or
“I Hemorrhage Money”
or
“Now Taking Bets on When I Will Be Broke.”
I am not nearly the “budget traveler” that I’d like to think I am.
This isn’t to say that I mind roughing it. I am, as my father would say, “a mudder.” I sleep in the $4 dorms, I enjoy cheap street food and squat toilets make me giggle. To save 300 bucks this summer, I’m flying out of New York City (and taking the 12 hour bus ride there) instead of directly from Ottawa.
I can backpack for 20 dollars a day in Central America, no problem – but I know that it can be done for a lot less.
But the problem is, I am absolutely horrible with money, at home and abroad. The stuff seems to seep through my fingers without my even realizing it. I’ve admired the people who can live on 5-10 dollars a day, but I’ve never been able to figure out how myself.
One of my problems (besides my absentmindedness) is my voracious appetite. I am hungry all the time. Really. If I don’t eat every two hours, I get bitchy, lightheaded and won’t stop thinking about food until I eat. So I spend a lot of money on food.
Besides that, though, I don’t know where it all goes. Sometimes I think back on the money I’ve spent and wonder where some of it has gone.
If I want to stay in Central America until next March (or even longer if I can) I need to fix this problem. I need to learn to live on 400 (Canadian) dollars a month if I don’t want to come home early.
I’m hoping the following will make the difference:
1) I will be staying in the same places for long periods of time. Two months in Xela (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala, and then six months outside of Granada, Nicaragua. I’ll do some doddling in between, and I’m sure I’ll take weekend trips, but basing myself in certain towns will have to help.
2) I don’t drink that much anymore. I do sometimes, but not nearly as much as when I was a wild early 20-something. I’ve stopped drinking (unless there is a really good party) because I have found that for me drinking too often causes depression. Thanks, but I’d rather feel happier. Anyways, beer in most bars is 2 dollars a bottle in Guatemala, which really eats through your budget pretty quickly. (Ah, if only I was going back to Panama, where it’s 25 cents a can.)
More creative suggestions? If I really want to do the whole nomadic thing, I’ve gotta perfect the art of living on very little. (At least until I get, you know, a real “paying job” overseas.)
Comments 3
Not creative, and this is for everyone, not just travelers, But…. You need a budget. This works two ways, 1) keeping you from spending too much in any one area and 2) letting you know where your money is going.
Budgets can be simple, or complicated. Computer or scrap paper. Etc.
Step 1) pick categories (Food, Transportation, Medical, Alcohol, General entertainment, Housing, Income, other) or whatever.
Step 2) record every purchase. Nothing crazy, just enough of a description so you can classify later.
Step 3) add it up. Do you really want to spend that much money on Coca Cola? or whatever.
Step 4) work at lowering the expenses that just don’t make sense. Just the act of recording will help some.
Another tip I have heard people use, and is a good idea for travelers, is to only have easily accessible the money that you will be needing for the day.
NEVER run a debt. You should never borrow money for anything that does not apreciate. So, house, maybe tools for your job and maybe education is OK. Car, TV, anything else is NOT.
Posted 28 May 2009 at 8:22 am ¶I agree with Motorcycle Bob above.
When I first started traveling I would keep a little notebook in my pocket in which I would write down everything I bought and how much it costs. At the end of the day I would add everything up and looked at where I stood. Each day, I tried to keep this number as low as possible by only buying what I really needed.
This became sort of a game, and I found it fun to see how little money I could spend to live well.
I don’t know if this game sounds like too much fun to anyone else haha.
Another thing that I do to keep costs low is I Couchsurf — which is on-the-table knowledge now — and I also sometimes trade webpages on Andy’s Hobohideout.com for free hotel rooms.
If you are interested in doing this, go to Hobohideout.com Traveling Webmasters.
Home this helps.
Walk Slow,
Wade
Posted 28 May 2009 at 4:08 pm ¶Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will definitely do the writing stuff down… for the “big stuff” (ie food, accommodation, transport) I always save… it’s the little stuff that sneaks up on me. I’ll bring a little notebook along and jot my spending down. (Bonus: I will probably look like some brooding poet putting verses down.)
Posted 30 May 2009 at 11:07 am ¶Post a Comment