The photo is unrelated to this post’s subject, but I wanted to share how Grey encourages being petted, and how large his paws are. At five foot eleven (1m80) I’m not a small woman, but next to Grey’s mitts, my hands certainly look it!

I’ve found it interesting to read various “life on a budget” discussions elsewhere, so thought I might share my own penny-saving tips. The biggest one is that I don’t have a car. A bus serves a stop two blocks from my place, and one block from our offices. That costs just €30 a month, and I spend another €10/month for the tram, for a grand total of €40/month. Beyond those set costs, I can go by bus, train or plane to pretty much anywhere from Nice. I also don’t have a television. Now, before anyone scoffs “another anti-TV person argh”, please realize that it costs about 120 euros a year just to watch regular French public television, due to the redevance audiovisuelle, and that’s for only six channels. Cable and satellite are extra, of course. I would much rather save that money, not to mention the cost of a TV, and use it to buy the series and movies I really like on DVD. Then I can watch them on my PC when I want, as many times as I want, and without advertisements.

As internet and phone go, I haven’t had a true land line since 1997, when I was a student in Lyon. In Helsinki in 1998, mobile phone subscriptions were dirt cheap, and with friends who worked at Nokia, I had free loan phones. Once in France, I started out with prepaid phone cards, but a few years ago the validity of cheaper cards was cut from 3 months to just 15 days, or one month at most. I shopped around and found a cheap subscription for 7 euros a month that gave me 10 minutes for free; I upgraded last month and now pay €10/month for 20 free minutes and unlimited free SMS, although no free data. That’s all right though, since I have uncapped ADSL for €30 a month, with unlimited free VoIP calls to pretty much anywhere in the world.

As for utilities, in France there still isn’t much choice. I go through EDF (privatized in 2007) since it’s less bad than its competitors. I use CFL bulbs, an A++ class washer (1 kWh per load) and refrigerator-freezer (less than 1 kWh per day), and dry my clothes outside. My telephone is Eco DECT (60% less power consumption than regular phones), I built my computer with just the basics so it only needs a 250-watt power supply, and I have an electric cooktop and 1.8 kW water heater. All told I only pay €30 a month for electricity. Water and heating are centralized through my apartment building and average out to €50 a month.

I pick up free, abandoned furniture: two nice chairs and a set of wood trestles to date. Other furniture is either secondhand or Ikea, with a few pieces from sales at Habitat.

Sales in France are on dates that are set by decree: Google dates soldes france. Winter sales are usually in early January through mid-February, with summer sales at the end of June through July. Stores have other, smaller sales too, so it’s good to keep an eye out for when they come.

Groceries are more complicated since I have a gluten and casein intolerance — I can’t eat wheat/barley/oats (think pasta and bread) nor any animal milk products. Generally I get 5-kilo (11-pound) bags of jasmine rice from the local Asian supermarket (Promo Asie in Nice), which last me about a month. I spend a grand total of €5 a week at market for potatoes, fruits, aubergine (eggplant), onions, and one or two other vegetables. I don’t think I’ve ever reached €10 at a marché. And the produce is delicious! I dice the veggies and freeze them to use all week with rice, and for breakfast I eat gluten-free muesli with soy milk, since I use a lot of energy while mountain biking in the forests during mornings.

Which brings up a good point: although my GT mountain bike was expensive at 1800 euros (I got it on sale — the original price was 2500!), I’ve had it for three years now, riding at least 30 kilometers a week, and have only had to pay €50 total for repairs since buying it. Other people who spent half as much on their mountain bikes and ride less than me have spent much, much more in repairs, and most have had to buy new bikes in that same amount of time. Meanwhile mine is still running beautifully.

The kitties get high-quality “carnivore” food such as Orijen. It costs a bit more, but they eat less of it than foods with grains (which cats are not meant to eat in large quantities, since they’re obligate carnivores), and they’re so much healthier that I feel badly for not having done the same for Malo. I’ll get 7-kilo bags and have them delivered, which is actually cheaper than going to the store to buy the smaller, more widespread 2.5-kilo bags. I also try to avoid fish-based foods, mainly because there are so few fish left in the seas nowadays.