monday, I ended up spending one dollar and 22 cents on breakfast, one dollar in electricity getting to and from my office, and then I spent an additional two dollars and 79 cents on dinner, which brings us to a grand total of five dollars and one cent I spent on Monday. Not too shabby!

So now on Tuesday, I had my usual breakfast and coffee for the price of one dollar and 22 cents. I got some early work done from home until about 11:00 a.m., and then after that, I drove to meet up with a wellness and meditation coach who's helping me learn how to relax a little bit more. I just started doing this recently, and it's two hundred and fifty dollars, but I figured I would just give myself a month to try this out, give it a shot, and then see where it goes. I do see this as money well spent and an investment in myself that should end up helping me out way more long-term.

Of course, I always got to get there early to find free parking, and of course, if at all possible, I try to avoid spending money in parking meters, so I have more money left over to invest with. So afterwards, I went back home to get some filming done for this channel, and for lunch, I enjoyed one of these delightful Trader Joe's frozen beef tamales, where you could buy two of these for two dollars and fifty cents. So this little snack was one dollar and 25 cents.

Then that night, I decided to go out to dinner with my dad, and when we dine, we go all out! We make it super fancy; we go to TGI Fridays. No joke! I actually really do like TGI Fridays. Yeah, haters gonna hate, but I think it's pretty decent food. Now since I was still recovering from being mildly sick, I didn't have a huge appetite, and neither did he. So we ended up splitting some nachos. He got a Sprite, and I paid the bill since it was my treat.

So the grand total of that dinner was $23 for two, with tax and tip! That means that in total for that Tuesday, I spent a whopping 275 dollars and 74 cents, but 250 of that was kind of like a one-time charge. But again, we're still counting that.

Now, of course, it's Wednesday, and I had the usual breakfast that cost me one dollar and 22 cents. After that, I met with an architect and a contractor to go over some remodeling plans that's gonna be happening next month. What are we units assumed to be vacant? So I'm planning to remodel the property to increase its value and then bring it up to date.

So that day, I wrote them a check for $7,000 as a deposit for the work that will be starting in a few weeks from now. Now, I'm not sure if I should be including this as an expense since technically it's a business expense, and the money I spend on this should yield a much higher return when the unit is rented out. But technically, since I spent the money, I will be mentioning it here because this is how much I spend in a week regardless of where it's spent or what it's for. So there you go; spent $7,000 on that.

Now, usually on this day, I'll drive up to have dinner with my girlfriend and her family, and they live about an hour away. So usually what I'll end up doing is just free Tesla supercharging on the way back, and that way it’s enough to last me a few days afterwards. Her family that night was cooking dinner, and the week prior, I bought and brought over some Rosé wine, and tonight they were making pasta.

So obviously, I didn't get any b-roll of this; you're just gonna have to take my word that this actually happens because it would be so weird to me to sit at the dinner table with her entire family going and trying to film like b-roll of the food and people for a video about how much I spend in a week. That would just be weird! But anyway, dinner was great! And if everything wasn't great enough already, there were even some leftovers that I got to take home to eat the next day for lunch.

So that means in total for Wednesday, the entire amount of money I spent was seven thousand one dollar and twenty-two cents. But seven thousand dollars of that was for a home remodeling project, so really, I kind of only spent a dollar and 22 cents. But again, we're counting the full thing, and yeah, so a little bit over $7,000 that day.

Now, Thursday was a very hectic day. I woke up about seven o'clock in the morning, and CNBC Make It had notified me that they're gonna be posting their video, the Millennial Money video on me at nine o'clock in the morning. So I was all frazzled in the morning, panicking like, "What, what, is it a good video? I hope that everyone likes it!" And then also at nine o'clock in the morning, I had four calls scheduled for my second channel, the Graham Stephan Show. So because I had to prepare for all of that, and I was so anxious about the video that was about to be posted, oh—did I skip breakfast? I just had coffee instead!

So after filming all of the calls for the second channel, I went and had lunch, which was leftover pasta and garlic bread that my girlfriend's family made the night before. After that, the rest of the day, I really just worked from home, and I thought I was doing pretty good on spending until a last-minute plan came up to have a double date with a good friend of mine, Meet Kevin.

Now on the drive over to meet up with everyone, I noticed that the Millennial Money video all of a sudden was on the trending page, so I had to do something really special to celebrate that! Wouldn't you know it? We got some sushi and mai tais! The restaurant also accidentally brought us out the wrong sushi roll, which they just ended up giving to us for free, which is pretty cool! But all in all, with tax and tip for my girlfriend and I, it was sixty-three dollars for that dinner.

Then, as usual, on the drive back, I stopped by the Tesla supercharger to charge my car all the way back up again. And that means in total on that Thursday, I spent sixty-three dollars and twenty cents for the cup of iced coffee earlier that day.

