Living expenses: spending and saving money
Posted on February 20, 2012 in saving money
Since moving here, we’ve spent a lot of time exploring the city and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, it all costs money, and we’re on a pretty tight budget. I’ve been trying to cut back on the little things, so that I have more wiggle room. But it’s pretty difficult when everything is new and interesting.
Here’s how I’ve been trying to save money:
- Walking everywhere. The train costs anywhere from €2 to €3 (one-way) for most places within the city. Monthly pases are anywhere from $80 (€61) to well over $130 (€100), depending on how many zones you need. So basically anything within 45 minutes of the house, I’ve been walking to in order to save on transportation. This means a 70 min. roundtrip walk to the library every day, and probably a 60 min. roundtrip walk downtown. It’s good though, because 1) it’s free exercise, and 2) I’m getting to know the city and the smaller neighbourhoods a lot better than if I just took the train everywhere.
- Packing lunches. I’ve been bringing my lunch to the library every day so far. I don’t exactly know if I’m allowed to eat there, but I haven’t seen any “no eating” signs (although I can’t really read German anyway), and nobody has told me otherwise. Plus, I’ve seen other people eating there. We’ve also been bringing packed lunches with us on the weekends when we go exploring the city.
- Eating at cheap restaurants. If you follow my Tumblr account, you’ll probably see almost half of the photos I post are of food. So clearly we go out to eat a fair bit. But we usually eat at cheap kebab/pizza places (and when we eat pizza, we share one b/c they’re huge and they only cost €5), or we buy a small snack at a street vendor or bakery. The times that we do go to real restaurants, most of the time we’ll order something cheap, or we’ll share something. Some might say that there’s no point in going to restaurants at all, and maybe they’re right. It’s not ideal, but at least we’re not stingy tippers, and it’s what we have to do to make our budget work.
- Don’t buy souvenirs. On a few occasions, it’s been tempting to buy a trinket or something small to remember a city by, but a long time ago I made a rule to never buy souvenirs for friends/family, or for myself. The only thing I do let myself buy is a fridge magnet. :) It’s inexpensive, doesn’t take up a lot of room, and it’s fun to choose one that best represents how you feel about the city.
- Avoid shopping. I don’t even go near the shops if I can avoid it. But even on the occasion where I have had to go in, I followed Nic into the men’s section instead of going straight to browse sweaters or shoes or whatever it is I don’t need. :) Although, I will admit to buying a circle scarf off Etsy last week for about $35.
I think it’s realistic not only to live in Stuttgart like this, but also when we are traveling. Over the last couple of days, I spent about $590 (€450) booking airfare (Portugul, Spain, Greece). That’s a lot of cash – right now it’s almost a week’s worth of income for me. Thankfully the rest of our travel for the next 3 months will be by train.
Here’s how I’ve wasted money:
- I bought a mobile internet stick. It cost me €30 for the stick, and it will be €25 each month. Which is a fair price. Since we don’t have internet hook-up in our apartment, and the library (which closes at 9pm) and Starbucks are both a 60-70 min. roundtrip walk away, I figured we’d want internet during the evenings and weekends. The only problem is, everyone else in Stuttgart also wants the same thing. So as a result, the times where I need internet, it’s the slowest and most frustrating connection ever. Last night, it took almost 2 hours to book a flight, because the internet connection was so slow. I’m out the €30 for the stick either way, but I’m not sure if I’ll renew the service next month.
- I didn’t try very hard to get a hostel discount. We stayed at the same hostel a total of 17 days, and paid the normal rate of €24/night per person, which works out to $1,070 (€816) for the both of us combined ($535/€408 each). When we renewed our room, Nic asked if they offered flat weekly rates or some sort of discount, but the guy at the front desk said no. I can’t help but think that if we spoke to the manager, maybe we could have gotten a better deal.
- I never research restaurants. The few times we’ve gone out to proper restaurants, neither of us did any research. We just saw something, and went on in. Which is probably fine when we’re in Vancouver, since we have a good feel for the neighbourhood, the type of food being served, and we might have heard of the place before. But here, we can’t read the menu, we don’t know what the food is like, and we only have a rough idea about the neighbourhoods. Our worst dining experience has been in restaurants, because we just don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into.
It’s so easy to convince myself to spend money. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip! I’ll regret it if I don’t spend the money! But if I’m being truthful, I just can’t afford it. I won’t go into debt because of being here in Europe, but unless I can figure out a way to grow my business significantly, I won’t come out much further ahead either.
Also, in a few months, I think one of my freelance gigs will be reduced from steady, to irregular work. I’m not sure if that will result in more or less money. So to be safe, it’s a good thing I picked up another client this year. I’ve got a lot of ideas on how to grow my business. I just need to figure it out and implement. Being a freelancer is overwhelming sometimes!
17 Responses to “Living expenses: spending and saving money”
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Fridge Magnets is exactly what I do! It is a great idea and they are unique to each place :)
You should use the tripadvisor app when deciding on restaurants – it is really good! Also toptable will tell you what discounts are available in restaurants nearby – assuming it is not the weekend, these can be up to 50%!
