TILT # 26: Learn to eat, drink, and live differently (within your budget)

So, these few posts are tied to TILT entry # 24 and are related to some basic frugal guidelines I lived by in my younger days. I'm not trying to tell people how to live but this is how I did life back then, and truth be told, some of these I still practice today.

So tip # 2 is: Learn to eat and drink (and live) differently within your budget. During my years of living under poverty line, the joint grocery list my roommates and I created every week never included luxuries like soda pop, juices or any fancy cuts of meats. We drank water all the time at home. Morning drinks were tea or instant coffee. One teabag for a teapot of tea for three or four people. We learned to eat all sorts of vegetable that were on sale. Those were the years I learned to appreciate beansprouts, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. Yes, I said mushrooms. Yeuchhhh!

At the end of my 2nd year at university, we found a 30-day advance booking one-way ticket on Greyhound from Montreal to San Francisco for $79 per person with three different routings from east to west, with the caveat that we had to complete our one-way journey within a month and so four of us girls jumped at the chance to see this continent. My three friends and I cooked up some shredded spicy meat called “serunding” in advance. Serunding is known as “meat floss” and is Malaysia’s version of dried, spicy pulled beef or chicken or mutton. Meat that is already cooked is shredded and further cooked in coconut milk, curry paste and other spicy seasonings until the liquid evaporates and the meat is dry. We carried several Ziploc bags of this meat per person on our trip, perhaps two kilos in total. For our first week on the road, we bought loaves of bread to make simple serunding sandwiches and drank water from water fountains during our stops in New York City, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. We were very thankful for clean water from the taps in North America. We topped up our meals with store-bought cucumbers and the cheapest fruit we could find.

In the evenings, we found that Chinese restaurants had the biggest bang for the buck and we would save by ordering for three and eating for four, sharing big plates of fried rice or noodles, with perhaps one main meat dish. Breakfast was whatever simple items we found like bread and peanut butter (easy to carry) or what our hosts provided, if we had hosts. By the way, we got our hands on a phone directory of Malaysian students all over North America, called ahead long distance (had to share those phone bills) to the cities we were stopping in, introduced ourselves and asked if we could stay over for a night or two during our stops, always offering to reciprocate should they visit Montreal. These were all students on a budget like us. Those who said yes, had living conditions like us and so we got to either sleep on the floor in their living room or share a bedroom that some students gave up for the duration of our stay. We made new friends this way as our hosts gave us tips on what not to miss in their cities and on where to get the cheapest meals and souvenir items. We always brought something back to share with our hosts on our final night, sometimes it was fruit, other times, chocolates.

And this is how four university students got to cross the North American continent, living on approximately $10/ day (for food) for about one month, living out of one carry-on bag each. In places where we had no hosts, we managed to get beds at hostels. If memory serves me right, we only needed one hostel, in San Francisco, and we stayed at the dorms of Cornell University in New York City. OMG, both were eye-opening experiences as we were in co-ed living conditions. Taking a shower on a co-ed dormitory floor at Cornell was eeeeekkk! Maybe totally normal nowadays but we were barely 19, with eastern upbringing, back in the late 80s!

At this point, I have to also share that life also consists of unexpected blessings. Our stop in Kansas City was hosted by a wonderful couple, in-laws of my mentor from the Christian Fellowship at McGill. Turns out the older couple was quite well-off and had a huge house. The gentleman was the head of surgery in one of the local hospitals and his wife was just delighted to have four young ladies to chaperone and bring about town. This stop was halfway through our USA itinerary and we were spoiled rotten by these empty nesters. They insisted on paying for everything, for entry fees into museums, attractions, the lunches out, taking us out for dinners, our two nights and three days there. This is where even on a student budget, I began learning about some of the finer things in life like a “Chateaubriand for two”. It was the most expensive item on the menu at a fancy restaurant. The Chateaubriand is cut from the same area of the loin as the filet mignon and is therefore very expensive. The good doctor and his wife insisted on Chateaubriands for everybody. I almost cried at the generosity and tucked in with gratitude and awe. On another night we got to taste the famous KC Masterpiece BBQ at the original restaurant which then closed in 2009. I even discovered the Kansas City Mud Pie. Who knew anything "muddy" could be so delicious?

This amazing gift came about a day after we finished our supply of serunding and it was absolutely wonderful to be provided for this way. We were housed in one wing of their home which had two bedrooms connected by a bathroom. Fluffy comforter, real beds, air conditioning, the whole shebang. I learned to receive with gratitude any unexpected blessings. Interesting that in my great efforts to eat and drink within my means on this trip, I was blessed beyond my imagination.

Final note: just because we exercised discipline with some of our food choices on this trip doesn’t mean we said no to everything nice on this trip. We definitely indulged in saltwater taffy in Salt Lake City and chocolates plus chowder at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco among other things. We also paid for tours in San Francisco to either the Alcatraz or to Sausalito and the Redwood forests. In Boulder, we went to the Mint. In British Columbia, we got ourselves to Butchart Gardens in Victoria. In contrast, we walked everywhere in just about every city we visited and especially in New York City and San Francisco, plus all over St. Louis to get to all our tourist destinations including walking, during dusk hours, from downtown to the suburb where we stayed. Looking back on St. Louis, that was not a smart decision because we walked past some questionable areas as it was getting dark. Perhaps we had guardian angels with us.To save money, we carefully planned our routing and slept some nights on the bus on overnight routes from one city to another. I even arranged two routes to be able to see a sunset from the bus, going over the American Rockies and a sunrise over the Canadian Rockies. :-)

It’s all about giving and taking and figuring out how to make space for our choices and being at peace with the choices we make. While my Canadian counterparts were flying to different parts of the country and the world on their summer vacation, I was on a Greyhound bus, exploring 13 cities in Canada and the US for approximately $20 a day (including all the fees to tourist sites and food). I was happy then. I am happy now, as I remember all this to record for myself and those after me.

Photo of serunding (usually served with glutinous rice cooked in bamboo) Credit:Blogger Babe in the CityKL