Then on Friday, I started the day off at 8 a.m. with a classic 20-cent iced coffee. Afterwards, I had the rest of the leftover pasta from Wednesday for breakfast. And don't judge me; I'm allowed to eat leftovers if I so choose!

Afterwards, I just worked from home and got several of my reaction videos edited for the second channel, and then I got this video filmed up until this point. That's the best secret to frugality, by the way—is just work so much that you don't have any time to spend any money.

But then for lunch, I had the other one-dollar and twenty-five cents Trader Joe's beef tamale, and then I started editing all the filming for this video up until this point right now. Since I worked from home non-stop all day, I just grabbed another one of those $2.79 Healthy Choice frozen meals as a quick snack, and then I continued working until about 9:00 p.m. that night.

Afterwards, my girlfriend and I decided to go into this place in Los Angeles called Milk, and they have insanely good desserts. My girlfriend decided to treat that night, and we split a cookies and cream ice cream bar. So yeah, that was free! That means in total for Friday, I spent a whopping four dollars and twenty-four cents. Not too shabby!

Alright, so Saturday was quite the doozy! For breakfast, I got myself a bagel, cream cheese, and a 20-cent iced coffee, which in total comes to 55 cents worth of food. My girlfriend and I filmed our reaction to my Millennial Money episode, which by the way is already live on my second channel, the Graham Stephan Show—link down below in the description if you want to check that out! It was pretty good!

Afterwards, I spent a few hours editing that video in the afternoon, but then at night, things got a little crazy! We decided to do something really special and drive down to Mastro's Steakhouse in Malibu. Now, this is not something we do often; it's not a typical Saturday night by any means. But every now and then, it's nice to try something out of the ordinary, go down to the beach, and do something a little bit different.

And yeah, like this place is insanely nice! Like, they have $14 asparagus. I could do my own reaction video just on this menu alone because it's mind-blowing! But I digress. For dinner, we got fried calamari, a 16-ounce steak, crusted halibut, and garlic mashed potatoes. And yeah, it turned out to be 205 dollars and 82 cents with tax and tip.

But hey, you know what? For the right occasions, it's nice to treat yourself. It's nice to do something out of the ordinary and switch it up between Trader Joe's beef tamales and Healthy Choice frozen meals. That means though on Saturday, I spent two hundred and six dollars and 37 cents in total. But remember, pretty much all of it is from a one-time extravagance that really isn't done very often. But you know what? Still, it's there—that's how much I spent that day.

And then we got Sunday! And I got really good news for everyone! On Sunday, there were leftovers from Mastro's, and of course, that's what I had for breakfast! Also means I didn't need to spend any money that morning on breakfast besides the cost of my 20-cent iced coffee.

Afterwards, we went to check out some real estate for sale, and for those who have been following this channel for a little while now, I'm trying to buy another property here in the mid-city area of Los Angeles. So I'm just constantly looking for the right place to come up and seeing as much inventory on the market as possible. Afterwards, my girlfriend bought some groceries and decided to make tacos for dinner, so we ate that while the cat, Ramsey, just enviously watched.

Then after that, I got a little bit more work done, watched a bit of The Office, and it hit me afterwards that day, I didn't spend any money whatsoever besides the cost of my 20-cent iced coffee. That was it—achievement unlocked!

So that means throughout the entire week, with absolutely everything I mentioned, I spent a grand total of seven thousand five hundred and fifty-five dollars and fifty-one cents, which sounds absolutely ridiculous when I hear myself saying that. But let me clarify things so I feel a little bit better about myself because remember, seven thousand dollars of that was a deposit towards a home remodeling project in one of my rental properties.

Then 250 dollars of that was for the meditation coach, and that is not something I do every single week and is not meant to be a recurring charge. And then finally, the two hundred and five dollars and eighty-two cents is certainly a rare extravagance at Mastro's that does not happen very often.

So if we just exclude those one-time unusual charges, my personal spending is really more like ninety-nine dollars and sixty-nine cents for the week. That, to me, is much more typical of a normal week than going and spending $200 on a Saturday night at Mastro's.

However though, let's be real, because that's still not the entire picture, and my personal spending does not stop there. Because sure, on the surface, I have my normal personal expenses. But what about everything else? What about my mortgage payment, my health insurance, my car payment, and my smashing the like button for the YouTube algorithm payments?

Basically, here is how much my life really costs. Now, first we got housing. Now, I bought this property, and it's a duplex, so it has two units. I live in one of the units that I'm filming in now, and then I rent out the other unit. My total mortgage payment works out to be $95 a day. My property taxes are $17.83 per day, and my homeowners insurance is four dollars and fifty cents a day, meaning that this place costs me one hundred and nineteen dollars a day to own.

