Tuesday 5 February 2008

My weekly budget

Here is my weekly budget here in Cameroon. To convert to pounds just take of three zeros.

I've slighty over-budgeted in some cases cause it's like playing monopoly here, sometimes money flies out your pocket. Who said Scottish people were tight?.

It is evident that if i finally quit smoking it would greatly de-preciate my spending, but i think this has been accurate of my spending so far.

The food and drink are bought because i've discovered soya sticks, which are beef on a stick basically served with a tongue busting spice, it's delicious but must be consumed with either a coke or a beer. They go down great for when yams are on the menu at the Orock house. I also like to have a wee ice cream when the sun is trying to melt my will to live.

  • WATER - 4000 CFA
  • PHONE - 4000 CFA
  • INTERNET - 2000 CFA
  • FOOD/DRINK - 5000 CFA
  • TAXIS - 1000 CFA
  • BEER - 2000 CFA
  • CIGARETTES - 5250 CFA
  • MISC - 2000 CFA

= 25,250 CFA a week, which is basically 26 pound a week, more or less.

Volunteers should be aware that i've had to spend a lot of money to retrieve my bags from Douala and i had to buy a sim card, a battery and a charger for the phone i was given. You also have to pay 1000 CFA to get your passport copied. So there is a few costs here and there.

I hope this is of some benefit to anyone considering a stay in Cameroon. It's also going to be a benefit to me as it's made me look at my spending, cigarettes still dominate my expenditure like back home, even though here it's only 5 pound a week. Even still i'm going to stop.

Cameroon won against Tunisia last night, the game went to extra time cause Eto'o was a bit selfish at one point thus passing the opportunity to finish it in 90 minutes. It was a great game though and i went to bed with the sounds of celebrations and car horns at midnight.

I hope they make the final, they play the hosts Ghana in the semi's.

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