Calculations

So, my brain can't help but want to calculate the probabilities around me so that I can make educated decisions about my life. If something crosses my mind to be calculated I can't stop thinking about it until I've run some type of analysis. One of my more anal characteristics is calculating grades and scores needed to attain a certain desired grade. Then, as with most aspects of my life I can't help sharing this information with the people around me no matter how much this information may be of no importance to them or in fact may even irritate them.
Tonight, a thought crossed my mind about my living expenses. I calculated just my living expenses, not taking into account my tuition bill which rings in at about $22,000 a semester. Beyond this I established that I've spent about $3500 in four months (though I will qualify that $720 was spent on a rabies vaccination). Calculating out for a wage that would be required to support this type of spending I would need to make about $8.50 an hour and work 40 hours a week. This was devastating! How can I, to whom so much has been given, consume so much of the pie myself? Where is my human charity when people in other countries are starving and would just be happy to have a small portion of what I have? How can I afford to spend money on luxuries when all humans are equal and yet we do not drink from the same cup?
What I can't control in my current situation is the rent and utility bills. The overhead for these expenses comes in at about $360/month currently. This puts the daily expenditures which cannot be avoided at about $12/day. This leaves me with $2060; $515/month; $17/day which is elective spending. The IRS sets as its national standard for one person households spending of $526/month which includes food, housekeeping supplies, apparel, personal care products and services. How can I be living so dangerously close to the governments expected spending allowance? A government that is in debt way beyond its means to recover is accurately predicting the amount of money that I use to live on. This is too much. I need to find a way to cut my spending dramatically.
Still there is only so much I can control. I have not gone out to eat once in my time in Manhattan, excluding my first meal with my mother and aunt when we pulled into town and the dinner that my pastor treated Sarah and I to a couple of weeks ago. Additionally, as a vet student I require certain books to learn and these are far from inexpensive. In fact, my total book expenditures for the fall semester totaled $500. Along with the rabies vaccine these necessary purchases took up a third of my total expenditures and 60% of my elective spending. Considering the other $840 I spent in the last four months I calculate that I spent $7/day on food, gas and other life necessities. Looking at this number in the country in which I live and considering that the IRS expects that one person households will spend close to $9/day on food alone I do not feel completely dismayed with this number, but I would still like to reduce it if possible.
My largest spending problem is that stemming from my schooling, which is very difficult to control. I could consider removing myself from this program in order that I could reduce my spending, but this would in the long run likely have a more negative effect, as I could potentially make a much greater difference in the world with this education. It all comes down to my willingness to sacrifice some of my need for frugality here for the hope that I will be better able to have a wider spread impact later. However, I hope this lavish living will not lead me to dismiss my conservative nature and that I would be ready to pick up my desired values when at all possible. The thing to remember is that this money will all have to be paid back with interest someday. SPEND WISELY!