Money Diary: 20 year old undergraduate in Europe

Day Two

9am: I pay another €2.90 for a bus ticket. While in the stationary shop on campus for a pen, I spend €5.34 on folders and post-its, and completely forget to buy a pen.

4pm: I put €5.25 worth of phone credit onto my phone as I desperately needed to make a phone call for university stuff. I’ve tried to use Skype, web-text and IM services lately to reduce my phone bill but unfortunately I still need to make phone calls on the go.

7pm: I received a phonecall from my parents, telling me that they’ve lodged €200 into my bank account and that I also received confirmation of my scholarship. The first lodgement of €750 should be transferred at the end of the month- maybe I can move from the really cheap pasta to the only slightly less cheap pasta now, or maybe I can eat meat more frequently now.

Day Three

12pm: I head into university to print out some documents to discover that the €10 put in my printing account on Monday is gone already. I put another €5 in it, only to use that credit up with 30 minutes.

1.30pm: I’ve run out of bread again and have major caffeine cravings- so I buy bread, Coca-Cola & chocolate in the local shop- €5.45.

5.30pm: I head to a supermarket with a friend and pick up some pasta and herbs- comes to €5.60.

9.30pm: I go to the cinema with some friends to see Pineapple Express- €7 for a student ticket and €3 for a bag of chocolate. I feel ripped off about the chocolate but I can’t imagine seeing a film without junk food.

Day Four

9pm: I eat out with my boyfriend in a fancy Indian restaurant- he pays the bill (€65), I give €7 tip. I end up feeling very guilty but this is the way it works out in a relationship where one person is still in education and the other is working, and thankfully expensive dinners happen, on average, twice a year.

Day Five

5pm: I throw a dinner party with one of my friends for 7 of our closest friends- We split the cost of the food between us (€12 each), I cook and many of my guests bring me bottles of soda as thanks, many of which aren’t opened, knocking the cost of caffeinated beverages off next week’s expenditure. I also have enough leftovers for two lunches.

Day Six

3pm: €2.50 for a newspaper.

Day Seven

2pm: I pick up some groceries at a discount supermarket- €7.29. I even manage to pick up most of the food on special offer, while testing my ability to trust food that doesn’t come from a brand I recognise. The quality of the food is mixed- the bread tastes sugary but the sausages and tomatoes are of excellent quality. I decide to try discount shopping more frequently.

3pm: Lodge a cheque from university to my back account (€30) and change some foreign currency back to euros (€32).