There is an ongoing joke about how Erasmus students always end up broke in the end of the semester. Despite the inability to predict unforeseen standings the very least we can do is to make an estimated budget we could follow. So you just got the Erasmus fund. You feel like the richest human ever so you tell yourself it's okay to buy the bio ripe avocado instead of the cheap one and thing start adding up. Let's start in the beginning. You have a starting number. For the sake of this example the number is 2500 euros. You need to leave somewhere, so that's a priority, right? You got a good deal and you pray 300 Euros a month. That automatically leaves you with only 1300 Euros if we are talking about a four months long period of time.
Cool, now we have to take into consideration that the university is most likely not near you. In fact, it's a big city, most things are nowhere near. You probably don't have the time and patience to walk 3 hours every other day. Choosing public transportation will leave you with monthly 20 or 30 Euros minus. Now we have only 1180 euros.
Another essential thing: food. Now these varies on personal preference. It must be easy for the American kids eating plain pasta for basically every meal but we like something more diverse. You can search the internet for an estimated spending on food in the selected country. In Portugal, the average monthly cost of food is around 200 Euros, but that can easily go up or below the price. Remember kids, booze is expensive.
We're left with only 380 Euros, which are more likely to be spent on impulsive buys and emergencies.
If you consider the amount not being enough, you can always start searching for a job or calling your brains to ask for some more money.
Who knew existing can be so expensive?
Taking these things into consideration, we can actually live from the fund quite comfortably. The main idea is to keep the money on track and not overspend cuz that might live us in a debt. So the conclusion for today is: please don't get overpriced coffee everyday.
A letter to myself.
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