well of course we are on a budget since right now we are not working. In fact we are on the tightest budget! So anyway, in trying to save money let me tell you some of our funny stories which worked.. then some that didn't work so well....
At first we thought to do most of our eating from the supermarket and buy food here. What we found, was because we are buying from here, we buy SO much more food, so it almost ends up costing the same as getting naughty take out. Plus it can taste really cardboard since we have no kitchen, fridge, way to cook.. so it is tuna on some bread which after 2 meals is really disgusting!
So then we went back to buy naighty take out. However, the disadvantage is really unhealthy. SO long term this is NOT really a solution. After just 2 weeks in delicious Italy, we are so out of shape and bloated from all the pizzas and the icecream!
Solution - we bought a mini kettle! I wanted this back from munich airport when I saw it for 20 euros. Towards the end of Italy we bought one (13 euros only - excellent). This has SO saved us! Now we can make hot chocolates, coffees... which saves us tones of loose change. Especially since we tend to like drinking these 2 times a day if not more!
Then we found a way to buy pasta (tortellinis - you know the pasta filled with stuff) - then we make them in the kettle! Since these are half cooked already - it works! We buy a small jar of pesto - which also rocks on bread and cheese... and we have a great meal - many of them for pretty cheap too! Then when at the supermarket - just control yourself NOT to buy everything in site which you cannot store!
We do the typical travelling thing of catching the overnight trains and buses. THis has saved us up to 80 euros in just a day. BUT it really is tough. You go nearly 4 days straight without much sleep - since you are worried about people stealing ya bag - then in the same clothes... without shower. The worst though is the fact you don't take of ya shoes for that long - OUCH! it hard!
Staying in the cheapest hostels, rooms are our thing. Well we have been pleasantly suprised - like in Poland and Napoli where we loved it. However the rest was not so impressive! Rome had the disgusting toilette and the unclean bed/room... Floernce the room was great and clean, but the shared bathrooms was also a shocker!
The funniest though was in Venice. The room we had was cute - it has SO much potential. However it was SO neglected! WE got the room with the beds still with OBVIOUSLY used/dirty bedsheets. The bathroom was so disgusting Briel spent 2 hours scrubbing it clean cuz he didn't want me to feel uncomfortable. While I spent the hours scrubbing the main room floors, changing the sheets, dusting off the room. haha Then we still had bedbugs! but at least it was now livable. The funny thing is the room itself was cute - if someone just cleaned it a bit everytime it was used it could be fantastic. Oh well...
But it is all fun.... We are learning...
haha Ciao for now!
