Living Within my Means

Yesterday marked a new achievement for me in Guyana. I managed to live for one entire month within my honorarium allowance without dipping into my personal savings for the first time since arriving here! Whooppee! This feels like quite an accomplishment and one that several VSO’s (even some who have been here well over a year) have confessed they have never done. We receive a little over 50 Thousand GYD dollars, which sounds like a big fat Wall St. paycheque but in fact it translates into only a little over $250 per month Canadian.
It’s been a long time and perhaps never since I have had to live on that little money. Mind you VSO pays for my rent, electricity and gas additionally….so this amount is to cover all other living expenses only. I am painfully aware that many people here earn less than this amount AND still have to pay their own rent and utilities. So even as a volunteer I am relatively well paid, which is humbling and I find myself not wanting to share exactly how much we get for our expenses as it may seem too lavish. I am also aware that I have the luxury of even HAVING a savings account and credit cards if I need them, and a generous family back home. It may be trite to be discussing this as I can leave here anytime and have chosen to put myself into this lifestyle, where those who really live here have not. None the less it has still been a challenge for this 1st world latte and shoe loving girl to achieve and one that has taken me six months of trying. Trying to live within my means that is and coming from our credit and debt fueled 1st world culture, it does feel good to have met this challenge. So what do I spend all my thousands of dollars on ?(and yes all in CASH!) First I get a pay cheque and go line up at the bank for quite a few hours with my passport and VSO ID card and eventually get a thick wad of bills secured with an elastic band (yep!) which I then nervously transport home immediately lest I be robbed en route. I then buy each month:
Internet $3500 ($17.50) for high speed wireless (a huge luxury here for most), but a chosen essential for me as I need it for work and communications with home. Note This is a reduced price as several of us share the 10 thousand per month fee ($50) and the one wireless router.
Water. My roommate and I buy filtered drinking water in 20 litres reusable containers $1000 ($5)
Pool Membership. $4000 ($20) (Also a huge perk and way out of the price range of most Guyanese.) one trip to the pool is $1100 per person or a membership for 6 family members is $23,000 for a month. Myself and five other VSO’s have formed a pool “family” (aww.. and hello family!) Being able to have somewhere to swim in this climate is so appreciated and I try and go and well appreciate it every day.
Laundry. I pay $2000 ($10) per month for four loads of laundry washed dried and folded (basically once per week for my sheets and towels) This transaction not only helps my neighbour’s wallet but myself as I have really struggled to wash sheets by hand and then wring them out properly....in fact I suck at washing sheets! She has an old fashioned washing machine, which helps me to feel a bit less guilty about the whole transaction. I do all of my other laundry by hand in cold water....just saying!
Cel Phone $2000 ($10) I buy four $500 top up cards each month. All cel phones here are pay as you go and you add money as needed with lottery style scratch cards...and really they are cheap, cheap, cheap. So cheap that most Guyanese keep two phones one for each telephone company so you can maximize benefits and free texts. In fact I am paying more to NOT use my still under contract blackberry back in Canada, than for my pay as you go phone here. Food for thought as we Canadians reportedly pay the most for cellular service of anywhere in the world.
Land Line Telephone. 500 ($2.50) We didn’t ask for this phone..it is just there in the flat and we have to pay our part of the bill..no one calls us on it except our landlady and of course many amusing wrong numbers...personally I think it is well worth the $2.5 just to able to get some of these calls.
So that totals just about 12 thousand dollars ($60) which leaves me basically about fifty bucks a week to buy all my food, drinks, any meals out, toiletries, cleaning supplies, bike repairs, clothing, (hah!) household items, entertainment, (hah again) and evening transportation (taxis are $1.50 each). My average weekly grocery and market bill is $6000($30) so it leaves me about $4000 ($20) a week for everything else. It’s definitely tight....but apparently it is do-able...as I did it!! I just had to stop indulging in $7 jars of olives, $5 lattes, and that nice smelling expensive hair conditioner. Oh and I finally figured out what drinks are really, really cheap at the bar!
So cheers to me for living within my meagre means (and I will attempt to do so again next month)...and I even had $6 thousand to spare this month....which will buy exactly 2 bottles of olives and 3 lattes!