My Bank account says zero, but I got 99 problems.. Unfortunately, I happen to have the most expensive addictions: A nice wardrobe and travelling. I’d trade meals for a new pair of shoes or flights to a cool place. Sometimes, I wish my ingenuity in budgeting would also translate into academia. If you are also a student, then today’s blog will be dedicated to assuring you that you are not the only one doing some pretty weird stuff to save money. Thus, I’ve dug out some of the most severe cases, that have ever appeared in the history of money saving practices.

1. Food: The first thing, that most go, when the money is low

A sailor on an expedition in the 16th century probably had a better diet than me when I try to save money. I remember, the last block of the last year I was prioritising spending my money on outfits for all the events happening at that time and drinks for all these afternoons at the lake, I didn’t really have much money left for food. During that time, I had gotten so skilled at making Pasta with Marmite, I actually think I deserve a Michelin Star. If you’d like a secret tip, then I also recommend Rice with Cucumber pieces and Soy sauce. With a little bit of imagination, it nearly tastes like Sushi!!!

2. Free furniture also has its price..

Last year in Frascati, we were craving a third Sofa for our Kitchen so badly, that we decided to get one. There’s websites online where people offer their old furniture for free, because they just want to get rid of it - that was our chance. However, there’s always an invisible price tag on these things: You might have to go to the other end of town to pick it up. So two of my friends ended up carrying this large Sofa 2 kilometres through the entire town.

3. Ain’t need no expert to fix it

My problem solving pretty much resembles that of an african Minibus driver, it occurs on a short term horizon. When the Malawian minibus driver discovers that his window doesn’t exist, he’ll replace it with a plastic bag until he’s probably gone through 150 plastic bags and you can squeeze the water out of the seats. I live by the motto ‘And if it breaks again tomorrow, then I’ll deal with it then’. Here are some perfect examples of how budgeting meets Laziness. You know, fixing bikes is pretty expensive, so that one time I had a flat tire, I challenged myself to see how long I can last without fixing it. I lasted two months up to a point where I was just cycling without a tire. I really pulled of the vintage look since the first bikes that were ever invented, did not have tires either.

Then there’s another example: Everything in our house seems to be breaking at the moment. Our Kitchen lights for example have been broken for months now, but instead of fixing them, we just bought a ton of Ferry-lights to supplement for the broken lights because we couldn’t be bothered to fix them. Our house now looks like an American front Yard in Christmas season..

4. School-books? Sounds like 20th Century..

Spending money on Books? That’s a myth. Don’t know where you got that from.. In my whole history of being a University student, I have successfully accomplished to buy as few books as possible. Once again, I wish my research skills in finding academic papers were as good as my skills in finding free PDF versions of study books online.

5. Free Room Deko? All it takes is some criminal energy

So Vera has a lot of amazing Posters and usually you always get to take one home. A friend of mine recently discovered, that she indeed fancied the posters and pictures on the wall in Vera a lot more. So she made a mission out of it, to take down as many posters from the most atrocious places in Vera as possible. Her record was 8 posters a night. Yet, I must add: Please do not imitate. She did get caught..