Give Me Back My Five Bucks

We only spent about 40 hours (2 nights) in Paris, but I think it’s safe to say that we made the most of our time there. It’s a beautiful, romantic city – and we definitely want to go back before we leave Europe this year. One day just wasn’t enough time to see everything we wanted to see.

But maybe next time we’ll go when it’s a little bit warmer. :)

Here is a breakdown of our trip – in terms of money that I spent, as well as the things that we did. (It should be noted that we don’t split the cost of everything down the middle. We keep things pretty even, but it’s always a rough estimation.)

Cost

Accommodation: $72.54
Food: $78.12
Transit: $16.57
Entertainment: $39.83
TOTAL: $207.06

Accommodation

We booked our stay at Hotel Saint Sebastien through HostelBookers.com because it’s usually the cheapest place for booking hostels. It’s even cheaper that HostelWorld.com most of the time! Plus, it came with free wifi and breakfast in the morning. :)

As a side note, if you register for Great Canadian Rebates, you will save an additional 2% on any stay booked through HostelBookers.com when you click through from the GCR website. The same goes for train tickets in Europe! :) Basically whenever I buy anything online, I look to see if I can click through using my GCR account. If the merchant is listed on GCR, I will get a percentage of my purchase back as a cash rebate. It definitely adds up, and it’s free. So you can’t really beat that!

The hotel itself was functional. It wasn’t fancy by any means, but apparently for hotels/hostels in downtown Paris, you’re lucky if you can get anything decent in the “budget” category. But really, how much time are you actually going to be spending in your hotel room? We spent most of our time outside exploring the city. :)

I would consider staying here again, but will probably try a new hostel when we go back to Paris at some point this year.

Food

For breakfast, we just ate the free food in the hostel – which consisted of tea, croissants, and bread. Lunch consisted of just snacks on the go. We had too much to see, and didn’t have time to stop anywhere.

Dinner the first night was at Au Royal Couscous, and it was just okay. We didn’t have many choices, since it was late at night and we didn’t have reservations anywhere. Dinner the second night was at some hole-in-the-wall pizza place. It’s true, the wine was ridiculously cheap everywhere we went – and delicious too.

I’d say the highlight for me was eating a huge pistachio macaron as big as the palm of my hand. It was absolutely divine, and worth every penny.

Transit

We saved a ton of money by walking everywhere and taking the metro, instead of cabs. The Paris transit system is pretty great, but it’s also really confusing – even for Nic, whose first language is French. I don’t think I could have figured it out if he wasn’t there with me.

It took us about an hour to take transit from the airport to our hotel, and once we were in the city, we just went by foot. Good exercise, saves money, and you get to see more things. :)

Entertainment

Since we only had one full day in the city, we decided not to go inside any museums (we’ll save that for the next trip to the city!). But we did get to see the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, and Notre Dame Cathedral – all for free. We paid to take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower (I think the price was about €12 per person), because, come on. You can’t not go up the Eiffel Tower when you’re in freaking Paris. I also paid €20 total for us both to ride La Grande Roue (ferris wheel) because I thought it was fun and romantic. And there was no line-up. Haha!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a few photos:

Monday 30th
$19.78 (€15,10) food for train ride
$170.32 (€130) hostel (5 nights)
$103.49 (€78,99) Macbook Pro power adapter

Tuesday 31st
$2.40 (€1,83) snacks
$26.53 (€20,25) groceries
$13.82 (€10,55) 2x sim cards – one for Nic
$39.30 (€30) cell phone credit
$3.40 (€2,60) transit

Wednesday 1st
No Spend Day! 

Thursday 2nd
+ $700 freelance income
$25.26 (€19,40) groceries

Friday 3rd
No Spend Day! 

Saturday 4th – Esslingen
$9.11 (€7) transit
$9.11 (€7) transit
$14.32 (€12) Mercedes-Benz Museum

Sunday 5th
$14.97 (€11.50) lunch

WEEKLY EXPENSES: - $632.59
WEEKLY INCOME: + $700

TOTAL: + $67.41

Well it was a pretty expensive week for me. But I knew it was coming – it’s not cheap picking up and moving to a different city. There are always unexpected costs, such as having to spend $100+ on a Macbook Pro power adapter. We had the travel converter/adapter, but it was only powering the laptop and not actually charging the battery. We didn’t realize until days after that we didn’t need to buy the adapter, only the plug. But, the package came with an adapter and a plug, so we’re able to power both of our laptops with one purchase. So far, everything else works with the travel converter – except for my flat iron. I haven’t tested everything though, so fingers crossed that’s the only thing that doesn’t work.

We are trying to cut costs by walking most places, and only taking transit occasionally. In fact, the only time we took transit was the evening we went to view our apartment – it was really cold! And on Saturday we went to visit the town of Esslingen – not too far outside of Stuttgart.

Also, we’ve been cooking most of our meals in the hostel. It’s a bit of a nightmare because the grocery store that’s close to the hostel seems expensive, and the kitchen is small. But since restaurants are pretty expensive (and I keep thinking the prices are in dollars), we’re still cutting down our expenses significantly. But on the bright side, huge 1/2 litre beers are only €0,70 (about $1) at the grocery store, so we’re loving that. :)

As for the food here, it’s been pretty good. But I’m always craving vegetables and fruit. My body isn’t used to consuming so much bread and meat. And apparently we came during the coldest part of the winter, so all I can think of is eating a huge, hot bowl of pho or ramen. We actually did find a Japanese place that serves ramen, but a bowl cost €15 ($19.53)!!! No thanks.

