Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Living Frugally (page 15 of 15)

M is for Money

Day 12 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge – Thoughts on Being a Nomad

“Money buys freedom,” one of Mark’s friends claimed when I first met him and was boasting about how I managed to travel the world on a very tight budget. Of course, I did not agree with him. After all, I felt free and able to do what I wanted, with less than $400 a month to spend. What I failed to mention was that, in order to achieve this goal, I restricted myself to buying the bare minimum to survive, never spoiled myself, moved around countries on the cheap (which usually correlates with the least comfortable way) and missed out on sights that would set me back too much. But, I still kind of did what I wanted to do, and I was proud of that.

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Monthly Expenses – February 2016

In February, Mark and I did much better than the month prior. Almost twice as good. (If only we could keep this trend up… :-)) The reason for the decent number: we locked ourselves up inside, cooked all of our meals with the exception of two Chinese take-outs and focused on work and projects on our computers. There is an increase in alcohol, though… Here is an overview of our expenses in US$ for the two of us last month:

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Monthly Expenses – January 2016

Mark and I have lived frugally since we met, the reason being that we barely make any money and that we are not keen on materialistic goods and gathering possessions. We like to travel and we like to have a low impact on Mother Nature. While I only used to spend around $350 a month while backpacking by myself in my twenties, and around the same amount while camping, staying with friends and family or exploring North and Central America by camper in my early thirties, this amount went up when we both lived on Irie for eight years. Our annual expenses were then around $20,000 for two people, most of that money being put into the boat. It took a chunk out of our savings.

This year, being semi-settled on land, we will try to be even more careful with our dollars. We bought a second-hand car last year and have come accustomed to house and pet sitting, which is pretty much free. So, in regards to transportation and accommodation, we are mostly set. Still, costs add up, of course. To give you an idea of what we spend each month, I am starting a monthly expense report. Continue reading

Living in Nice Houses… for FREE!

I have always been a frugal person, to be able to travel. As a school teacher my wage was nothing to write home about and after leaving Belgium indefinitely in the summer of 2003, well…let’s just say that I would be ecstatic if I could earn minimum wage. But, selling a few articles a year, just doesn’t cut it.

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