Financial Friday 6

All right, you guys know the drill by now so let’s go….

Travel

Zero. I stayed in Thessaloniki the whole time. Traveling slow is awesome.

Accommodation

So you’ll notice on the spreadsheet that there are different numbers despite staying at the same hostel for the same price (in euros). That’s the difference between the exchange rate I got from an ATM and what I got from my ‘no foreign transaction fee’ credit card. The difference becomes especially noticeable the larger the expense. In this case, I booked a week so…. There’s a travel hack for you.

Food

I’ve save so much money by getting up early enough for the free breakfast at the hostel. And bonus, it’s awesome! I’ve recently discovered fresh baked, wheat bread dipped in tahini and honey. OMG, where has this food been all my life?

I did go out to eat at a ‘fancy’ restaurant on Wednesday: $18.45. I mean…eating like a king for the price of a normal sit-down place at home is still winning in my book.

Other

Travel insurance: $3.07 per day.

On Saturday, I did laundry: $3.69. It would have been double that, but I went for the air-dry option. They give us balconies with contraptions to hang clothes from so of course I had to use it.

Similar to laundry, I bought 3 pairs of cheap socks from the local flea market on Saturday: $3.69. I got them because they’ll take up a lot less space in my backpack. I haven’t run them through the washing machine yet though so the jury’s still out on how well they’ll hold up to normal wear and tear. More on that in next week’s Financial Friday.

Also on Saturday, I bought a Greek grammar book…that’s in Greek: $4.92. Since Greek has 4 cases and I’m trying to learn the language, I figured a book would come in handy. So far, I’ve tried to read the commentary explaining the lessons once…and that’s been it. Hopefully, I’ll get come real use out of it eventually.

On Tuesday, I bought a SIM card from GigSky. They have deals with carriers all over the world for cell data. I’m hoping it works out so I won’t have to buy a local SIM in every country I visit. It would have cost me $9.99, but I had some Amazon credit from when I was back home. You guys can add that into the total cost if you like.

On Thursday, I found a Greek class I really like: $49.20. That’s half the cost of the 4 month course…and it’s a total steal. When I was looking at most language programs, they wanted about $400 for 6 weeks worth of lessons. Will I become fluent? Hell no. But I consider attempting to learn the language part of my cultural studies so it’s totally worth it to me.

Summary

So this has been my cheapest week yet. Traveling slow pays off. And I really enjoy not being go-go-go all the time. Until next week….