The cheap collection: care package

Oh no. This month I was unexpectedly low on cash. So I have to survive with very little money. In this series, the cheap collection, you can read about how I do so. Or try so.

The day after my burrito fiasco me and Amy were meeting up with my friend Irene. For some reason it must have been the rainiest day in all of summer. Arriving at the train station in Maastricht we were getting a little hungry. So we decided to check out the stores in the station. It’s just when you don’t have money to buy a lot of food that you’re really starting to appreciate it. The chocolate, crisps, cookies and even sushi all looked extra tempting. It just so happened that I was craving pizza and I also happened to mention it.

That’s when the idea of ordering pizza came up. It was only 2 pm but I say every time is a good time for pizza. Unfortunately Domino’s doesn’t really agree cause it was still closed. We ate gyoza (Japanese meatbuns) and fishsticks instead. Yummy! We waited a while and delivered a family xxl pizza, which is about 40cm. There was enough for about 2,5 slices for each of us, which was probably less than a medium pizza. Still, it made me feel like I’d eaten enough. I feel kinda bad that Irene paid for everything though.

This totally isn’t our pizza, but it is a pizza. I’m really still getting used to this whole blogger thing and I don’t take pictures of all of the things I already know I want to write about. I wonder if I’ll ever learn ;). Picture by flickr user British Mum.

When I left Irene made sure I would take a care package of food with me. Within it was macaroni, rice, miso soup, some Spanish salad in a can, sundried tomatoes and mashed potatoes. These were all foods that she could never finish on her own, so would’ve thrown away if I didn’t take them. It made me feel guilty but grateful. I guess you learn who your true friends are when things aren’t going so well. If you’re reading this, thanks again Irene!

My friend Odette is also awesome because she gave me a few tips for super cheap recipes. I remember one being ketchup, pieces of ham and green peas. This actually sounds pretty delicious. Everything is great with ketchup, right? Odette also mentioned it’s good to switch up your pastasauce for ketchup. I already do this sometimes and I can confirm that it’s pretty tasty.

I didn’t spend anything for two days straight as I was staying over at Amy’s house. When we were travelling back I suddenly didn’t feel like travelling to my house on my own. I say unplanned sleepovers are the best sleepovers. The next day I pretty much played a lot of Zelda and watched how she cooked up some kind of pasta with her ricecooker. Believe me, those things are useful for so many more things than just cooking rice. Maybe I’ll buy one too. When I have money of course 😉

The cheap collection: 35 euros

I found out I only have 35 euros left and it’s the start of the month. *insert curse of your choosing*. I was expecting to be a little low on cash, but I forgot to add the costs of my Spotify subscription and healthcare into calculation. Granted, I am an idiot and yes, I’m now going to write down many excuses as to why I’m low on cash.

I really wanted to go to Londen. Since I’m only going to be a student for one more year I thought I’d cherish this holiday and travel no matter what. So a friend and I booked the cheapest option around: a four day trip by bus. It’s only going to be two days in London but it’s something. Also my summerholiday only started this morning so I was really busy to find a summerjob. Although I should have done that.yada yada blah blah blah.
There. Let’s not get around it. I need to survive with the little money I have. Or find a summerjob. Or go back to my parent’s home and be a sad penguin. For now I decided on the first option and that’s why this series (The Cheap Collection) was born. I’m planning to blog about my struggles, because I’m hoping you guys can give me tips about how to not be completely broke.

After surviving the weekend solely on bread, jam and pancakes with syrup (and some ramen at 12am) I decided to go for something that wouldn’t make me tired and hungry. So I decided to make borritos. Or probably just wraps. I made some kind of cheap chili con carne filling to go with them.

The filling only excisted out of sieved tomatoes, corn, meatloaf, brown beans and a bit of ketchup. You might be thinking wow, why did you only fill half of that pan. Well, dear reader, I managed to let half of what I cooked fall onto the ground! First I couldn’t get my glass jar of brown beans open and then my pan fell into the ground (or well, I managed to save it but half of what I was cooking tumbled out). The floor looked like a B-rated movie’s murderscene. This is not my lucky day.

But it isn’t that bad since these wraps make you feel bloated in no time. I only ate two of them and was completely full. Which is a good thing because that means I can use the rest another time. This dish cost me about 4 euros (but I already had the corn laying around for a while).

It’s probably not the most nutricious meal, but it did taste good. My budget is about 26 euros now (since I also bought some more bread and vegatables for another meal + the pancakes that I ate this weekend). I’m thinking about just getting some money from my savings account, since I’m going to meet a friend tomorrow. And then there’s also a birthday coming up. We’ll see what happens for now.

PS: For my followers that like to read my articles about writing and/or bookreviews: those will be coming up as well. Please wait a little longer.

#100happydayschallenge update

I failed. I failed three times. I did manage to take a picture for 30 days straight, but on day 31 I was ten minutes late. It wasn’t because I didn’t know what to take a picture of. Actually, I had thought of a few ideas that day. I just pushed them off, because I was having dinner with a friend. Usually I’d stop and post the picture on Instagram but I always felt a little weird and unsocial doing that. Because the world should be around us and not on the screens of our mobile devices. But that’s what this challenge is about! It’s about finding something that made you smile, how small or big that might be. I didn’t expect any groundbreaking discoveries while I did this challenge and of course they didn’t happen. While I was making the pictures I didn’t feel any happier, but it was nice to take time to appreciate the happiness I was already feeling. Although on some days it was a hassle to think of something to photograph.

I really didn’t know what to choose this day. So I just saw one of my favorite sweaters laying around and took a picture. This was one of the moments where I felt obligated to just post something instead of something that really made me happy. Thank god I also made some better pictures. Like a selfie I took in my Asami cosplay at the trainstation at the village where I grew up. This is a pretty conservative village, like most small countryside places tend to be. I always feel selfconsious when going out in cosplay in public, while I have every right to express myself. Especially my Asami cosplay since it feels so much better than any other c(r)os(s)play ever has! Yet I feel nervous because I know I will stand out in the crowd (even though that shouldn’t be very new to me considering I have very pale skin and a really dark haircolor).

After 30 days of posting nonstop I did continue further. But after that there are still some gaps in between. I also noticed people really liked seeing what I could think of for this challenge in the first weeks, but after that I got asked how I managed to pull through a month of posting a picture every day. To my surprise it didn’t get annoying much quicker :). I’m stuck at number 59 now. I think I’ll continue making these because I do enjoy it. It is still a nice way to learn to see the small things in life. I guess I’m just bummed that I won’t get my photobook with my 100 pictures.

This  was my latest picture. Follow me on instagram @rowwiie to see the other ones.