There’s just something romantic about the idea of a road trip. From watching American classics like Thelma and Louise, to reading books like On the Road by Jack Kerouac, the inspiration is everywhere.
Image source: intofilm.org
But, believe it or not, I have never actually been on a road trip in America. Although I would love to step back in time on Route 66, road trips in America are often very long and very expensive.
Traveling in Spain
In Spain, on the other hand, you’ve got a variety of cities and landscapes all within a relatively small country. The entire country is slightly smaller than Texas, after all.
Ever since I was old enough to be in school, I’ve looked forward to that glorious time of year when the last bell rings and I’m finally free. Now, as a teacher, I feel the same yearly excitement. The freedom to kick back and do absolutely nothing has arrived.
For me, classes don’t start until October. Wake me up when September ends 🙂
But then something inevitably happens partway through the summer. That something is called the Summer Slump. According to Urban Dictionary, the Summer Slump is “A period during summer in which a person performs inefficiently due to the excessive amount of free time on there hands.”
The truth is, an abundance of free time can become overwhelming. Maybe there’s nothing you specifically have to do, so you don’t feel bad bingeing on your favorite television programs. That’s fine. I feed my addiction through ORORO TV (Note: if you subscribe through my link, you and I will both receive a discount). But when you come up for air, you often find yourself feeling disoriented, and maybe even a little unmotivated to do anything about it.
When you find yourself slipping into the Slump, and you’re so bored that you can’t even bother to do anything about it, it’s good to have a plan in place to pull you back out. Here’s my plan:
One of the best ways to save money on food is to cook at home. I have already written about how I keep grocery prices lower with cost comparisons from various stores. Today I’m going to focus on how to prepare 12 or more low-cost meals–and all from just one whole chicken!
The Value of a Whole Chicken
When I first started doing my price comparisons, I was looking for the lowest price per kilo on chicken breasts. If you remember from my notes, the best price was 5.19 euros per kilo at Mercadona. As I got more comfortable cooking, I started to look at other cuts of chicken, and was really impressed by the price per kilo of a whole chicken: 2.18 euros per kilo!
The only problem was that I didn’t know how to cook a whole chicken. But for a savings of 3.01 euros per kilo, I was sure willing to learn!
Raise your hand if you have debt. Yup, me too. According to Market Watch, Americans have $12.73 trillion worth of household debt as of March 2017, topping the 2008 peak of $12.68 trillion! About $1 trillion of that is in credit cards alone. How much of that is YOUR share?
You, me, and about 80% of Americans.
We all know that debt holds us back, but what can we actually do about it? The first thing you should do is acknowledge it. Add it up and get a total. I like to use Unbury Me to visualize how different steps will affect my payoff date. Then, when I need to make a payment, I use TransferWise to send money back to my US account.
Debt Management Abroad
Moving abroad with no debt is ideal, but for many of us it isn’t realistic. If you can pay off all of your debts before moving, you will have less required monthly expenses. However, you should not use up all of your savings in order to achieve this, as you will need a starter budget to help yourself get set up in your new location.
Control your debt or your debt will control you.
When moving abroad, you can’t just focus on your total debt. You need to break it down into individual loans and monthly payments. Many personal finance experts, such as Dave Ramsey and Suzy Orman will recommend that you eliminate debt by lowest debt first (Dave) or highest interest debt first (Suzy). I respect both of their opinions.
However, for people moving abroad, the most important thing is minimizing monthly expenses. When I moved to Spain, I had $262.27 in minimum monthly payments. That’s a lot when your steady income is 700 euros a month. Now I’m down to about $42 a month in required debt repayment. How did I do that? Let’s take a look:
