I’ve been in Leon for seven days and I have succeeded in being the most boring person in the hostel for all seven days. I’ve been glued to either my computer or my Spanish lessons for all seven days and probably haven’t had more than five conversations the entire time.
It’s ok though… Spanish is taking up way more time than I thought it would. I think my memory is shot from my years in London and memorising vocab is a huge time suck. I’m filling my time away from the books with work on my websites and I’m getting loads done. Plus, as if I’m not being antisocial and nerdy enough, I’ve taken on some research and web writing work for the hostel I’m staying at. So I’m boring, but I’m busy which is the way I want it.
Here are my totals after a week:
- UK funds: £2630 (about US$3790)
- US funds: $1125 (bank account and Paypal)
- Cash: US$170
I haven’t taken any money out of my UK account so that’s the same. My US account increased because I had a cheque clear. I also donated $20 to this hostel’s treeplanting project which came out of my Paypal account.
As for cash… I’m thoroughly confused. I thought I was doing great, having spent only $190 during the week, including Spanish courses ($115) and accommodation ($42). Then I did the math and realised that I must have paid for my previous week’s Spanish course before I made the budget post. So that means that I spent $42 on accommodation, $10 on a dictionary and $138 on miscellaneous things. But I know I haven’t spent almost $20 per day on random stuff so I’m really confused.
I’ve been doing my studying in a quiet cafe across the road where a massive glass of proper lemonaide costs $1.25. It’s massive, I promise. So, after years living in the UK where they don’t have lemonaide (for them, Sprite is lemonaide) I have been indulging fairly heavily while studying in the mornings. The hostel I’m staying in also has $1.50 mojitos which is a bit of a temptation but I haven’t been going nuts, by any means. Food isn’t as cheap as I would have hoped but it’s not too bad. Today, for example, I bought 4 yoghurts, two bananas and some sour creme for $2.50. Meals at cafes can be had for as little as 40 cordobas ($2) so cooking for myself isn’t that much cheaper.
So… I think I’ve screwed up somewhere but lets just assume the numbers above are right, in which case it was a terrible budgeting week. This week should be better since I’m getting accommodation for free and will be paying more close attention. It’s nice to see that I’ve got more to my name now then when I started last week but I really can’t get too happy until I see how the month turns out.
Bring on week two!
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