Savvy Scot´s latest post —> A Life Changing Moment
Good call on the souvenirs :) BTW- I like you teeninsy apartment.
Renee´s latest post —> Arnold’s Health-Full Bread…
Great idea about asking for a discount on prolonged hostel stays! I will be travelling to Thailand in June and didn’t even consider the potential savings for staying at the same hostel for 2 weeks +.
Great job, thanks for the tip!
Holly´s latest post —> Step Challenge
I am loving hearing about your adventures over there. When we were in Europe we walked all the time. I LOST weight there, even with the beer and pastries LOL
jolie´s latest post —> Sunday Night Chit Chat
well, you aren’t yet 30, have no other debt, and frankly it kind of is a once in a life time opportunity. You don’t have to go crazy, but truly, even if you do load some spending on to a credit card, you can do a 1% balance transfer on the amount for 6-12 months, whatever the offer is, and when you get back home you will either have built more income from freelance, or you’ll pick up another day job, so paying off a lowly 1-6 thousand dollars in 6 months wouldn’t be difficult.
there are ways to utilize credit to your advantage, and having controlled debt isn’t scary, unlike when you were fresh out of college battling a spending addiction. it kind of sounds like you have a different kind of spending addiction now though, the inability to spend without immense guilt.
interesting anyways…
I have gone through both ends of the spectrum myself, but now i have my life structured differently, i can spend whatever i want, as long as i meet other goals- namely, drop 40k each yr into the mortgage, max out rrsp contribution room.. if i am managing those two things, i can do whatever else i like. I hustle hard, and since i don’t when my last day may come, i don’t feel guilty, i just try to balance. balance is key, and using a balance transfer has always been a sweet way of doing things that i don’t have immediate cash flow for- but that I know I can realisticly pay back within the timeframe of the promotion.
in any case like i said, its interesting to hear your logic for the choices you make, or the defences you render for your choices.
oh by the way, which freelance gig is being cut back? just curious..
Continue to keep your cost structure low and fluctuations in revenue won’t hurt nearly as much. When I’m on paternity leave later in the year, apparently I’ll be allowed to leave the country unlike most forms of EI. Since we’re on the topic of low cost structure, I’m wondering if I should take my partner and baby down Florida way…
Joe´s latest post —> Carpe Family Diem – TurboTax Giveaway
as far as souvenirs go, i’m super paranoid about accumulating clutter. so my policy on souvenirs is that i started a charm bracelet.
most places you go have charms or necklaces that can be made into charms. that way you have a small trinket (and eventually a whole bracelet!) to remember trips by. and maybe someday to pass down. it’s small enough to not take up space but fun enough to fill up!
jenna´s latest post —> hey remember that one time I spent 4 weeks deciding what my new years goals would be?
These are all great ways to save money! And good for you for not telling yourself repeatedly that it’s a once in a lifetime experience. You can be realistic and have fun!
Michelle´s latest post —> Spending, Life, Income and Food Updates… 2/20/2012
I love your fridge magnet idea!! I regret not having souvenirs from some of the places I’ve visited but struggle with ways to enjoy the souvenirs that I have visited. Fridge magnets (or a charm bracelet like Jenna) are a great solution!!
Marianne´s latest post —> How We Save Money By Using Our Credit Cards
On the subject of cheap restaurants: It´s very common that chinese restaurants offers a buffet for a cheap price on special daytimes! Sometimes there is “All you can eat for 5 €”…………
Don’t beat yourself up Krystal! You are doing amazing and don’t you have that fully funded emergency fund?
It is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and if N is “the one” these will be wonderful memories you both can share together in the future :)
You’re not going crazy spending or anything, so don’t be too harsh on yourself :)
youngandthrifty´s latest post —> The Low Down on the RESP
Agree. You are doing amazing considering you are not yet 30, already have condo, quit your job to do freelance full time and travel/live in Europe!!!
sorry typo…meant to say ‘a condo’
Simple Rich Living´s latest post —> One Source of My Retirement Income – Real Estate
I like to keep souvenir’s from countries I have visited, just not the typical shot glass or t-shirt though. What I like to do is when I have to do a money exchange with that countries money, I like to keep some of that countries coins, even if they are basically worthless it is still something cool to bring home.
I think it is awesome that you are over exploring Europe, that is a dream of mine also and is on the bucket list, specifically major WWII battlegrounds like the beaches of Normandy.
Stan´s latest post —> A Roth IRA Home Purchase Savings Account?
I like the fridge magnet souvenir idea. My souvenir policy is buying Chirstmas ornaments. They’re small, don’t take up a lot of space when you’re coming home from a year-long trip & you don’t clutter up your home with useless stuff you don’t actually need (and once a year I get to put them on my tree & remember everwhere I’ve been).
You may or may not already know this but, for cheap flight comparisons I like to use skyscanner.com. You can select all the airports surrounding a city so that you don’t have to look them up separately (EG: select ‘London any airport’ & it will give you the cheapest flight from Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead or City Center)
I too have bought an internet dongle in the past and didnt use it. It was sucha waste of money especially since i use my mobile phone for everything i need to do on the go. I personally feel i jumped into the decission to buy one and had to pay for the 12 month contract.I like you comment "avoid the shops"