Well, some of you know that Nic and I now have a place to live! :) Last week we went to view a unit, and as of February 15th, we will be living in a small 215 sq. ft. one-room apartment. It’s on the top floor of a 5-floor building, located in a beautiful neighbourhood about a 20-25 minute walk from downtown. In fact, I wrote an article on Moneyville earlier this week about it - but boy did I get slammed for that idea! I even did a radio interview on NewsTalk1010, but instead of it actually being a story on why I decided to live in a tiny apartment (and the benefits of small space living), the two announcers pretty much just made fun of me for 5 straight minutes. Awesome.

To be honest, I’m a little bit shocked at all of the criticism. There were some harsh comments – some of them racist (!) – but those ones got deleted rather quickly. Here are a few that I’d like to share and respond to.

My response: We chose to live in a small space, and yes, I’m proud of our decision to cut back in this area. I’m not here preaching small space living and minimalism - I’m talking about understanding your needs vs. wants, and how you want to live your life. Of all people, I realize that it’s beneficial to earn more money to make my life better – which is how I’m able to afford to come to Europe in the first place! I have worked my butt off earning multiple streams of income over the last 5 years. And sure, I’d love to “make a few extra hundred dollars a month” – we all would – and I’m trying as hard as I can to grow my business. But if and when I do make that extra money, I’d rather spend it on travel and exploring Germany and the rest of Europe, than on a bigger apartment.

My response: Seriously? There is “absolutely no reason to cheapen one’s living accommodations to save a few bucks”? What about when you’re in debt, or you want to save money? We chose a small apartment in one of the most desirable areas in town. There are no cockroaches, the apartment is clean, and the neighbourhood is beautiful. What we value right now is pretty much everything other than our apartment. I have a mortgage, and BF isn’t getting paid that much – so we had to make a choice. You can’t have everything that you want in life.

My response: I’m not bragging, I’m just trying to make a point that we don’t NEED as much space as we have here in our homes in North America. My choice is based on my lifestyle, just as your choice to have a massive deck is based on your lifestyle. I fully believe that 215 sq. ft. is functional for us, and I don’t see why we would pay to have more space than what we need.

My response: Comments like yours used to really get to me, but they don’t anymore. You don’t have to read my writing, but you do. You also don’t have to take the time to comment, but you did. Maybe you don’t agree with everything that I write about, but I’m doing my job by generating discussion.

If a big apartment or a huge deck is what makes you happy, then go for it. If you want your $5 latte from Starbucks every day, fine by me. No judgement here! We’re all different, and we all have our priorities, and I am extremely grateful that I know who I am, and what makes me feel fulfilled in life.

A big home won’t make me happy – which is why I’m living in a small 1-bedroom townhouse in Vancouver (even though I could have afforded a bigger home). My “dream job” won’t make me happy, so I’m doing the next best thing to ensure that I satisfy what I love to do most.

These are the choices that I’ve made. I’ve chosen to live in a small, cheap apartment because 1) I have a mortgage to pay at home, 2) we barely have any stuff with us, 3) we won’t be spending much time in the apartment anyway – other than to sleep and eat, and 4) we want to save as much as possible in order to go exploring on the weekends. We are also trying to accomplish one 3-4 day trip each month, as well as travel for most of August. It just wouldn’t be possible if we were paying more rent. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend my time hanging out in Zurich, Amsterdam, Prague, Stockholm, and Venice, than in a bigger apartment. :)

We only spent about 40 hours (2 nights) in Paris, but I think it’s safe to say that we made the most of our time there. It’s a beautiful, romantic city – and we definitely want to go back before we leave Europe this year. One day just wasn’t enough time to see everything we wanted to see.

But maybe next time we’ll go when it’s a little bit warmer. :)

Here is a breakdown of our trip – in terms of money that I spent, as well as the things that we did. (It should be noted that we don’t split the cost of everything down the middle. We keep things pretty even, but it’s always a rough estimation.)

Cost

Accommodation: $72.54
Food: $78.12
Transit: $16.57
Entertainment: $39.83
TOTAL: $207.06

Accommodation

We booked our stay at Hotel Saint Sebastien through HostelBookers.com because it’s usually the cheapest place for booking hostels. It’s even cheaper that HostelWorld.com most of the time! Plus, it came with free wifi and breakfast in the morning. :)

As a side note, if you register for Great Canadian Rebates, you will save an additional 2% on any stay booked through HostelBookers.com when you click through from the GCR website. The same goes for train tickets in Europe! :) Basically whenever I buy anything online, I look to see if I can click through using my GCR account. If the merchant is listed on GCR, I will get a percentage of my purchase back as a cash rebate. It definitely adds up, and it’s free. So you can’t really beat that!

The hotel itself was functional. It wasn’t fancy by any means, but apparently for hotels/hostels in downtown Paris, you’re lucky if you can get anything decent in the “budget” category. But really, how much time are you actually going to be spending in your hotel room? We spent most of our time outside exploring the city. :)

I would consider staying here again, but will probably try a new hostel when we go back to Paris at some point this year.

Food

For breakfast, we just ate the free food in the hostel – which consisted of tea, croissants, and bread. Lunch consisted of just snacks on the go. We had too much to see, and didn’t have time to stop anywhere.

Dinner the first night was at Au Royal Couscous, and it was just okay. We didn’t have many choices, since it was late at night and we didn’t have reservations anywhere. Dinner the second night was at some hole-in-the-wall pizza place. It’s true, the wine was ridiculously cheap everywhere we went – and delicious too.

I’d say the highlight for me was eating a huge pistachio macaron as big as the palm of my hand. It was absolutely divine, and worth every penny.

Transit

We saved a ton of money by walking everywhere and taking the metro, instead of cabs. The Paris transit system is pretty great, but it’s also really confusing – even for Nic, whose first language is French. I don’t think I could have figured it out if he wasn’t there with me.

