Financial Friday 22

Location: Tbilisi [Republic of Georgia]

Week 22 was…largely uneventful. Let’s have a look.

Transportation

On Sunday, I went with a few people I met at the hostel, and rode the cable car a couple times. The hill that the ‘mother of Georgia’ statue sits on is a nice place from which to view the city; especially around sunset.

On Monday, I took the metro to explore a different part of the city. I could have walked, but the metro is so cheap. A ride out and a return trip for $0.20? Hell yes.

Accommodation

This gets very simple when you stay in the same spot for a while. I’ve watched a few waves of people stay in, and leave the hostel. If you’re on your own and you want to meet people, hostels are definitely the way to go.

Food

This was particularly cheap this week, because I spent most of the time cooking groceries. You can only have so much khinkali and kachapouri (the main local dishes) before you’re like “screw it, I’ll just get some cheap food to shove in my face”.

Other

Overpriced travel insurance: $8.64 per day.

So there was this concert on Friday that I was going to go see, and meet a few friends at. The only problem is that it’s been pretty hot the last week so I didn’t go during the day. I thought about going in the evening, but I was pretty tired by then and didn’t feel like staying up until 8 to head back ‘home’. So I basically bought a ticket I didn’t use: $12.98. It’s somewhat annoying, but I’m definitely happy with my decision to chill at the hostel. Because being tired and cranky is just not worth saving $13.

On Monday, I did laundry: $1.22. I know, it’s not very exciting.

On Wednesday, I payed for a mobile phone network unlock key: $18.90. Because the carrier I had in Greece thought it was a good idea to lock their shit down. I managed to get away with using a different SIM in Turkey because the carrier has a deal with the one I had in Greece to use their network. When I tried putting a Georgian SIM in though…that wasn’t happening. So, lesson learned: always check when putting strange SIMs in your phone that they don’t lock your shit down. It’s a huge pain in the ass to try and get it unlocked later. (Especially if you’ve left the country from which you got said SIM).

Summary

So, it’s been a super cheap (boring) week. I can’t argue with averaging less then $30 a day though. If this keeps up, I’ll be making money rather than breaking even.

Until next week…