healthy on a budget – survival mode

CONFESSION: 2 month in Brazil and I have already blown up my budget. I didn’t think Brazil would be as expensive as it is. I didn’t think that we would travel as much as we do. I received a sum of about 7500 kr/month from CSN (you get all the money for your exchange semester at once) and imagined that I would also manage to save 1000 of these to when I get back home. Who was I kidding? Food is about 30% more expensive than in Sweden and the selection of healthy options is very limited. For example yesterday I was looking for a non-flavored yoghurt, didn’t exist. So with very limited amount of money to live (survive) I take on the “Healthy on a budget”-challenge Brazilian style!

Let us forget about all my earlier healthy on a budget tips (–> here and –>here) since those ingredients are not an option here. SOLUTION: It is time to get back to basics. Lentils, rice, corn (to add some flavor), yoghurt, oatmeal, bananas, apples, eggs, coffee and soy milk. For these ingredients that will last me a week I paid 150 SEK. So that gives me a food account of 600/month. Challenge accepted. (and with these i can still make my banana pancakes for luxury breakfast) hahahah. RESULT: (äta kakan och ha den kvar) Maybe food should be a priority but I rather spend  my money on travels. (It is a big step for me to exclude peanut butter!)

Doesn’t look to bad?

As I always say: If I could, I would never exchange my experiences gained to the money I could have saved. In my opinion, experience is worth so much more.

/Ellen