Final accounting

This and more at the Expenses Tracker .

TESO - the expenses tracker

TESO was the name I gave to the expenses tracker on our trip. For sure all portuguese will laugh and that is the idea. Teso in portuguese means, among others, that you are without any money. But for us it means Travel, Eat, Sleep, Others. :-)

Our Teso budget is in average 60 euros/day (for both), but it changes a lot. There are days like last Monday where we used about 100 euros because of the Bodies exhibition in Warsaw, the train from Warsaw to Malbork, eating in a shopping centre and sleeping in a hostel. But there are days where we expend about 30euros only - couchsurfing, street eating, no travel and no museums help a lot.

I'm trying to keep a page with this Teso expenses list, but no time to update... on the internet. But for the moment I assure you that you can easily travel in Poland for less than 30eur/day/person.

Second Life

I don't need to play "Second Life" on the Internet. I'm about to give a second life to nearly all my belongings.
Today I sold my sofabed - a huge thing I thought I would have to donate to Emmaus or so because nobody seemed to want it. Anyway, someone just bought it (for 10% of its original price... but in Asia this will be a lot of money). For me, this means a "crying eye" and a "happy eye" (as we say in german). It was my "oldest" piece of furniture, bought for me by my mother 11 years ago, when I was in a flatshare and wanted something to sleep and sit on. Later on it served as a sofa, and then was "banished" to the visitors room/office in my last 2 apartments, to host family, friends and couchsurfers. Now I didn't want to keep it anymore - too big, not practical enough.
Another page turned... later there will be room for a new sofabed.

The Market for Lemons

"The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism" is a 1970 paper by the economist George Akerlof. More info at wikipedia and here.

This post is related to an email of an unhappy buyer of some of my stuff. I'm selling my furniture at half price from the cost, they have about 4/5 years of usage, mostly are in good condition. Half-price is something that people pay for getting something in second hand but, it is true, there are lemons and cherries. As in most of the cases, people in second hand market are not willing to pay more than the price of new in market (even if the old item is likely a cherry). Because of this I find my self in the constraint of selling cherries under priced and lemons over priced.

I'm sure Eva is selling much more cherries than lemons and buyers are very happy, but in my case is maybe half/half. Anyway, I'm not being a cheater and furniture I know not to worth the half price - mainly things I would change if staying here -, those I sell at 20% of the price (like my bed) or even for free. Others, like my microwave, I find difficult to find a buyer. It is a cherry and because of that is more expensive than some new items in the lemon market (of new stuff).

Well, enough of economics writing today. I hope not to make other buyers unhappy, but at same time market is based on making compromises. If it is not possible to sell my cherries at fair price, then I feel I should compensate with some lemons.

Support a meal - part 1

Yesterday it was my birthday. As we don't want more things, instead of presents we asked for supporting a meal somewhere in the world, chosen from mapa mundi. Below is the result:


In case you missed the opportunity and you are willing to support a meal somewhere else, there might be another chance to do so. Keep tuned.

PS: We do not promise to go exactly to all these places but we will think of you and send a picture once we are at the nearest point of it.

Trip extra-financing

One does not leave for a trip like ours without having a certain budget and counting to be able to survive for a certain amount of time not only during the trip but also after it, when still searching for a job, when renting an apartment and having a caution to give, before receiving again the first salary.

Eva and me consider to have enough to travel for a while, we hope until we get tired of it. In any case there are always ideas to get a bit more money and at same time evolve friends and other people with the trip.

Below a list of possible things we might or might not do for raising the budget:
- Support a meal at X - people write down in a envelope where wants the contribution to be used. Inside the envelope puts the contribution and a small word which will be read only when we arrive to X.
- 2010 world calendar - people buy in advance a calendar which will be sent in December with a selection of pictures of places already visited
- Buy a postcard/coin from a certain country, which will be sent when we arrive there


More classic ideas:
- Publishing a book about the trip
- Write column to a newspaper
- Make a blog and put advertisements into it

Other ideas?