I have learned that me and money have a very negative relationship with each other. My mind says yes but my wallet says no. What even is a budget? Still a concept I’m not familiar with.
Traveling to Paris, Prague, and Vienna this fall break helped me realize I need to work on my spending habits.
Paris, common sense, was très cher (French for very expensive). Literally slept in a shoebox hostel in the 18th district aka the ghetto and spent more money than I was willing to. Then you obviously need to eat so we spent a lot of money on food and had to treat myself and try new things and eat food that I missed while studying abroad. Went to a place called “Breakfast in America” and balled myself out and even got chicken nuggets as an appetizer because I missed them so much. Food spending is a problem I am willing to admit I have. Food is essential, just as coffee is. Then I got myself a little “gift” which I definitely didn’t need, but when in Paris.
Prague, Czech Republic was probably my favorite because I was able to take a break from my wallet and spent basically nothing when I was there. It is probably the one country an American can travel to in Europe and not feel poor since their currency is so bad. A liter, yes liter, of beer costed $1. No exaggeration. I treated myself to a very fancy lunch and it only costed $12. The Czech believe that spending more than $20 on a meal is absurd so the prices of everything are so low. It was so hard to leave Prague because of how cheap it was. Rollins definitely needs a program there.
Vienna was in between both. By the time I got to Vienna I already have asked my parents twice to assist me financially since I blatantly ignored my budget. Vienna was so relaxing and leisurely that it made me not think about the price of things and just get it.
Overall, I need to better understand what a budget is. I rationalized my spending by telling myself that I’m abroad and I will never get to do this again so just keep spending and worry about money later on. Live in the now and worry about the consequences later- write that on my gravestone.
