More Money Podcast - 4 Travelling on an Extreme Budget - Stephanie Williams, Blogger at Borderline Crazy Blog

Episode Date: June 10, 2015

I interview Borderline Crazy travel blogger and non-profit general manager Stephanie Williams about how she can afford to travel (and not work) for half the year, every year. Long episode description: As I mentioned in the show notes for episode 3 with Cait Flanders, when I was in Vancouver back in March to visit my family, I took the opportunity to do a few podcast interviews while I was there. Luckily, my good friend Stephanie Williams — who is not a personal finance blogger but rather an uber frugal traveller — so graciously agreed to be on my podcast when I was in town. So, off I went with my backpack full of equipment in tow and we recorded this episode in her apartment in Kitsilano (probably my favourite Vancouver neighbourhood fyi). When I started making a list of people I wanted to interview for my podcast, I knew I needed to have Stephanie on it because her story is seriously amazing. Now, me and Stephanie go way back. All the way back to our university days (she was even instrumental in me getting together with my now husband!). While I was studying film and dreaming of becoming an Oscar-winning director, she was studying geography and making plans to travel Europe after she finished her degree. And she did. She travelled around Europe, and of course got bit by the travel bug big time. Ever since, she’s done these major backpacking trips every year. Seriously, you name the country and she’s probably been there — twice. You may be wondering if she’s an heiress or something, because how could anyone afford to take off half the year every year to travel? No, she’s no heiress (that I know of?), so you’ll just have to listen to the episode to find out how she does it. We mentioned a few links on the show that you may want to check out, and I’m also going to include some links to the blog series I did when I was travelling around Thailand which I mentioned a few times on the show as well. Stephanie’s travel blog & non-profit work Borderline Crazy Blog Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (B.E.S.T.) The Bicycle Valet The Bicycle Valet on Instagram Blog posts I mentioned You Are Never Too Broke to Travel My Trip to The Gambia: An Experience That Changed My Life Travel blog series My Trip to Thailand and How Much It Cost Thailand Travel Tips That Your Guidebook Won’t Tell You Thailand Trip Days 22 and 23: Last Days in Thailand Thailand Trip Days 17, 18 and 19: Doi Suthep and Ben Cocktail Bar Thailand Trip Days 9 and 10: Ko Lanta is My Favourite Ko Thailand Trip Days 5 and 6: It Ain’t Called The Grand Palace for Nothing Thailand Trip Days 1 and 2: Jet Lag and Breakfast Curry Shownotes: jessicamoorhouse.com/4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to episode or of Mo Money Mo Houses, the personal finance podcast with a dash of sass. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. And today, my guest, I'm very excited to interview her. She's a very, very good friend of mine. Her name is Stephanie Williams. And we go way back. We go, I'd say about almost a decade now. Became friends in university and just kind of kept that friendship going, I guess. And today I'm going to talk to her about a couple of things, including her frugal lifestyle, her minimalist lifestyle, but also how she manages to afford to travel for half the year every year. And that also includes not working for half the year. So it's pretty interesting. Just a few things before I get into the show. Thank you for everyone who's listened

to the first three episodes that I launched on June 3rd, super excited about the launch and I got some really great feedback. So thank you so much for that. Also, I don't think I mentioned this in the first couple episodes, but I do do some blog posts or show notes for each episode. So if ever you want to get some more details about each episode, and I always include links that I mentioned in these blog posts, just check out momoneymohouses.com slash podcast. There's a list of every single episode with links to the show notes. Also, for every episode, it's very easy to find that particular episode's show notes. All you have to

do is go say it's episode one, momoneymohouses.com slash one so for this since this is episode four just check out momoneymohouses.com slash four super simple all right so let's get into it thank you so much stephanie for being on the program um let's kind of start off with uh what do do? What do you do for a living? I work for a nonprofit called BEST, Better Environmentally Sound Transportation. I'm now the general manager. I started in October 2009 as an intern and kind of worked my way up. And the primary thing I do is run a program called the Bicycle Valet, which is free and safe bicycle parking for events.

And it used to be quite seasonal in nature and kind of run from... I remember when it first started, I was one of the volunteers. I don't remember that. Okay, just for one Canada Day. It was one Canada Day. Yeah. Anyway, so our season used to be from April to October. So I would take off November to March, and it was pretty fantastic. Now it's kind of grown at a crazy rate,

and now I've taken over more of a general role in the organization. Last year I was able to take off two months, and I'm not sure this year, but I guess I'm just growing up yeah I know we're getting old I guess but okay so I think the coolest I mean your job is pretty cool you get to work for a non-profit that's all about

making Vancouver a more sustainable city which is awesome and it was really cool to see especially the Bicycle Valet Program just growing. Because, yeah, it was seasonal and now it's like, what was that number? I know it was on Instagram that you said like how many bikes you've parked. I don't know if you know that. Well, we started in 2006 parking like a couple hundred bikes.

