Today, Emily and I are on Day Two of our Great Budget Challenge.
After almost two months of spending thoughtfully, but not in any structured, monitored way, we decided to come up with a daily spending money budget for ourselves. We decided to make sure we started to stay within our earnings and leave our travel savings for special occasions and big expenses like airfares and excursions.
So, we came up with a daily spending budget that has been more than adequate. Most weekdays when we’re working, we come in considerably under budget without even trying – which is great.
But we had a day earlier this week when we made several large purchases in a day – mainly gifts for upcoming birthdays. We just did it all at once. And so we blew our budget for the day. We could have let it go because it didn’t create any crisis. But being the responsible people we’ve decided to be, Emily and I devised a plan to “make up for the budget deficit.”
We can make up the “deficit” in two days if we spend no more than €23 – or about $29 a day. We wanted to kill of our deficit by the weekend. Now, that seems like it should be enough for two people to get a couple of meals in a day – but on a tourist island such as this and with European costs of living, it’s really not much at all.
First, there’s very little in the way of “fast food.” As mentioned previously, there are no chains of any kind – not even convenient stores. Secondly, there’s really no street food in this culture unlike in Asia where you can feast on great food for cheap by going to the carts. Lastly, the few places with cheap eats – which are primarily for the locals – only do business at night. So, while we can get a great gyro for €2.5 and crepes for about the same – we have to hit the magic window of availability which is really between 6-10pm.
That leaves the rest of the day.
Okay, so we can buy some groceries and eat in – as we did for breakfast. Bakeries here often feature cheese pies and some cafes feature spinach, chicken and numerous varieties of cheese pies. These pies are mainly phyllo dough turnover kind of things with great fillings. What’s not to love about phyllo dough filled with any of four different varieties of cheese for around €2.50?
It’s totally possible to achieve our goal with some smart purchasing and a little planning. In fact, yesterday we did it with €1.50 to spare (which does not get reallocated to today) and still had a sit-down dinner of greek salad and local pizza which uses goat cheese instead of mozzarella.
However, at 1pm, you would have thought Emily was dying under the yoke of poverty. We were at one of usual cafes – the one that advertises crepes but doesn’t like to actually sell them – and they didn’t have the spinach pie Emily was set on. Apparently, several other people also were set on spinach pie and they got there first.
Emily looked devastated. She asked the owner if there was any more in the back. No, he sold out all the spinach pie they had for the day – there wouldn’t be more until tomorrow. Not taking it well, she asked if they might be making any more today…. which of course went nowhere with people who can’t even pour crepe batter for money. So, Emily was left with numerous other options, but was fraught with dismay since the gyro man wasn’t serving gyros until evening and there was no spinach pie. Our budget was slowly strangling her.
This exercise – which was very good for us in both our opinions – made us realize how very spoiled we have become. Normally, we have at least two sit-down meals a day out, drinks, coffees and/or snacks in the afternoon, dessert when we want and we can shop for this and that. It has all become normal to us.
This was a great reminder of how privileged we are and that if push ever came to shove, we can make this work for a lot less than we currently spend.
Of course, most weekdays we do come in well under our daily budget anyway. But we don’t have to. And losing that freedom for two days nearly had Emily in a lunchtime depression.
I combatted the depression using the story of how my great grandmother advised my mother during my parents’ struggling post-college days that my mother could make three meals out of one purchase. Buy chicken necks. Stuff the skins with a matzah meal mixture to make helsels – an Eastern European food I have been lucky enough not to eat. That’s the first night’s main dish. Cook the necks and eat the meat for night two. And stew the remainder in water with some veggies and that’s chicken soup for night three.
“Let it never come to that!!!” Emily said.
At that point, a cheese pie looks a lot better. Mixed in with some afternoon pistachios, Emily survived.
Today we have our strategy which if all goes well may even culminate with dessert at night. We know the patterns and whereabout of the gyro and crepe vendors. We have tracked them like lions track gazelle. Today, we pounce.
Again, we’re very blessed and there’s no better time than Rosh Hashanah to be reminded of how great life is. Even our “adversity” is pretty wonderful.
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