Paris on 5 euros per day - done!

So it's now May and you may wonder if I did, in fact, manage to get through April on my insane budget of €5 per day?  Well, the answer to that is a resounding oui!!!  It was pretty difficult the first couple of weeks, but working at the bar was the key - not only did I spend all my time there (thereby not going out and spending elsewhere), but they fed me exceedingly well (my 6'2" macho Italian boss gets really irked that I call him my Italian mama - hee!  But really, that's how he feeds me - I've eaten enough pasta to sink a battleship), which meant I hardly had to buy any food at all.  So the end result of this was that I ended the month not only on budget but actually €30 ahead - woohoo!!!  

So now I can relax and have a bit more fun this month, but it was an extremely useful exercise; I know articles advising on budgeting always tell you how much we waste on unnecessary things but it's not until you really buckle down and try to live on a tiny amount of money that you realize how much just gets frittered away - a magazine, a coffee, a pair of Christian Louboutins (okay, that one might just be me - but that was in the past when I was more gainfully employed).  Ahem.  Anyway, the point is this: even if you don't need to do it, give it a try for maybe a week on whatever daily sum looks reasonable to you and see if you can do it, it's a pretty interesting experience.

What day is it?

Oops!  How did it get to Saturday already???  Gentle readers, I do apologize for my absence, but this is what my week has been like since I last posted:

Wednesday: office from 9:30am - 12:45pm, bar job from 1:00pm - 2:00AM 

Thursday: bar job 12:30pm - 11:30pm, out dancing 11:30pm - 5:00AM 

Friday: bar job 12:30pm - 02:00AM (missed last Metro and had to walk home the entire length of the Champs-Elysees - not as glam as you think when your feet are KILLING you)

So I have been a bit of a busy girl and it's been all work, work, work.  Well, except for the night out dancing, which was a blast.  And the fact that working in the bar is fun.  I might not be getting paid, but my cocktail-making skills are getting pretty good, I adore my awesome boss, they feed me very well, and I am sloooowly starting to speak a bit more French with people, so it's a great experience all around.  Plus I get some tips and I am saving them up for summer fun.

And speaking of money, my update on the €5 per day challenge, Days 12-24?  Well, another benefit to spending all my time at the bar is that I'm not out doing anything that involves spending money, so I am actually €20 ahead at this point - woohoo!  So with one more week to go I am feeling pretty confident about succeeding in the challenge - wish me luck...

Don't hate me, but...

...this is how I spent my day.

This is where I had lunch:

This is where I ate an ice cream from Berthillon (mango and chocolate, should you be interested):

This is around the corner, where I stopped to read my book for a while:

And this was on the way home, when I stopped to just sit by the river, drink wine and relax:

And all of that for the grand total of €3.50 for the ice cream since my sandwich ingredients and my mini bottle of wine were both bought on previous days and therefore still within my €5 per day challenge.  Springtime in Paris, people - it makes "poor but happy" pretty damn easy.

Paris on 5 euros per day challenge - Days 8-11

Okay, still not entirely on track with this, but have only overspent two days ahead of myself, which is pretty good considering we're nearly halfway through the month.  I have to admit, things would be a lot worse if the weather hadn't been so nice - it lends itself very well to free things like strolling around and sitting in parks.  Whew!  So if I can have a lot more sunshine and a little more work, things should hopefully go well this week...

Sorry this post is a bit dull, just trying to get something sent before my very bad internet connection dies completely - I have a perfect record of posting every day this month and am trying to keep it up!

Paris on 5 euros per day challenge - Days 3-7

So, how am I doing with this impossible challenge?  Well, not too badly, if you don't count the fact that I now have to spend absolutely nothing until Sunday in order to get back on track with the budget.  But, to be fair,  part of the reason I overspent for this week (the other part of the reason being the wine and chocolate that I consumed over Easter - what? it's a holiday!) is that I went to Chinatown today and stocked up on cheap groceries which should feed me right through to the middle of next week.  So can I manage to organize myself better as of next week and conquer this challenge?  Hmmm.  Well, stranger things have happened (I can't think of any just this minute, but never mind), so stay tuned and I'll let you know.  

