Chiang Mai weekly budget: How did I go this week?

Six weeks in, and my time (and money) continue to go through some kind of bizarre portal.

This week I spent £47 on food and general day to day living.

The upshot… a little indulgent on the old western food front.

And I bought a little stove and some groceries so I can cook for myself. I’m not eating as much as I should be otherwise. I’m putting in long hours at the laptop and I’m just not hungry.

Can you blame me, after last week’s #ClenchOrRun exhilarations? I have no desire to become a gastrointestinal geyser once again.

A plus point is, I’m now a bum-gun convert. It was an invigorating 3am learning curve- one that ricocheted off the rectum and sprayed itself majestically across my bathroom. I think I saw a rainbow.

I eventually mastered water pressures and trajectories. It transpires that neither should be trifled with in an anally delicate context. But I am convinced: bum gun for the win. Hygienic salvation.

That’s enough. I must rise above toilet humour. The words, they just come to me.

Here’s the breakdown for this week…

To view as image click here

Where did my clams go this week?

I have a theory. Perhaps you agree?

I believe there exists somewhere in this universe, a densely populated black hole of miscellaneous items.

We all know what I’m talking about. It’s where car keys go on bad days. It’s where other flip-flops and rogue socks abscond to. You have several phones there. Almost definitely, you have multiple TV remotes there. Your Dad’s best tie is there, smugly canoodling with my favourite pair of jeans- last seen circa 2011 somewhere up the Adriatic coast.

I’ll tell you what else is there, in this mythical realm of missing things, and that’s the non-tangible. Ah yes. Unfathomable in both existence and disappearance.

We could descend down this rabbit hole of thinking all night (something about the misplaced dignity of my early twenties… oh wait, still missing) (along with my marbles, last seen ricocheting haphazardly under strobe lights, cascading manically to the edges of some particularly choice dance floors).

But I’m mostly referring to time and money.

Specifically, my life in Chiang Mai is flying by. I just can’t believe how fast time is going, and how much writing and blog stuff I still have to do.

As time speeds up, so too I find my spending escalating. I’m settling in. I want some small luxuries every now and then.

With all the will in the world, as I get more and more comfortable with life here… some mornings… I. just. want. bacon.

And then I say… bugger it! I work bloody hard. I’m having a Beast Burger.

One of my readers predicted recently that as I get more comfortable, I am actually likely to spend more… and they were not wrong!

The bigger picture

Let’s be real, it’s still miniscule. I’m talking £47 this week on just food, drink and general day-day living (see monthly budget for EVERYTHING, including rent and bills).

£47 is nothing right?

But let’s be real in a different way… it DOES add up.

And ok, let’s be real a third time. The realest real of all the reals….

This real: I’m spending more than I’m earning.

And naturally I would be, because I’ve come out here with no money (yes, I’m actually balls deep in my overdraft) and am working in a field I never have done before. It takes time to get established and to find your feet. But me being me, I just went and did it with no money anyway.

DON’T DO THIS.

Unless you have a creepy sadistic side, and get a lady boner over financial masochism.

And unless you like being THAT chick, you know, the whiny ‘oooohhh ive got no money’ chick. Yuck. I try not to whine, I hate to be that girl.

Because let’s be real again. I have something most of the world does not: I have the luxury of choice. I am globally privileged: I have the capacity (and the inherited audacity) to take risks.

I did this to myself. Totally my choice. I don’t want or expect any sympathy.

Instead, I’ll just do what I always do. Work. Work bloody hard. And believe in my ability to make it work… because after four years of funding my way round the world, I know I will. I always do.

Actually, this month I should break even… yes! So I guess I am figuring it out.

I’ll have my bacon. I’ll have my beast burger and my yoga classes. And I’ll fund them. time to up my Chiang Mai weekly budget it looks like. I’d say £50 is a happy place…

It’s not always about being rock-bottom budget, but about living in a way that resonates for you. Hopefully my scrimpy ways have showed you how cheap it is to live out here thus far though!

Right. A fancy salad doesn’t pay for itself. Le’ts hustle.