eating myself into poverty.

Having just been blindsided by payments for rent, electricity, the phone, the door man, the trash collector, flat food funds—as well as finding that my laptop bag was broken and needed replacing—I thought I would take you for a brief jaunt through the economic realities of daily life in Egypt.
And, you know, this post is also just to get my financial woes off my chest in a bit of a cathartic exercise—though it is true that I may have brought some of my money troubles upon myself with my insatiable sweet tooth. My fairly wealthy co-workers at my internship like to order in paninis and cheesecake from a delectably delicious café nearby, and I have a tendency to play the devil on their shoulder in this regard.
Even though I had dutifully and frugally packed my PB & J pita and a bag of sugarsnap peas to eat at work yesterday (I also might be on a bit of a diet..), my co-worker was complaining of fatigue and a touch of PMS. Jonesing for a brownie myself, I slyly suggested that she might be able to better concentrate on her report if she had a chocolate fudge cake to help her. $4 later (this cost to be put into perspective shortly), I was happily snacking on my own sugary goodness thanks to the modern convenience of door-to-door delivery.

Alright. Now to break this all down.
Each month, I make $200 from my English teaching job. Given that I only work as a teacher 48 hours each month, this is actually a pretty decent salary. Almost minimum wage, right?

This $200 quickly gets eaten away by the following monthly bills:

Rent: $136
Doorman: $10
Garbage: $3
Flat groceries fund: $20
Internet: $6
Phone: $3

This leaves me with a whopping $22 of disposable income each month.

Now, this only works because I do have a bit of money saved up that I can tap into—but after a 3 week trip through Egypt and Jerusalem, with another trip to Morocco, Spain, and Istanbul in the works, and Christmas presents still to buy—I have better things to spend this money on than PMS brownies.

So, starting with today, I’m putting myself on a $1 a day budget until Christmas.
Now, a $1 a day budget is something out of a UN flies-on-face humanitarian commercial. But on a whopping $1, I can buy two sandwiches on the street (today’s selection: egg plant and hardboiled egg with tomato, representing a variety of food groups, thank you), 2 metro tickets, AND still have 10 cents left over for a package of Kleenex to use in the TP-less bathrooms. This supplemented with PB/J pita sandwiches and scrambled egg breakfasts funded out of our flat-fund groceries, I shouldn’t be suffering in any significant way. And, having just turned down my co-worker who walked into my office with a delivery menu in hand, I’m hoping that this heralds a good omen for the strength of my self-control over the next two months. Until the next time the scent of a fresh brownie wafts my way—wish me luck.