It took us about an hour to take transit from the airport to our hotel, and once we were in the city, we just went by foot. Good exercise, saves money, and you get to see more things. :)

Entertainment

Since we only had one full day in the city, we decided not to go inside any museums (we’ll save that for the next trip to the city!). But we did get to see the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, and Notre Dame Cathedral – all for free. We paid to take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower (I think the price was about €12 per person), because, come on. You can’t not go up the Eiffel Tower when you’re in freaking Paris. I also paid €20 total for us both to ride La Grande Roue (ferris wheel) because I thought it was fun and romantic. And there was no line-up. Haha!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a few photos:

Monday 30th
$19.78 (€15,10) food for train ride
$170.32 (€130) hostel (5 nights)
$103.49 (€78,99) Macbook Pro power adapter

Tuesday 31st
$2.40 (€1,83) snacks
$26.53 (€20,25) groceries
$13.82 (€10,55) 2x sim cards – one for Nic
$39.30 (€30) cell phone credit
$3.40 (€2,60) transit

Wednesday 1st
No Spend Day! 

Thursday 2nd
+ $700 freelance income
$25.26 (€19,40) groceries

Friday 3rd
No Spend Day! 

Saturday 4th – Esslingen
$9.11 (€7) transit
$9.11 (€7) transit
$14.32 (€12) Mercedes-Benz Museum

Sunday 5th
$14.97 (€11.50) lunch

WEEKLY EXPENSES: - $632.59
WEEKLY INCOME: + $700

TOTAL: + $67.41

Well it was a pretty expensive week for me. But I knew it was coming – it’s not cheap picking up and moving to a different city. There are always unexpected costs, such as having to spend $100+ on a Macbook Pro power adapter. We had the travel converter/adapter, but it was only powering the laptop and not actually charging the battery. We didn’t realize until days after that we didn’t need to buy the adapter, only the plug. But, the package came with an adapter and a plug, so we’re able to power both of our laptops with one purchase. So far, everything else works with the travel converter – except for my flat iron. I haven’t tested everything though, so fingers crossed that’s the only thing that doesn’t work.

We are trying to cut costs by walking most places, and only taking transit occasionally. In fact, the only time we took transit was the evening we went to view our apartment – it was really cold! And on Saturday we went to visit the town of Esslingen – not too far outside of Stuttgart.

Also, we’ve been cooking most of our meals in the hostel. It’s a bit of a nightmare because the grocery store that’s close to the hostel seems expensive, and the kitchen is small. But since restaurants are pretty expensive (and I keep thinking the prices are in dollars), we’re still cutting down our expenses significantly. But on the bright side, huge 1/2 litre beers are only €0,70 (about $1) at the grocery store, so we’re loving that. :)

As for the food here, it’s been pretty good. But I’m always craving vegetables and fruit. My body isn’t used to consuming so much bread and meat. And apparently we came during the coldest part of the winter, so all I can think of is eating a huge, hot bowl of pho or ramen. We actually did find a Japanese place that serves ramen, but a bowl cost €15 ($19.53)!!! No thanks.

Here are a few pictures from the last week:

Here is your chance to win 1 of 3 copies of H&R Block’s At Home Online Tax Program!

One of the best things I could have done for myself a few years ago was start to file my own taxes. Instead of spending $100+ to go to an accountant, I took the time to learn to do it myself. And not only is it extremely satisfying, but I’ve learned a ton about how taxes work, including deductions I didn’t even know about.

I’ve actually taken a look at a bunch of different tax software (both free and paid), and recently I was given the chance to check out the H&R Block online tax program – and I really like it. And best of all, the program supports all kinds of tax returns. Even if you have complicated ones – which includes self-employed income (like me), rental, or small business returns.

Here’s a screenshot of what the program looks like once you start:

All you have to do is gather all of your income and deduction slips. Then,the program will walk you through your return step-by-step, pick the forms that you will need, do all of the calculations for you, and check for errors.

There are THREE ways to enter (for a total of 3 possible entries):

1. +1 entry: Tweet about the contest (copy and paste the following: “I just entered to win free online tax software from @HRBlockCanada and @krystalatwork! Enter now! http://wp.me/pPQjl-2qX“).
2. +1 entry: Comment on this blog post and tell me if you file your taxes on your own, or if you use an accountant – and why.
3. +1 entry: There is a link to this post on my Facebook page. “Share” the link with your followers.

February 2012 Goals:

• Practice and learn German every day. Moving to another country and not knowing how to speak the language is intimidating. And while I know that a lot of Germans do speak English, I want to learn the language. I think it will be hard for me, since I’m a freelancer and work alone. Nic will have co-workers to talk to and learn from.

• Work a maximum of 50 hours/week. My new schedule is going to take a lot of getting used to. I’ve gotten accustomed to working 70 hours/week, and I haven’t had a weekend free from work in at least 18 months. Even my holidays have been working holidays. I just couldn’t get ahead when I had a full-time job. Now, my evenings and weekends will, for the most part, be spent relaxing and exploring the city with Nic. Of course, I do have to be aware of the time difference between Germany and where my clients are in North America.

• Pitch myself for 3 projects. I’ve never really had to pitch myself before, so I’m going to have to start getting used to it if I want to grow out my business.

• Get my taxes organized for this year, and going into next year. I think this goal is self-explanatory! :)

Ongoing 2012 Goals:

• Post a new photo every day on my Tumblr account, My Life In Pixels.

• Only post my own photos on GMBMFB. I should actually start posting photos.

• Write one guest post for another blog or website.

Oh, and here’s a panoramic photo of Stuttgart that my boyfriend took the other day (with me in the lefthand corner). You can click on it to make it a bit bigger.