Experiment Results and Oktoberfest

So October is over, and so is my monthlong experiment in frugality.

What were the results of the experiment?  Well, here's my best shot at summarizing them.

Despite having 6 hours less of classes and one week with 8 hours of cancellations from private classes on top of that (all cancelled within the required time period and therefore unpaid), I was able to get through the month without having to withdraw money from my bank account or use a credit card.  This month reinforced the notion to me that it's so easy to spend money more easily when you have a larger income, but in those months when you have less income it's very easy to want to kick yourself for eating out so much or spending money the way you did when you had more of it.  I realize that this doesn't happen just to me, but to almost anyone in that situation.

I also found that it's not really that difficult to watch my spending.  I did two main things to help spend less money.  The first was that I only carried around the amount of cash I knew I would need (I never carried around credit cards here anyway), and I exercised self discipline in asking myself if I really needed what I wanted to buy or if it was an impulse buy that wasn't necessary.  Most of the time it was an impulse buy, and with a little forethought and planning I could avoid the situation.  Most days I pack my lunch and snacks throughout the day, and it simply required the planning to prepare everything the day before.

Walking when I would normally take the bus also helped this month.  I walked to most of my morning classes, and a few days when the weather was nice I walked home.  The walk each way was usually about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, and it was a nice way to give myself time to think and clear my mind.  I also found that the exercise got my blood flowing and I felt more relaxed by the time I got to my classes or home.

With that being said, I didn't deprive myself of all spending during the month.  I ordered pizza twice during the month.  I realized how expensive it was and recognized it as a luxury, but I also knew that I worked hard during the week and wasn't in the mood to cook.  When one of my afternoon classes cancelled when I was on the way there I had about an hour and a half to kill before my next class, and so I went to the metro escuela militar which has some shops and places to eat.  Earlier in the day I decided I was going to get a sandwich at Subway for dinner, so I decided to go to the Subway there to pass the time.

Then on the weekend I went with some friends to Oktoberfest.  No, it wasn't the real one in Munich, but it was the closest thing you can find here in Chile.  It was in a town called Malloco half an hour (in theory) outside of Santiago, but becuase of it being a Saturday and the first day it took us over two hours to get there.

Once we got there, it was worth it.  It was about 80 degrees, clear and sunny.  There were a lot of people, but the area was huge.  We spent some time waiting in lines, but we passed the time catching up or talking to the people in line with us.  I got to eat sausages (although they weren't German bratwursts), churros, and tried a few different types of beers.  A lot of stands sold glass Biersteins that you could get refilled, so I got one and then was able to keep it as a souvenir. 

By the end of the day I had spent about 15.000 pesos at Oktoberfest, which is about $30.  In the grand scheme of things it really wasn't that much money, and it was a fun experience. 

So what is my conclusion of the experiment in frugality?

1. It takes a bit of self discipline and planning.
2.It makes you decide how you really are willing to spend your money.
3. It makes you walk the fine line of being frugal but at the same time not depriving yourself of things.
4. I also had to think what was the purpose of saving this money and if I really wanted to or not.
5. It's very easy to accumulate things that really don't have much value, and I'd much rather spend my money on experiences like traveling or one time events like Oktoberfest.

This month I'm looking forward to my students returning from vacation, more warm and sunny weather, and possibly taking a weekend to go relax on the beach.

Adventures in Frugality

I decided that this month was going to be a new adventure for me: saving money.

Those of you that know me already know that I'm pretty good at this, but I had a few reasons to persue this adventure:

1. I have students that are on vacation, meaning 6 hours less of classes per week for a month.
2. I want to meet my savings goals in order to be able to buy a new laptop, prescription sunglasses, travel to Colombia, and pay back college loans and the very generous bank of Dad.
3. San Pedro was a great trip, but now it's time to be frugal again for a month or two.

Add to this that my gym membership has expired and I don't want to spend money on a new one, and you have a perfect recipe for finding ways to save money.

