When you come to Madrid as an Auxiliar, you will most likely arrive mid-September and then begin work early October and THEN not get paid until mid November.  That’s a long time to be #poor, #homeless, and…#poor..again.  SO what can you expect to pay during your first few weeks as an auxiliar?  Read below!

This is me:

I have been here for a little over one month (HOW?!), so I feel like I have a good grasp on how much money I’m spending.  Although… I feel like I am completely hemorrhaging money (and after writing this post, it is confirmed that YES, I am hemorrhaging money!!!)  In reality, I am trying to be very mindful of my money (again…after writing this post, who am I kidding?!?!), but coming from a situation at home where I spend very little (living with parents heeeeyyyyyyy!), it feels like I am spending a lot here.  Maybe those of you that have left the nest won’t feel like this is so bad?

There are two reasons for feeling like I’m spending a lot.

1) this is a new country, a new and exciting environment where it’s easy to feel like you’re on vacation and hence, be a little more relaxed about spending because of the “When in Rome” attitude, as in, I spend more than I would at home because “I’m in Europe so why not?!”

2)  again, this is a new country that you basically just moved to with basically only clothes.  You get here and realize that there are so many things that you use every day at home without really thinking about it and then you get here and you’re like “wait…I need that…wait…I don’t have that…wait…I have to go buy that!”.  See my “things I should have brought post” and then add about 500 things to that list.

I have been writing down every purchase that I make, like a nutcase, and it makes my heart, head, and wallet hurt to see how much I spend, but I am absolutely positive that the money would be flying out the window faster if I didn’t write it down.

In this post, I am going to try to break down where my money has been going in these first few weeks of living in a new country to give you an idea what kind of expenses you may face (if you ever decide to do this…)

First, here is the breakdown of how much I have spent each week and the total for the month: 

To break it down a bit, I will tell you the general situation for each week, so you can get an idea about the fluctuation in payment.  Also, I always round UP to account for things that I may have forgotten, so the numbers you see in this post are an approximation, but I prefer to believe I am spending more, rather than underestimate.

Week one: Was living in a hotel that I had already paid for.  It was part of my program fee.  Most of my money was spent on food, coffee, train passes, and I did some shopping for clothes, a water bottle, some toiletries, and of course- beer.

Week two: I was living in a hotel for the first few days and then moved into a home-stay.  I paid for one week at my home-stay, which was 95Euro.  I also bought groceries, some alcohol, clothes, coffee, went out to eat a few times

Week three: I paid an additional 95Euro for another week in my home-stay.  I bought groceries, paid entrance into a few dance clubs, bought coffee at cafes and snacks while out and about.  At the end of the week, I paid an additional 41 Euro for 3 nights in my home-stay and then paid 95 Euro for train tickets for my weekend in San Sebastian.

Week four:  I paid 81 Euro for the hostel in San Sebastian.  I also paid about 70 Euro over the course of my weekend away,  I paid my fianza (deposit) and October’s rent (388 E and 266 E, respectively.  The fianza I will get back …hopefully!).  I bought a lot of groceries, but much of it were things like condiments, which I won’t buy for awhile.  I also went out a couple nights.  My most expensive week, by FAR!

Now, I will break down my spending into categories. (I am doing my best with this! and you will see that it doesn´t add up perfectly!)

Additional Notes:

• Groceries:  (I forgot to include 20 of this in the budget above!)
• Clothing: includes necessary and unnecessary items
• Rent (or foster care, in my case): 231 (home stay), 266 (October rent), 380 (apartment deposit)
• Buying things I forgot are things like like notebooks, electronics, chargers, etc
• Travel (includes my entire trip to San Sebastian): 250
• Travel around Madrid (this includes metro passes and bus tickets before I got my abono card, which allows me to travel by bus, train, and metro as much as I want…for just 20Euro/ month. It also includes purchasing my abono card (4 E) and charging it (20 E)): 61

Total: 1822.50  I AM OBVIOUSLY MISSING SOMETHING HERE.  I CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT RIGHT NOW, BUT IT GIVES YOU AN IDEA OF WHERE MY MONEY GOES.

Take away:  I need to STOP buying clothes…and probably pay less at bars and clubs!  It adds up VERY quickly, obviously.