(I am also working on a post of cheap things to do in Paris on this kind of budget, will keep adding to it and will share it with you at the end of this month).

How not to be woken on a Sunday morning

You know, I love dixieland jazz as much as the next person (in fact, probably more, because I doubt the next person actually does love it), and there is a band that sometimes wanders up and down my street, playing for all they're worth.  And it's kinda nice, most of the time.  But on a Sunday morning?  Really?  Sooo not a good way to be woken up.

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Update on €5 per day challenge - so far, so good.  Was invited out unexpectedly on Friday night and had a martini for €8, but I spent nothing yesterday and probably won't spend anything today, so that should make up for it.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go defrost that bag of something totally unidentifiable (soup of some kind, I think) in the freezer because that's what I'll be eating for lunch.  How delightful.

Paris on 5 euros per day challenge - Days 1 & 2

Yesterday's post was so long that I didn't actually say how it went on the first day - answer: pretty good.  But that was mostly because I felt slightly guilty about the €16.20 that was still in my wallet and instead of trying to spread that out over a few days I combined it with with my €5 for the day and this is what I did with it: 1) bought a Berthillon ice cream and ate it sitting beside Notre Dame while basking in the sunshine, 2) had three glasses of wine over the course of the afternoon with a friend as we wandered from café to café along the blvd St Germain enjoying the sunshine (it's been a rainy week, we had to enjoy the sun) 3) bought a Big Mac meal on my way home (yes, I KNOW but I was starving and that was all I had enough cash for). 

Today I thought I would be sensible with my €5 and buy some food.  Which I did, but when I say "food", I should probably admit that I blew most of the day's budget on a Lindt chocolate bunny.  But come on, it's Easter, I had to have a chocolate bunny, it's tradition!  (However, I am absolutely kicking myself because I met a very nice chap a while ago who works at Lindt - had I known I was going to be doing this challenge over Easter, I would have shamelessly begged for freebies. D'ohh!)  Anyway, I had enough change left to also buy a bag of salad.  What?  Salad and chocolate, how is that not a balanced diet?  I was going to post a photo of the salad and the bunny together, just for the delightful contrast, but unfortunately the bunny didn't survive long after we got home.  Because...erm...it was eaten...by wolves. Yes, that's it - not because I shoved it into my greedy face and demolished it in about three nanoseconds.   Nope, eaten by wolves.  That's my story and I will be sticking to it...

Paris on 5 euros per day?

I have decided to set myself the challenge of living in Paris on 5 euros per day for the entire month of April (and to anyone who has seen the prices here, I know you are laughing hysterically at the very idea, but it's not an April Fool's joke).  It's partly because I want to see if I can do it and partly because I am exceedingly poor this month (so I kinda have to do it), and this is why the tellers at my bank looked at me like I'm a crazy person (see yesterday's post) - because I asked them for a withdrawal from my account of 30 5€ notes.  I personally don't understand why that's such a peculiar request, but I promise you, it involved three tellers and another customer getting involved before they would believe what I wanted.  

Anyway, the rules of the challenge are as follows (and they're my rules because it's my challenge to myself, you can disagree with them all you want but I think they're fair):

1. The challenge doesn't cover my rent or phone bill for the month, which I have paid separately. The challenge is to cover transportation, food, entertainment and miscellaneous.

2. I can use up what I already have (ie - whatever food I have in the cupboard, fridge and freezer,  the money I had left in my wallet as of this morning, which was €16.20, and the five Metro tickets in there as well)

3. I can use any available freebies (ie - wine at gallery openings, food at parties, and the €17.36 per week I get in food vouchers as a benefit from my job, etc)

4. I have flexibility (ie - if I don't use one day's fiver, I can roll it over to the next day; and if I overspend one day, I can make up for it by not spending at all the next day.)

5. I have to lead a normal life; I can't hide at home to not spend money, I have to get out there and carry on, just in a verrrry frugal way.

So there it is - I will post normally every day but will also include a brief update on how the challenge is going.  Wish me luck!