Thrifty Travel Tips

Happy hump day, fellow nerds! It's been a while since I posted, primarily because I've been editing my thesis proposal nonstop. Since it's a rainy day and I have a lot of desk work today, I figured I'd take a break to day dream about my vacation with S to Puerto Rico and share some travel tips that we've learned over the years:

A few photos from our trip!

We had a great time in Puerto Rico and I think we were able to enjoy the trip without breaking the bank. So here are our thoughts:

1.)   Choose home rentals over hotels. While a lot of hotels are pricing competitively with the emerging market share industry of home rentals, I’m still getting amazing deals from renting homes. We usually go to AirBnB for our rentals.

2.)   Use budget airfare apps and websites.  S and I used Hopper to get to Puerto Rico for less than $250 roundtrip per ticket.

3.)   Make your own meals. This will be perfect if you rent a place with a kitchen. S and I eat either one or no meals out when we stay in a place with cooking capacity. We usually eat an easy hot breakfast (e.g. eggs, toast, tea, etc.) and we have sandwiches for lunch. It’s amazing how much not eating out makes a difference in a budget.

4.)   Do the free stuff. When I visit a new place, I love exploring and seeing as much of the place as I can. Now that I’m on a budget, I’m realizing that a lot of activities (and in my opinion the most interesting stuff) are free! Outdoor activities like swimming, hiking, or biking are usually pretty cheap with the right gear. Museums often have suggested donations and student discounts. Make a list of all the free and discounted stuff before you get there so you don’t feel unnecessary pressure to blow cash when you’re in the middle of it.

5.)   Visit friends. As someone who deeply values building long-term relationships, I care about keeping in touch with friends and family no matter how far and wide they spread. That means that my door is always open to them, and it also means that I usually prioritize visiting places where my friends and family have moved. A convenient part of visiting friends means that you may not have to pay for a place to stay if they have the room. More than that, it’s a unique experience to catch up with old friends in a new place and to learn about the place they now call home.

6.)   Get TSA Pre-check and/or Global Entry. For $85, you get to forego long lines and you don’t need to take off shoes and whatever else. It’s worth the time you save, so that you don’t have to go to the airport early just to wait in long lines.

7.)   Invest in ear plugs, eye covers, and a neck doughnut. Our budget plane trips often lead to red eye flights, but it’s amazing how easy it is to sleep upright with a few gadgets.

So good luck with your travel plans and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comment section below!

Home Office Zen

 

My desk at home! With my computer screen on my "Arabic Word of the Day" e-mail!

Hey geo-nerds! I've gotten a few questions about my office set up and, since it's Spring Cleaning season and I'm all about revitalizing spaces, I figured that I would talk about how I find my zen in a home office environment. I admit, it can definitely be hard to find focus in a place where there are often so many extractions, but with a little attention to detail you can create a zen-rich work place at home.

As you can see from the photo above, my desk layout is pretty simple and minimalist. I got my desk online on Amazon. My chair is from Target, but I couldn't find my original chair so I'd recommend this one from Stein Mart, and my lamp is from IKEA. I always like to start filling a space with white or neutral colors and then building from there with accents, like picture frames, wall color (my current wall is a mellow yellow!), carpet, and curtains. These are more budget-friendly options for my fellow grad school enthusiasts out there, but high-end style like this is available everywhere.

I had a Chinese-German friend in college who diligently adhered to feng shui, so learning from her, I actually found that following a few basic feng shui rules really helps create focus:

1.) Place your desk so that it is in sight of the rooms doorway. You should be able to move your head 90° or less to see the door. If you need to position the desk so that your back faces the door, hang a decorative mirror so that you can see the door from your desk!
2.) Add a plant or two!
3.) Keep your desk free of clutter. I have a mobile portfolio organizer that I just stick in the closet when I'm not working.
4.) Add pictures or imagery that inspires you or reminds you of the importance of your work. For me, it's photos of my research site in Chile.
5.) Make sure to decorate with a balance of both light and dark colors!

Good luck with your office! And feel free to share your personal tips for working at home in the comments below.

