[ben_w]

Some of it is, but not all.

> usually attainable solution of reducing consumption.

Hell no.

I'm a real life example of this "unicorn" — someone so utterly uninterested in acquiring material things that I spent an average of €1131 per month on everything combined in the last six months. Rent, travel, food, new laptop… and I'm not even trying to be frugal, this is with a lot of eating out and organic groceries.

If everyone did what I did, not only would we still have wasteful straws (why were they in my mango lassis?), but also the economy would collapse immediately.

If everyone cuts back as far as I can when I last tried seriously, the economy breaks much harder.

[Closi]

Edit: Misread and assumed 1100 euros / 6 months. Have removed comment

[ben_w]

I think you may have misread something; €1131 per month, of which €468 is rent and utilities (in Berlin, so still a good rate).

€7.6 euros per week for food is doable, I think, but last time I really tried to optimise that I was at university, in the UK, and it was 2003. (£0.50/day: Lidl instant noodles that they don't even sell any more, Quaker oats packs that aren't sold here, skimmed milk, dried fruit in the oats; I don't recommend reproducing this, it was a game to see how little I could spend without going hungry).

[Closi]

Apologies I did misread - removed original comment.

[ben_w]

It happens to all of us, no worries :)