Here are a few pictures from the last week:

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One of the best things I could have done for myself a few years ago was start to file my own taxes. Instead of spending $100+ to go to an accountant, I took the time to learn to do it myself. And not only is it extremely satisfying, but I’ve learned a ton about how taxes work, including deductions I didn’t even know about.

I’ve actually taken a look at a bunch of different tax software (both free and paid), and recently I was given the chance to check out the H&R Block online tax program – and I really like it. And best of all, the program supports all kinds of tax returns. Even if you have complicated ones – which includes self-employed income (like me), rental, or small business returns.

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There are THREE ways to enter (for a total of 3 possible entries):

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February 2012 Goals:

• Practice and learn German every day. Moving to another country and not knowing how to speak the language is intimidating. And while I know that a lot of Germans do speak English, I want to learn the language. I think it will be hard for me, since I’m a freelancer and work alone. Nic will have co-workers to talk to and learn from.

• Work a maximum of 50 hours/week. My new schedule is going to take a lot of getting used to. I’ve gotten accustomed to working 70 hours/week, and I haven’t had a weekend free from work in at least 18 months. Even my holidays have been working holidays. I just couldn’t get ahead when I had a full-time job. Now, my evenings and weekends will, for the most part, be spent relaxing and exploring the city with Nic. Of course, I do have to be aware of the time difference between Germany and where my clients are in North America.

• Pitch myself for 3 projects. I’ve never really had to pitch myself before, so I’m going to have to start getting used to it if I want to grow out my business.

• Get my taxes organized for this year, and going into next year. I think this goal is self-explanatory! :)

Ongoing 2012 Goals:

• Post a new photo every day on my Tumblr account, My Life In Pixels.

• Only post my own photos on GMBMFB. I should actually start posting photos.

• Write one guest post for another blog or website.

Oh, and here’s a panoramic photo of Stuttgart that my boyfriend took the other day (with me in the lefthand corner). You can click on it to make it a bit bigger.

This was an insanely expensive month. I went over budget on a lot of things, mostly because I wasn’t thinking properly when I created January’s budget. And although I had my best-ever month for freelance income, it still shouldn’t excuse the overage of over $750. :|

OVER BUDGET:

• Maintenance/strata – I forgot to change the amount to reflect the small price increase for 2012.
• Internet/cable – I forgot to change the amount to reflect the small price increase for 2012.
• Car – I helped my boyfriend move all of his stuff over to my place for while we are gone. He also borrowed my car to help his roommate move.
• Travel – this includes my trip 7-night trip to Quebec, 2 nights in Paris, and 5 nights in Germany.
• Personal care – I stocked up on my face cream before we left, because I was running out and wasn’t sure if it was sold over here. Otherwise this expense probably would have occurred in March.
• Miscellaneous – Took my neighbour out for dinner to thank her for looking over my apartment while I’m gone, as well as about $200 worth of travel-related gear (backpack, towel, stuff sacks, etc.).

NET WORTH CHANGE: + $5,418 (8.24%)
As much as I’d like to congratulate myself on bringing in a ton of extra income this month ($5,873.52 – or $6,369 if you include the stuff that I sold), I do have to remind myself that I also over-spent this month by a lot. And my net worth is bound to go down a lot in February due to having to put down money for an apartment in Stuttgart. Plus, I’ll have to pay once I file my income tax for the year. So we’ll see what happens. :)

January 2012 Goals:

• Find one new steady freelancing client. CHECK! One of my goals for 2012 was to take on a third steady freelance job, and I’m happy to say that I have. Although the work is steady, I’ll be paid somewhat irregularly. My lips are sealed for now, but all will be revealed shortly. :)

• Pitch myself to a blog/newspaper/magazine. CHECK! I pitched myself to two newspapers. After some discussion, both eventually said no. Actually, one newspaper was looking at offering me a job, but it fell through. Both told me to contact them once I return from Germany. And I definitely will!

• Find an apartment in Germany. FAIL. We tried so hard to find a place before we left. But as of writing this post, we still don’t have anywhere to live. We are currently living in a hostel, and contacting as many people as possible to help us find somewhere to live.

• Contribute $1,600 towards my Emergency Fund. CHECK! *happy dance* My Emergency Fund is fully funded at $10,000 for the first time in my entire life. Now I feel a little more comfortable as I embark on my new freelancing venture.

• Tie up all loose ends related to moving. CHECK! Every time I thought of something I had to do, I whipped out my iPhone and added it to a list I was keeping in my Notes app. To the best of my knowledge, everything has been taken care of.

Ongoing 2012 Goals:

• Post a new photo every day on my Tumblr account, My Life In Pixels. CHECK! This project is a lot harder than I had first anticipated. So I’m going to try to make it harder by only posting photos I’ve taken with my iPhone 4S. :)
• Only post my own photos on GMBMFB. PASS. Well, I gave myself a pass because technically I didn’t post any stock photos. But I also didn’t really post any of my own photos either.
• Write one guest post for another blog or website. PASS. Although, I didn’t write a guest post for another website, I did do a blog interview. Which is kind of like the same thing, since I basically wrote the entire post. So I’m giving myself a pass.