Last year we parked 22,000. But the big milestone was that cumulatively we hit 100, thousand without having any lost or stolen so we're pretty excited about that that's amazing and yeah for anyone that doesn't know about bicycle valet though i know there is bicycle valets in other uh cities um basically it's just a way for you to ride your bike to an event or something like that and not lock it up you know somewhere but have someone basically monitor it so it doesn't get stolen, which will encourage, obviously, more people to ride their bikes instead of driving their cars. It's just like a coat check for bikes.

Exactly. And it's free. And it's free. That's the coolest thing. So another, I guess, cool thing about your job is because, I guess, it started out seasonal, so that would mean that you would have a lot of free time during those kind of downward times. And in those times, you decided to travel. Yeah. Well, it was nice because the summer, obviously, is nice weather when all the events are on, so that's when I'd have to work. And then basically, there wasn't a lot of work

for me the first few years, so I made an agreement with my boss at the time and yeah, I'd go away from November to April, usually to warm places and cheap places so I could do it. And, uh, usually sublet my room, which helped and went traveling. So where, what was your first trip, I guess? Well, my first trip was actually a pre best, um, which was right after I graduated, like a week after I graduated from university. I went on a six-month trip starting in New Zealand and then to Australia and then another three months

in Southeast Asia. And then I ended up working about a year and then going on a six-month trip to Central and South America. No, that's wrong. I went to Southeast Asia again for six months. Then I worked another six months, then went to Central America for five months,

worked for seven months, went to Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, England. I worked for another, I don't know, eight months. And then I went to Colombia and Ecuador. Yeah, that's right. And then I worked for another, I don't know, eight months. And then I went to Colombia and Ecuador. Yeah, that's right. And then I worked for another while and I just went to India. And oh, I just want to mention, if any of you guys are interested in Stephanie's travel, she has a blog now, which I'm so excited about.

Yay, blog! Thanks, Jess. I may have helped her with the blog. But it's called borderlinecrazyblog.com. So you guys should check it out because she has some crazy adventures. But I guess you've honestly almost been everywhere. I guess the next continent is Africa. That's got to be it.

Yes, it is it. It is it. Oh, okay. Awesome. Cool. So I guess one thing most people would probably wonder is, it's great to have the opportunity to have six months off a year, but that also means that you're not working during those months. Which is awesome.

Which is great, but you're also not getting paid. So how do you make it, how do you afford to travel for six months out of the year and not work for six months out of the year? Because I feel like most people would just be like, I can't do that. I can't afford to travel. That's one of the, like I wrote a blog post a while ago about how you're never too broke to travel because it's all about prioritizing and managing your money. So how did you make that possible? Well, I think you're right. Travel is kind of my number one priority, or at least it has been. But the first thing I tell people is that it depends on where you travel. I'm not traveling to Europe for six months. No kidding. My latest trip in India, it was cheap.

I was traveling with another girl I'd met on my last trip in the Galapagos Islands. So that always makes it cheaper if you're traveling with someone. Because every once in a while in Asia you can find single rooms, but for the most part at least in India you're paying per room so you divide that in half well yeah it's a lot cheaper and then you're sharing cabs or I guess they're like three wheelers or rickshaws or whatever you want to call them everything's cut in half in that

sense so that makes it a little bit easier. But yeah, India, like I probably spent like not including flights and such, just like per month, $1,000 a month. And we were like splurging. That's crazy. And you were having a good time doing all the things that you wanted to do. Yeah. I mean, in other trips, I would like go out for lunch and like careful not to order like a Coke or whatever um but here it

was like no let's have a lemon soda every meal and like we ate what we wanted um so you know and we stayed in nicer places like one time we even stayed in like a 70 hotel which i've never done in the past we went on a houseboat that cost us like each, I don't know, 70, maybe a hundred bucks a day. So it was like fairly expensive. We did that for three days. So like we splurged and it was still probably only a thousand dollars a month. So I mean, I look at going to Vegas, a thousand dollars in four days. I'm going to New Orleans for a stay yet. I'll be spending $1,500 in four days. So yeah, it's it is where you go the other thing is when I go traveling

I really don't drink a lot I drink a lot at home just because you're at home but when I go away I have so many other things to keep me occupied. And I usually go to hot places because they're generally cheaper, but also I want to go somewhere hot to escape the winter. So I don't want to be hungover and you get hungover, you get dehydrated so quickly.

