why i'm awesome

Let me take a moment to inform you that I, Heather Riopel, after three weeks of travel in Bali, am actually... (wait for it)... on budget!!!!  (seriously... I’m not kidding).  Shocking... I know!  Let me tell you, I am the first one to check the math twice on this...

How on earth did I manage that you ask? Well, it was simple. 

I tricked myself.

hahahahah.  Yep, I’m that bad with money.  Really, I absolutely, positively possess zero (zip, natta) self restraint when it comes to buying things.  (yay! Things!!!  Pretty things! Shiny things!).  I’m sure you are wondering now how I managed to save up the money to embark on this adventure... perhaps if I have a clear and exciting goal in mind I can squash my shopping bug... heheh... save money?  What? Me? ...  No.  I sold everything I owned (*sigh* all that pretty stuff).  Actually... hehehe... I was too heartbroken to think about living in Canada WITHOUT all of my pretty stuff, I didn’t sell anything really... because I wanted to keep it all until the last possible moment before I left, and selling it would have meant that I would have had to advertise it, and if someone happened to give me money for something, I would have to part with it... (which coincidentally means I also did not prepare at all to leave until my departure was imminent...  and a big thanks goes out to my loving parents and darling brother who helped me out of THAT lack of foresight)  So I sold my most expensive possessions (the ones that lived in the driveway) and gave everything else away (I hope your all enjoying my wonderful stuff *tear*).

Wow, I’m really good at losing my train of thought aren’t I! What was I prattling about??  Oh yeah...  How did I trick myself into staying on budget?

I told myself, and everyone else, that I was on a $30 a day budget... 15 for accommodation, 15 for food.  I try (oh, how hard I try... wait... is that a cute shirt?) to stick to that budget... and I have been stressing about how far I must be blowing it already (in case you didn’t know, I don’t have much of a financial “bumper” for this three month trip and living in Thailand thing... like... I don’t have any extra money.  at all.  Daddy... I swear, if I ask for money... I DIDN'T blow it all on clothes *bats her eyelashes*).   I swear, I have been REALLY good at staying at crappy hotels... like.. you should see some of the resorts I’m missing out on, and instead I get to stay in bedbug inn’s (there is a new cluster of bites on my left knee... but we are in denial about that for the moment.  It’s just one cluster, seven bites... they look more like mosquito bites anyway... it could be anything....) and I NEVER pay more than $5 for a meal (unless of course I decide to splurge on an alcoholic drink... then that easily doubles)

Anyway, back to how I’m NOT asking my parents for money (yet).  So, I pretend that I am on a $30 a day budget, and stress out each time I get a fruit juice, or new dress, or dessert, or a massage, or a piece of jewellery, or a lounge chair on the beach... or, well, basically anything that is not basic food or shelter.  So, tonight I decide to check my bank account and do the math (don don don) since I am nearing the end of the first month, and I feel like I am withdrawing money every other day... and I discover (to my elation) that although I SAY I have a $30 a day budget, I ACTUALLY allotted myself enough money to spend on average $60 a day!!!

Of course, my first thought is how smart I am to know myself well enough to know that I have to trick myself and say that I have half the money I am able to spend to ensure that I don’t spend more than I am able to (actually, my first thought was “darn I should have bought that cute $30 Roxy shirt I was looking at this afternoon”).  But... lets not get TOO excited...  remember, that number also includes plane tickets, taxis, ferry’s, shuttles, and all modes of transportation (which adds up).  And that was the reason that I initially decided (and conveniently forgot) that I would try to live off of half of my available funds.

So, my plan now is to somehow forget (again) that my daily budget is twice the amount that I have been thinking... because if I am consciously aware of my new twice-the-fun budget, I will surely blow it before I enter into month number two.

Did anyone follow that?

Doesn’t matter... moral of the story... I’m awesome.