Managing Independence Abroad.

Being away for a month from home was a first time experience for me, primarily because it put me in a situation where I would have to be independent in a variety of different scenarios. Having financial and residential responsibilities led me to develop a plan to be able to manage and stay on top of such responsibilities.

In regards to financial responsibilities, I realized that I would have to budget out different amounts of euros for food/entertainment/and other categories. That being said, an Excel spreadsheet was helpful for me when it came to staying on top of my spending. I created columns for the following categories: date, amount spent, what the money was spent on. After filling in these columns with the spending information, I found out how much money I had left to spend. After counting how many days I had left in France, I divided the number of days by the amount I had left to spend, and I was able to see my daily spending amount. Having all of this information was useful for me mainly because it helped me avoid opening my wallet one day and discovering that it was empty.

Residential responsibilities were mostly covered, but the main part that was a new step was cooking. It is almost impossible to eat outside every day if there is a budget that goes along with income. What I discovered was that buying ingredients for cooking 3 meals was cheaper than simply eating outside for 1 meal. Cooking became an experiment, with trying different techniques and flavors to see how the food would taste. Surprisingly, I finally understood why it is not easy for a lot of people to eat a prepared meal without any spice nor flavor. By far, the simplest meal to prepare with the least amount of effort was an omelette. The amount of protein that an egg consists is about enough to keep you full longer than most small meals will. 

-Samvel Martirosyan (post#1)