For the past few weekends I've gone to the La Vega market.  For those of you that don't remember, it's a huge market that sells fruits, veggies, meat, fish, and even housewares at prices cheaper than what you'd pay in a supermarket.  I remember learning that back when I first moved here, but since moving to ñuñoa it has seemed too far away to make the trip worth it.  I´m really glad I started going again.  Here are some prices I pay for things there:

a kilo of bananas 450 pesos
a kilo of tomatoes 800 pesos
a kilo of strawberries 700 pesos
4 porkchops 1350 pesos
a half kilo of whole grain cereal 1200 pesos
a quarter kilo of ham lunchmeat 550 pesos
a kilo of frozen veggies for 990 pesos

For those of you who aren't familiar with kilos and pesos, a kilo is about 2.2 pounds, and about 500 pesos is a dollar.  Your money really goes far at La Vega, and now it makes sense to me.  At a market like that, they don't have to pay for packaging, maintainance costs, cleaning, or any of the other costs that supermarkets have to cover.

Here are some pictures of my latest trip there:

In addition to the savings, there's an element of adventure there.  It's fun going around from one stand to another comparing prices and the quality of the foods.  Before finding the starwberry stand for 700 pesos I was contemplating buying them for 1000 pesos at another stand until I saw the guy handling the produce while smoking at the same time.  You also get to experience the vendors calling out advertising their produce or making fun of one another.

As one of my coworkers put it, a trip to La Vega makes you feel like you're in South America.  Downtown Santiago and Ñuñoa are pretty modern and clean by South American standards, and so going to a busy market is a compeltely different experience.  There's the hustle and bustle of people going by, a variety of enticing aromas of exotic food cooking, empty paper boxes and random debris on the ground, people brushing past you in a way that invades your personal space bubble a bit too close to comfort, stray dogs wandering around looking for scraps of food or just some affection, and a general sense of disorder that one typically associates with South America.  It's a reminder of the adventure of venturing outside of my comfort zone and experiencing something new and different.

Moving on to the next part of my adventures in frugality, we visit Transantiago.  Santiago's public transportation system is pretty modern and pretty efficient, but it comes at a price.  Prices have increased multiple times since I've arrived, and now it costs 550 pesos at the off peak travel time.  The saving grace is that you can use a combination of up to 3 buses/metro rides within a 2 hour period for the same fare, as long as you're not getting on the metro twice or riding the same number bus twice.

As you can imagine, I use this fully to my advantage.  After a few unsuccesful attempts the past few weeks during my trip to La Vega, today I managed to make it there and back on one fare.  Prior to this I had already mastered miking this for all its worth.  Consider my Tuesday/Thursday afternoon schedule:

I leave a class in downtown Santiago at 3:30 and am on a bus to Providencia by 3:40.  I get off the bus at 4 or so and then teach a class from 4:10 to 5:10.  I am then back at that same bus stop and catch a different numbered bus that takes me to the metro station of Bilbao.  By this time it is usually about 5:25, and I then change to another bus that takes me to Las Condes in about 7 or 8 minutes.  Normally I can do this all on one metro fare, but in a rare case I miss the two hour window and end up paying again.

When sitting down and analyzing my finances, I thought to myself "Why am I paying all this money to Transantiago?"  A coworker of mine walks home from her evening classes and gets really good exercise that way, and so I decided to start doing the same.

Last Wednesday the weather was sunny and warm (but not too warm), and so I walked home from downtown to Ñuñoa after my 4:00 class.  It was nice walking down sidestreets I hadn't seen before, and I listened to my Ipod along the way.  I made it home in a little over an hour.

Since I don't always finish so early I decided that I'm going to walk to my morning classes.  So Thursday morning was a walk to metro Tobalaba in Las Condes.  I allowed myself an hour and a half to be on the safe side, and I'm glad I did.  It took me about an hour and 20 minutes, but when I arrived I was wide awake and felt good after the exercise.

On Friday morning it was rainy so I cheated and took the bus, but on Monday I'll be back to my walking routine.  I figure this way I'll save about 10.000 pesos (or about 20 bucks) a month, and I'll also be getting my exercise in without paying for a gym membership.

