Woohooo,
So, I thank being in Bangladesh for an extended period of time (and making the mistakes there) for my frugality here.
I actually keep a budget and money count more often than not and am proud of that (apologies for those of you whose account sheets are like a second layer of skin).
So, yes it's about 83 Kenyan shillings (KSH) to a dollar, but that doesn't mean "oh everything is so cheap in American money!" NO
I get paid in KSH after all so I'll treat myself to being a frugalmaniac while I can.
So for the next two weeks we are being paid 5,000 KSH, which is roughly 357 KSH a day. A meal is about 90-130 KSH so really we are talking about 227 KSH a day.
So to get that straight, without lunch expenses, I'm living on $4.30 a day. If you took out 130 KSH, it'd be $2.73 a day.
Then subtract about 60 KSH for 20 minutes of internet at a cyber cafe (3 shillings a minute but I found a place that did 2) as well as 50+ for phone minutes (3 shillings a minute to the US or local if I'm not roaming) and you're in the negatives.
But today, I hardly used the phone (just 1 shilling texts, and it helped that I didn't have service for half the day), did drink a coke (30 shillings and I don't even like soda), and went home for lunch (my host mom looooves me), and got permission to use my host dad's USB modem (see previous parenthesis and switch "mom" to "baba"), so no spending 227 KSH today.
!!
So, I thank being in Bangladesh for an extended period of time (and making the mistakes there) for my frugality here.
I actually keep a budget and money count more often than not and am proud of that (apologies for those of you whose account sheets are like a second layer of skin).
So, yes it's about 83 Kenyan shillings (KSH) to a dollar, but that doesn't mean "oh everything is so cheap in American money!" NO
I get paid in KSH after all so I'll treat myself to being a frugalmaniac while I can.
So for the next two weeks we are being paid 5,000 KSH, which is roughly 357 KSH a day. A meal is about 90-130 KSH so really we are talking about 227 KSH a day.
So to get that straight, without lunch expenses, I'm living on $4.30 a day. If you took out 130 KSH, it'd be $2.73 a day.
Then subtract about 60 KSH for 20 minutes of internet at a cyber cafe (3 shillings a minute but I found a place that did 2) as well as 50+ for phone minutes (3 shillings a minute to the US or local if I'm not roaming) and you're in the negatives.
But today, I hardly used the phone (just 1 shilling texts, and it helped that I didn't have service for half the day), did drink a coke (30 shillings and I don't even like soda), and went home for lunch (my host mom looooves me), and got permission to use my host dad's USB modem (see previous parenthesis and switch "mom" to "baba"), so no spending 227 KSH today.
!!
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