Yesterday's trials and tribulations

Living with housemates has its advantages. They know about my predicament, financially and coming down the stairs while they were placing their food in the fridge, 'Wow that looks good', ' Its ok, you can take some'. Bonus- one less meal to worry about.

I am not sure if I have ever mentioned it on this blog, but I am a dancer. It really hardly ever encroaches on anything financial, which is probably why I never mention it. Anyway, yesterday I went training. Good, because it is free to dance (if you can sort out a location). Only problem- getting there.

Simple, I borrow my housemates travelcard, complete with his polish name, and polish looking face smack bang in the middle of it. A bus, and two metros later I'm very close to home and dry. Going down the escalators just one corner left and a final metro and I'm there. I turn the corner to be greeted by 3 pairs of eyes lodged in three heads that are inspecting wannabe metro takers. I crouch down, as my wallet, with Konrad (housemate's) card in it, is inside my bag. I empty all the cards inside, and get old travel day cards out. None work so I use my other card- the tourist card!

I pretend to be a tourist and escape the 80 euro fine. After this experience I decide not to try to dodge fares, might save me the odd euro, but I don't fancy getting fined, or put in jail- even if they do provide free meals.

Total spend- 2.00 euros

(With the travel revalations it is likely I'll need to borrow money to sustain myself- or cave in and transfer some money back from the UK to here.... bugger.)

The 5 euro experiment- living on 5 euros for 10 days

I like reading and writing about frugality, but this situation was unexpected.
Having been overly zealous with conserving money, and having transferred a reasonable amount of my earnings, including a bonus, I was left with enough. Then things popped up.

My landlord wanted the rent in advance, take away 250euros. It became ridicously hot here in Portugal (where I am currently) so a decent fan was needed, minus 35 euros. My friend's presents for her birthday, along with a meal- which was overpriced and the collective obligatory 'we are paying for her', minus 25 euros. All in all, plus other minor expenses that went unforeseen and unchecked, I was down 400e. Now I am left with 1 euro in the bank, or actually, being precise 58 cents.

Plan of action? I have borrowed 5 euros and I have rooted around in my room, collecting the cents that have been misguided, and mismanaged. My mismanagement of the cents, ie them not being in my wallet, is what is saving me here. Now, with this blog being all about how to develop financial control you are probably thinking- what the hell?

Well, I am not really scraping around, there are many ways to get out. I could re-transfer the money I'd previously sent over to the UK. I could borrow more money from friends or get a credit card. Nope. That's too easy. It's harder, more of a challenge and ie. more fun for me, to try to live on this meagre amount of hard cash.

The biggies have been paid. The rent. And I have some food in stock already, though not a king's amount. So how do I get around? I am borrowing friends travelcards (similar to the London one, equivalent to an oyster card), no one can tell as its just a swipe system.

For fruit and veg I go to the local shop. Local shops often have cheaper prices, though you'll need to find the right local shop. I had found one months ago, used it, tended to spend 3 euros a go and then leave smiling, fit with the knowledge that I had bought something of true value, great healthy food, for cheaper than any supermarket. So what's the difference now? 50 cent shopping trips. 3 oranges, a kiwi, an apple and a carrot(to go with plain rice and bits of potato)- all healthy and nothing too luxurious, so nothing to break my limit. In fact, I only do these trips maybe once every 2 or 3 days, thus bringing the total to 4 x 0.50= 2 euros. 3 euros left.

So far it has been two days and I've been enjoying it. Tomorrow's goal is to not spend anything! Follow for more tomorrow.

Producer/Provider vs Consumer

Which are you? Are you a provider, producer or consumer? Most of us are a mix of the three. I talk about this purely in its financial meaning. Do you produce goods, provide services or just consume?

When I was younger I used to dream about starting to work and when I finally did I did what any future master of his own financial and non-financial destiny would do. I saved the income I was producing. Then, unfortunately, I spent it on the things I wanted to consume. I bought videos, tons of videos, those were things that I was interested in. Could you blame me? Do I blame myself? Well, I had to learn.

In fact, it took a few more lessons in financial management, it took spending of other peoples' money, debt and other such minor mishaps for me to come about to the thoughts that I am currently typing.

How did I get myself into this mess? I thought when I realised that I had spent money, without realising where it had gone. I had consumed. Music, clothes, anything I was 'into' at the time.

What do I do now? Address the balance. Instead of consuming so much, I try to produce and provide. I'm into dancing. I consume free things, sell products I produce and provide others with services that pay me financially and feed me spiritually. So now my bank balance is healthier and my spiritual bank, how I feel about myself, compared to me ten years ago, is wildly different.

If you have patience and produce and provide the right services and goods, at the right time and place you'll get the financial rewards you desire, and if it is something you enjoy you will probably feel great about providing those things to your customers.

Strike the right balance and you will do well.