Thankfully, like I said, it does have two units, which means that I can rent out the other unit, and I am just about to rent out the other unit for $2,700 a month. That brings my total out-of-pocket costs to live here at $29 a day. However, by me actually making the mortgage payment every single month, I am paying down the loan balance by an additional thirty-three dollars a day.

Meaning that once you actually count home equity, it's like I'm getting paid four dollars every single day just to get to live here and make videos in my garage.

So next, we got the car payment. Now, when I bought the car, I financed 100% of it, and my payment works out to be 632 dollars a month. That works out to be $21 a day or 147 dollars a week. Thankfully, because they have such a low interest rate on that loan, only 119 dollars a month of that payment goes towards interest, and the rest is in principal of the car.

So thankfully, it makes it a little bit easier knowing that most of that payment is just paying down the loan. But for purposes of this video, let's call this an extra 147 dollars a week for my car payment.

Then we got utilities. Now on average, I pay about a hundred and ten dollars a month between electricity and water, which works out to be three dollars and sixty cents a day. I'll then spend another fifteen dollars a month on gas, which is used to heat up the water and also light the stove, so that works out to be an additional fifty cents a day.

I then spent eighty dollars a month on high-speed internet with Spectrum, which works out to be two dollars and sixty-six cents a day. And finally, eighty-five dollars a month for my phone bill, which works out to be two dollars and eighty-eight cents a day.

That means I spend on average sixty-seven dollars and fifteen cents in a given week throughout my utilities. And it keeps going because I have other recurring expenses that just get billed at random times throughout the month.

First, we've got my health insurance plan that is two hundred and fifteen dollars a month, which works out to be seven dollars and sixteen cents a day or otherwise fifty dollars and twelve cents a week. Then we also got car insurance at one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month, which works out to be four dollars and sixteen cents a day or twenty-nine dollars and twelve cents per week.

And then we got my gym membership at two hundred and twenty dollars a month. I get it, it's expensive. I pay for convenience because it's literally right next door to my office, but that comes at a cost of seven dollars and thirty-three cents a day, which works out to be fifty-one dollars and thirty-one cents per week.

And lastly, how could I forget Amazon Prime membership for thirteen dollars a month, which means this week that cost me three dollars and twenty-five cents. So now in this category, it costs me one hundred and thirty-three dollars and fifty-six cents per week.

And then we got my personal travel credit cards with annual fees on them. One— the American Express Platinum at five hundred and fifty dollars a year, which works out to be ten dollars and fifty-seven cents per week. So the five hundred and fifty dollars a year I spend on that card usually ends up giving me back thousands of dollars in free travel and rewards.

Then we have my Chase Sapphire Reserve at four hundred and fifty dollars a year or eight dollars and sixty-five cents per week. Now, that cost is a little deceiving because that includes $300 travel credit that you get every single year, plus Priority Pass lounge access worth another ninety-five dollars a year.

And lastly, we have the infamous ten million-dollar credit card, the JPMorgan Reserve, which is another four hundred and fifty dollars a year, or eight dollars and sixty-five cents per week. Now, this one is pretty much identical to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I get the same three hundred dollar travel credit, I get the same Priority Pass lounge access worth $95, and in addition to that, I get United Club access.

So the annual fee essentially pays for itself. But again, we're gonna be counting this as an expense just for the purposes of this video. So that leaves us in total with twenty-seven dollars in eighty-seven cents per week in credit card annual fees.

So when you go and add all that up, it comes to a total of three hundred and seventy-five dollars and fifty-eight cents this week between all of the behind-the-scenes spending you don't really get to see in addition to everything else I've just mentioned.

However, if you were to add up everything I've spent money on this week, including a home renovation and other non-recurring expenses, then yes, I did end up spending seven thousand nine hundred thirty-one dollars and nine cents this week.

But if you subtract the renovation, the non-recurring meditation coach, and also the one-time extravagance going to Mastro's, my actual normal weekly expenses is more like four hundred and seventy-five dollars and twenty-seven cents for everything I mentioned—everything recurring behind the scenes and everything I typically spend money on. And that is more in line with what I normally spend in a week as a 29-year-old living here in Los Angeles, California.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it! As always, if you guys enjoy videos like this, make sure to destroy the like button, subscribe button, and notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram! I post pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it, feel free to be a part of it there.

Also feel free to add yourself to my second channel, the Graham Stephan Show. I post there every single day I'm not posting here. So if you want to be a part of it, feel free to add yourself to that.

Lastly, if you guys want a free stock, Webull is holding a promotion where if you deposit $100 on their platform, they will give you two free stocks; one of those stocks is valued up to $1,000! So if you want to take advantage of that, just use the link down below in the description and get yourself two free stocks—you may as well!

So anyway, with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching, and until next time!