I've also been watching how I spend my money eating out, and so I decided to try and create a cheesesteak at home.  The churrasco steak that they have here is the same way steak sandwiches are made at home, but the cheese and rolls aren't the same.  Here's what my first effort looked like:

Despite that, it was still delicous.

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks to everyone for reading and for your motivation to keep this blog going and updated.

The beach, ATMs, public transportation, and new friends

So today I started out by going to the beach at Copacobana with Kristie and Ben, the English couple that I explored with yesterday.  It was surprisingly easy to get to using the bus.  It really reminded me of the beaches in New Jersey with the water especially.  We took turns in the ocean so that we could always have an eye on our things, and when we were all together we had good conversation about traveling and our lives and how different things are here in Rio and back home.

When I asked them what time it was, I realized it didn´t mater at all, and we all laughed.  We then debated what time we thought it was.  Seeing that we are traveling now, the time of day, day of the week, or month are pretty meaningless to all of us.

After getting some ice cream we packed up and headed back to the hoste to rest.  We all discovered our sunburn, with Ben and Kristie having it over most of their bodies (they opted to stay in the sun almost the entire time), but me only being burned on my knees a bit and on my tops of my hands a bit.

I got a bite to eat at a place specializing in chicken dishes, and I got Chicken Bora Bora.  It was grilled chicken breast with some seasonings along with rice with fried potato, egg, onion, and ham.  I was only able to eat about half of it so I got a doggy bag.  I didn´t have my camera on hand, so I will post a picture of what it looks like once I eat there again.

A bit later others at the hostel told me about a big party happening in Ipanema, and an Autralian named Luke offered to help me get to a bank to get more money.  It turns out a few others also needed money, so the journey began.  Bank 1 was closed. We waited at Bank 2 while a young guy took about 20 minutes to complete a transaction, and after all that we figured out that the ATM didn´t allow you withdraw money.  Bank 3 didn´t accept visa, but with the tip of a young guy who spoke English we made it to Bank 4 and were able to get money.  I sure hope this won´t be as difficult for the rest of my travels.

Around 7:30 we headed out for Ipanema for the party.  We met a bunch of Brazilians that were starting the party in the metro, and they were friendly.  I asked if I could join them (since that is the way to truly appreciate another culture), and they offered to take me under the wing.  They seemed interested in me being American and loved hearing me sing Linkin Park and Beyonce, and we were communicating between English, Spanish, and Portuguese.  They bought me a Carneval shirt and took me along with them, and I was really surprised (but in a good way) with their hopsitality.  We took pictures all along the way, and they gave me their email addreses so we could stay in contact.  As they helped me get a taxi back to my hostel, we promised to meet up at least once more before I leave for Santiago.

To end this entry, I would like to share the philosopies of both taxi and bus drivers in Rio.  These are based on my observations and experiences over the past few days:

Taxi driver rules
1. Variety is the spice of life, so treat red lights the same way.  The first time you encounter one, go completely through it at full speed.  The next time, come to a quick halt, even if it minds jerking you and the passenger forward.  The third time, approach cautiously and go through it only when it is safe.
2. If other cars are stopped or in your way, this is by no means a reason to slow down or change lanes.  Changing lanes is acceptable only at the very last minute, and of course without the use of a turn signal.
3. Driving as fast as possible between cars that are halfway in your lane on each side is not only acceptable but encouarged.  One way or another somoene will move out of the way.

Bus driver rules
1. Brakes and brake pads are to be abused.  Passengers need to be tossed around as much as possible.  Stop as abruptly and as often as possible. 
2. Consequently, passengers should hold onto hand rails with the jaws of life with both hands until seated.
3. Pedestrians are a nuisance that need to be taught a lesson.  If one tries to cross your path, do not slow down.  In fact, speed up a bit.

I just heard that there is another party going on tonight, and I´m debating if I should go to it or not.  Will update with pictures soon enough.