Spray-painting: the Grad Student’s Ultimate Furniture Refurbishing Tool

Happy September, you guys! We’re getting closer to autumn weather, which for me up here in New England means fresh, crisp air and crunchy leaves for me to stomp while I walk around campus. For a lot of student (including me) it also means moving into new spaces and finding furniture. I’m a big fan of inexpensive, reused furniture, so I figured I would talk about my new favorite thing to do on the weekends, which is spray paint!

 

As a student on a budget, it’s now my go-to method for changing an outdated wooden piece into a fresh, stylish addition. Last week, for example, my housemate and I found this table and this magazine rack in need of some TLC at the Salvation Army.

I had a vision of painting the table white as our new coffee table, and the news rack with with a gold accent on the slats. So on a sunny day I took both of them outside, cleaned each of them thoroughly, and sanded the table down (it had a super thick varnish on it). Then I put one even layer of white paint both on the table and the news rack. I think the most important thing to remember is to get as even of a layer, and wait about ten to fifteen minutes between each layer to let it dry and set just a bit.

The gold slats were the hardest thing. I had to cover all the other parts with painting tape and paper towel.

But, in a weird feat, I engineered my paper towel contraption so that the gold (mostly) ended up on the slats.

So I would highly recommend spray painting as a cheap way to “refurbish” a piece of wooden furniture. If you’re interested in trying it out, I have a few tips: try to spray on a day with low humidity, only spray outside with lots of ventilation, and make sure to paint on either grass or a completely covered surface. Good luck to all you students with the beginning of the school year!

Using the Market Skills I Learned in Jordan to get Groceries on a Grad School Budget

My latest trip to Boston's Haymarket.

Hope you guys had a lovely weekend! I had a really good time this weekend chilling with S, plus some family and friends. I also did a bit of prep work for grad school living, including going grocery shopping, and I figured I would talk a bit about how I've used my market shopping skills that I learned in Jordan to get healthy and tasty groceries on a budget. 

As an amateur foodie, I decided to kick the students-only-eat-ramen trope to the side (though do I love Korean ramen)! I decided instead to focus on cooking all my food at home and getting healthy ingredients to fuel my grad school days. It's tough to get by on a grad school budget, but I'm finding that with a little effort and planning I can eat well on less than $50 a week. 

A big part of such thrifty eating comes from going to the most cost effective food sources, including surplus produce markets like Haymarket in downtown Boston. 

If you've ever been to Haymarket or any market like it, you might feel like you're stepping into a different country, where vendors are calling out specials, customers are haggling over prices, and a few special carts will give you a good deal if they like you. It's this relationship-first mentality to shopping that I learned to love in Jordan. 

In Jordan, there were more little grocery shops where the veggie guy would personally get to me, ask how my studies were going, and give me an extra banana as a treat. I missed these interactions a lot when I returned to the U.S., where all I got was seemingly overpriced food that I paid an often bored and unhappy cashier for. 

So, at Haymarket, I get to prioritize people over capitalism, even though the market is an example of capitalism at its finest. It's also conveniently the cheapest way to get all my fruits and vegetables! I pay less than $20 for all the fresh produce I need to make two weeks worth of meals. It may take a bit more time than going to the grocery store and getting all the groceries I need in one place, but for the maybe half hour of extra time I'm essentially paying myself in all the savings I'm keeping. 

I'm talking about a gritty, no-frills surplus food market, not an organic farmers market, as much as I love those too. While farmers market are equally as pleasant and often reasonably priced, you will probably not get the overall discount that you're looking for. 

So here are a few tips for going to the market:

1.) Bring cash. Probably few people will have debit card machines.

2.) Don't be afraid to ask for a lower price. The worst thing they could do is say no. But remember to ask with a smile.

3.) Return regularly to build relationships - and maybe even get a few "preferred customer" discounts!

4.) Walk around the whole market before you buy anything. A lot of vendors sell similar products, so taking a quick walk around will give you a better idea of what produce is the best quality for the best price. 

5.) Keep a record of the prices to get an understanding of how they fluctuate through the season. I'm not good at mental notes, so I have a little note on my phone where I write the lowest price I've paid for each fruit or veggie. It's really helpful to get an idea of whether something is getting a little too pricey and I maybe need to change my eating habits slightly, if only for a few months!

Good luck and enjoy!