Gifts, Goodbyes, and Grub: Expenses Dec 16-22

Let me preface... it really can be cheap to live here, I promise you!

This week saw a lot of activity (besides me losing my voice). Multiple friends left Vietnam (hence, parties and meals!), I got a whole hell of a lot of house stuff accomplished, got more Christmas presents (still have to ship them, of course...), and had social engagements almost every night. 'Tis the Season! I addition to that gaping money wound, I also chose this week to present a donation to the English program at one of my schools and give a holiday tip to the maid. So much money... money hemorrhaging everywhere. Things to think about when I get to budgeting!

Click on for the details - even without rent this week, I spent a solid stack of real (USD!) bills.

One thing that was a surprise (and it really shouldn't be, let's be honest) is that going out to drink is expensive now that I can't have any beer! I can get a beer for .50 or .75 cents, but a mixed drink is at least 4 USD. Since I haven't been doing much drinking in the past couple months, it came as a shock when I attended a few going away parties.

And then there's gifts... and the inevitable shipping. I saved those expenses for this coming week. December!, amiright? No Christmas parties though, except the ones we threw ourselves, so at least things were a tiny bit less hectic than if I'd been in Chicago.

On a sidenote, it really is kind of hard to spend this much money here. You really have to work at it!