Financial Friday 26

Location: Tbilisi [Republic of Georgia]

Week 26; that’s officially half a year! (Or at least it will be this week). Things were all over the place so…it’s time to do some spreadsheet explaining.

Transportation

On Saturday, I took the metro to a hostel I used to stay at to hang out with the manager: $0.20. While there, I met up with a friend, and we met someone else that was staying at the hostel (yay, new friends). We went out and showed her a little of the city; part of which involved taking the cable car up to the castle / ‘mother of Georgia’ statue: $1.02.

On Monday, I hit up the metro again, because…well…getting around is so much easier that way: $0.20.

Quick travel hack: If the metro car is full and you’re not in a hurry, just wait 5 minutes. Metros tend to go in waves, and the trains on either end of a busy one are usually pretty open.

Accommodation

You guys, I have a confession to make. The previously reported numbers for rent were based on a 30 day month. There are actually 31 days in July. So the new (though actually old, and should have been this for all of this month) number for rent is $5.67 per day. I blame that annoying Julius Caesar guy for this nonsense. He just had to make his month longer…. Jerk.

Also on Friday, I payed the utility bill. 2 months of payments (one of which was before we moved in) divided by 2 (because I had 1 roommate) came out to a whopping $3.28. That’s for water, gas, electricity, everything. I imagine the next bill will be a little higher, but next time it’ll be split 4 ways as more people moved in. I love this country!

Food

So yeah, I went a little crazy when we were showing the new friend the city. We went to a bar, and I spent ‘a lot’ (ok…a lot by Georgian standards) on a bottle of wine and food.

As you can see by a lot of the zero spending days, I spent most of the week preparing groceries I’d previously purchased. This is the reward for ‘settling in’ to a place.

Other

The obligatory travel insurance: $8.64 per day.

On Friday, my old roommate (before the others moved in) and I went out and bought a few things we needed for cooking: $13.10. The landlord provided a lot of things, but not all. They included things like a few pieces of tupperware, a garlic press, some other sundries I’m forgetting about….

Also on Friday, I bought the first 5 books in the Song of Ice and Fire series (or you may know them better by the title of the first book: A Game of Thrones): $42.79. Amazon then informed me that I had a $3.00 credit on certain books for the next couple days. So I bought a book called The Elven: $2.13 after the discount. Because cheap books are awesome!

On Sunday, I topped up the data on my ‘travel carrier’: $25.00. Why would I do that when I have a nice, cheap Georgian SIM now? Because my WhatsApp is still on my ‘travel phone’, and I’m scared to migrate it to my Georgian one. I’m sure everything would be fine if I did it, but…well…ok, it’s an irrational fear. Just let me have this one.

On Wednesday, my roommate bought a blender which was also a kitchen item that was sorely lacking. My half of that came out to $11.26. I’m pretty sure there’s no way we would have found a blender for double that price in the West. Thanks again, Georgia!

Summary

So…not too bad. There were a couple large expenditures, but they were made up for by spending almost nothing on a few of the days. Seriously, less than $15.00 for 3 of the days? That’s insane!

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s post. I’ll see you all next Friday for another installment of ‘where the fuck did I spend all my money’. Later….