Living on a poor girl's budget

Well, it's that time of the month again...

Wait, no, not that time of the month! It's just those few days right before the next payday that I re-trace all of my purchases of the past month because I'm not quite sure where my last paycheck went. This is the true American in me, living month to month without a cent to spare. Or maybe this is normal for the Europeans, who have notoriously low take-home salaries (less than 60% after taxes!).

To remedy this, I've been scrapping and saving to make the most of every Euro I earn. My top 3 tricks to leading a thrifty European lifestyle are as follows:

1. Collecting bottles: In the States, I thought Michigan had it good for offering 10¢ back for plastic bottle or aluminum can deposits. In Germany, the deposit is 25¢ for plastic bottles and 8¢ for glass bottles! If you have any idea how littered the streets are with recyclables after any weekend or big event, you'd understand how one could make a living off of bottle collecting. Since the Germans are really into recycling (everywhere you go there are several baskets that separate plastic, paper, glass, waste, etc.), it's easy for the homeless and young professionals alike to go dumpster diving and make a few extra Euros. Yes you heard me, young professionals! In the mornings, before I get onto my train, I see middle-aged men dressed in business suits and carrying leather briefcases literally dig through through the plastic bins on the platform before boarding the train. Learning from their example, Mang-Git and I have gotten into the habit of bringing plastic bags with us from Thursday Night Drink Club so that we can collect bottles on the way back to our apartment. We probably won't carry this habit home to the States, but for now, we slightly less ridiculous since everyone else here is also always on high-alert for nearby recyclables. So far we've probably made enough money to cover one grocery trip's worth of food (~15-20€)
2. Living off bread and cheese: It's really not as bad as you think. The bread here is dirt cheap (60¢ for 6 hefty rolls) and the brie here is not only cheap (~1-2€ for a small wheel) but its good. According to our French roommate, the best brie is Coeur de Lion which is a whopping 3€ for a week's supply at our neighborhood Pennymarkt. So when me and Mang-Git run out of our typical college student staples (pasta, bread and nutella, cereal), we resort to the much-anticipated bread and brie diet. Sometimes when we're feeling really fancy, we'll also get a bottle of 1.50€ wine.
3. Cheating with train tickets: The train system in Germany runs on an honor system which allows room for you to get from point A to point B without paying a cent. To ride a German train, you "need" to buy a ticket -- but unlike the NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Hong Kong, Taiwan, London, Paris or Amsterdam systems, nobody checks to see if you actually scanned or stamped the ticket before riding the train. Once on board the train though, you'll occasionally see a ticketing officer (very rarely, probably about 5% chance that you'll get checked) who will ask to see your ticket, at which point if you don't have one, you pay a 40€ fine. Otherwise though, you can usually walk right from the street to the platform and ride the train all the way to your destination without being stopped. So when I'm only traveling a few stops outside of my monthly-pass zone, I'll hop onto my train, keep quiet and situate myself near an exit door for a quick escape route, just in case.

More tales of a poor girl in Germany to follow...