What I have learned about REALLY living on a budget....

Let's be honest, this post is really about how to EAT on a budget. If you know me at all, you know my passion, and my obsession, is FOOOOOOD!

As I sit here writing, half my screen is covered with the blog page and the other half is playing the most current episode of Top Chef (yes I find time and let the internet help me keep up with this addiction. And yes Mom, I am multitasking...sorry!).

Since I've been in Ecuador (almost 4 months now!), I've been learning a lot about myself and my life and all that lovely introspective stuff. One thing I've been learning a lot about is budgeting. As I feel (and I hope my parents would agree), I have always been pretty good at budgeting myself. However, I have been very lucky, and have always been able to splurge on some things, specifically my love for food. When I go to the supermarket, I rarely hold back, and I love going out to eat. Well, especially in the past month I have learned about budgeting on a whole new level. (Let's be clear, mostly because of my stubbornness, and I will make it to my first paycheck on October 31st and counting down, and being screwed out of $200 by my previous landlords, I have brought this budgeting upon myself.)

I know what you are all thinking: "Ecuador must be so cheap/reasonably priced!"
Well you are all right, sort of, but I'm talking about serious budgeting. Learning how to live on $4-5 dollars a day type stuff. Luckily, because of the prices in Ecuador, I only had to slightly modify my lifestyle, meaning that I can still eat fairly healthily, and mostly am sacrificing my laziness (aka going out to eat) and my social life (going out on weekends).

So one of the first things I learned, especially here where imported goods are ridiculously overpriced, it is always cheaper to make stuff for yourself. So 2 weekends ago I made homemade tomato sauce (I did splurge on some wine to add, but luckily as Chelsea and I discovered a few months ago, a decent Chilean cab is under $7). Other than that, luckily all the produce is very cheap here (more tomatoes than I could ever need for a dollar!)

my huge batch of tomato sauce from a few weeks ago!

Peanut butter is SUPER expensive here, but you know what isn't? PEANUT PASTE! Make peanut butter really fast (and more delicious and healthy) by buying peanut paste and adding a bit of oil and honey! Also, dried goods (beans, lentils) are way cheaper in bulk than the cost of one can. One can of beans here is about $1.19 and a huge bag of lentils or bag of black beans that lasts for around a month is about the same price. I did have to learn about the labor of cooking black beans (and by that I mean planning ahead) but lentils cook REALLY FAST! Quinoa, beans, and avocados? Alright not so bad....

Oh wait, one more thing to challenge my budgeting skills? Our fridge has been broken for about 6 days...well now we don't have one because they took it away to fix it yesterday...anyway this means that I can't cook in bulk like I like to, and basically means no beans (they go bad fairly quickly if not refrigerated after cooking). So this means 2 things...
1. I've learned A LOT about how irrelevant refrigerators are. Plenty of the veggies that I love/are nice and cheap here stay good for a few days, or more with out being refrigerated (zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, pretty much everything EXCEPT leafy greens). Also, when in Rome, live like the Romans...meaning the Ecuadorians almost never refrigerate eggs, or butter (probably mostly because they use margarine, but even real butter), and they don't refrigerate milk (it's condensed milk, refrigerated after opening, but if you buy it in a small juice box size it will last the 2 days you need it).
2. College teaches you the magical powers of ramen. Don't ever forget those magical powers! Ramen noodles don't have to simply be the ramen noodles (usually covered in sodium), but can easily become (slightly more) nutritious by adding veggies sautéed in ginger and garlic, and an egg or two. Similarly, we all know pasta is cheap, but it can be mixed with veggies (and tomato sauce can even be made on the fly when a broken fridge makes it so that your 2 jars will go bad), and always served with a salad (as Phi Phi will tell you, I've always preferred the stuff in the salad to the lettuce anyway).

So, here I am learning about truly budgeting, but counting down the days until I can go out and try new restaurants, find some good sushi, buy some brie (only $3.50 here!), and go get some of my favorite beer from a local brewery with my favorite burger or fish tacos.

See below dinner from tonight (which inspired this post)!

throw some chopped tomatoes, garlic, and herbs (especially red pepper flakes) into a pan with a little bit of olive oil, and sauté for a bit and VOILA, tomato sauce!

pasta with quickly made sauce

salad with just the stuff: tomatoes, cucumber, and
avocado with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar