Nowadays everyone is trying to make their money stretch further, but one TikTok user is taking it to another extreme.
This month, Frankie Hoy set out to find how long he could make US$100 last in New York City.
Hoy, 27, decided to document his self-imposed challenge on TikTok, where he has since achieved viral status for his impressive frugality.
As of this writing, Hoy has made the $100 last 27 days — and he still has $5.96 left.
To best protect his limited funds, Hoy has been making his own instant coffee in the van where he lives, eating $1 slices of pizza or meals from his catering job and hopping subway turnstiles around the city. (Yes, the latter is a crime.)
Many of his videos have garnered over 1 million views. Curious, invested spectators online have joined Hoy, who now has over 112,900 followers, on his journey to $0. Fans now celebrate in the comments of Hoy’s videos whenever he can score food, water or products “for FREE!”
Hoy, who is a standup comedian by profession, uploaded his first $100 challenge video on Nov. 4.
“This just in, I’m running out of money,” Hoy said in the video. “It’s not like in a GoFundMe way. It is in a, ‘Oh, I do standup comedy, so I don’t work all the time because I’d rather work on my craft’ type of way.”
He admitted his first financial error in the video when he said he bought an iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts for $4.34. In the video, he also spent $3.36 on a gallon of water.
Hoy said the purpose of his TikToks is to be transparent about where he spends his money, and how he is able to save enough to support himself in the second-most expensive city in the world.
Some days, Hoy spends no money at all.
Hoy’s spending comes in well below the estimated average monthly $6,653 dished out by a single person in New York.
Only time will tell if he can make the final $5.96 last a full 30 days.