Currently, it’s 77 degrees and clear; I don’t think I’ve even seen a cloudy day since arriving!

I was supposed to meet with Carmen this morning at 11, but she called me a little before and said her son had come home from school sick, so she had to cancel. I still haven’t seen her yet; I texted her a couple of days after arriving, but she’s been so busy, she hasn’t found time to meet up.

It worked out for the best though. I was planning on going to the store so I was making a list and that (somehow) turned into making a spreadsheet to keep track of my finances. I’m glad I did it though, because I broke everything down and now I have a pretty good idea of what I can spend this year after rent and bills and such. Not that I had problems with that last year, but I told myself this year I was going to put a little aside every month. That way if I don’t get a job right when I come home, I’ll still have a bit to live on. I would have done it eventually, but Carmen canceling gave me the perfect opportunity to do it. That’s why I say it worked out for the best!

After getting my finances in order, I went to the chino store to buy envelopes to be further organized and later I separated some money into different envelopes, like rent, internet, etc. My goal is to always have the money for the main/stay the same every month bills ready to go.

Then I went to the store as planned. It actually took a long time but I didn’t buy a whole lot (maybe six or seven things). Due to my self-imposed budget, I spent a while looking at prices and exactly how much you get your money. I thought I did pretty well; I spent 20€. Almost half of that was mouthwash and lotion (yeah, that stuff is expensive here!), but I won’t have to buy those every week, so that’s good! I’ve allotted myself 75€ every month for food and I now have 46 left for the month. I think I can handle that!

Xoxo,

Court