And there's like so many things to get up for and go see. You don't want to waste any days anymore than you're already going to waste because you're going to be sick from food. Definitely. And water. And then like in India, the culture is not drinking anyways. So that saves a lot of money. I mean, even when the beers are a dollar,

it adds up. So that helps as well. The other thing is, because my job was basically managing a program for parking bikes at events, the early years I really had to be on site a lot. So most of our events were on weekends, which is when all your friends that work 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, have days off. So I was working often like 12-hour days on these weekends, and then I'd maybe get to the bar for one drink, or I'd just come home,

have a beer and go to bed. So I really didn't have a lot of the chance to spend a lot of money. And then I'd take like a Monday or Tuesday off and what are you going to do? You do some errands, you cook, you do some laundry, right? So that made a big difference. So a lot of it has to do with, I guess, your job and just the lifestyle that you want to lead. We talked about this earlier, not in the podcast, but it was in person. Just how you don't really necessarily save or make it, oh, I have to save this much money or budget. It's just kind of, it comes naturally to you just because you just don't buy that much stuff. That's not like a priority for you to buy a bunch of stuff.

I hate shopping. Yeah. I really, really hate shopping. That is awesome because shopping is no good for anybody. No, we actually, for the last five years, my family on my dad's side has been doing this annual shopping trip and we go down to the states

a couple hours away that is notoriously cheap shopping. The dollar is a little bit low right now but we're still going to go. I basically just spend the maximum you're allowed to spend as a Canadian which I don't know right now is like $800.

Yeah, it used to be $400, now it's maybe up to $600 or something. So I spend usually, I don't know, $500, but including groceries and stuff. And I just do that for the year. And then when I'm traveling, I'm only using clothes for six months of the year. The other times I buy clothes in India or wherever you are and you wear very different things.

But I'm also, to be fair, lucky to have a job, non-profit. You don't really have to dress up. I wear jeans and if I really dress up I put on a blazer. You're wearing basically street clothes so you don't have to get a separate wardrobe.

That's also one of the reasons that I'm able to pay you less, to be fair. But, yeah, I don't have to spend money on work clothes, so that really helps. The other thing is, I work for a non-profit promoting sustainable transportation. I don't own a car.

I actually owned a car, I was given a car by my grandpa when he passed away. When I was 19 or 20, and I had that car for one year, I sold it for $400 in the end. So it was obviously worth a lot of money. But the insurance on it was $1,700 a year when I had a universal transit pass that I had to pay for anyways.

And then gas and that kind of stuff. And so I actually did the math one day before I even had dreams of this job and was like, I can either keep this car or I can go traveling. And they say the average car in Canada, the stats are that it costs you $10,000 a year when you account for depreciation,

maintenance, gas, insurance. So $10,000 a year, well, that's a lot more than I spend on any of my trips. Exactly. Now cars are really expensive, which is why I didn't even realize it wasn't even necessarily a choice. It was more just like I've always lived in a city and having a car made no sense because there's nowhere to park it. Honestly, that's the main reason. There's nowhere to put it um and usually traffic in the city is terrible but my husband has a car and has always had he always needs one for work which is fine but i just see how much money has to dedicate for a car like insurance is crazy expensive in ontario then there's gas and he still doesn't even because it is so expensive especially like gas and everything he like if he doesn't need to use his car he won't he'll like you know take transit or whatever and

i've used transit i think probably for the last five years or something like that and honestly i've never had an issue i mean i'd probably have a bigger issue if i lived further away from my work but uh that's a choice. It's a choice. Yeah. So it's, you know, it's one of those things. It's like, yeah, I could live in a suburb and, you know, have a nicer, bigger place. But then I'd have to have the commute to work.

And in order to do that commute, I probably have to own a car. Yep. So I choose to kind of live closer to my work and my rent's more expensive and I live in a smaller, probably older place than I could if I lived somewhere else. But I really like having that flexibility of being so close to work and not having to own a car. And I do, I mean, I pay a fair bit still for transit. I mean, I think a TTC monthly pass is like 140 bucks now.

But one upside is it is tax deductible, so. Right, yeah. Ours are the monthly passes. I never buy a monthly pass But one upside is it is tax deductible. Right. Ours are the monthly passes. I never buy a monthly pass because I mostly ride my bike. And the tickets you can't deduct, which is super annoying. But it's $90 for one zone pass here. I don't know. I calculate my average transportation cost. I do car sharing.

We now have four car shares in Vancouver, which is pretty amazing actually, including the first one like ever in North America. So I use that occasionally. I take transit if it's pouring rain, which probably ends up being this often. Actually, you'd be surprised. I have a rule where if it's not raining when I leave the house, I ride my bike. Okay. Because I don't care riding home. Yeah, it's whatever. It doesn't matter. You don't even need rain gear. Who cares? And my ride is like

18 minutes. It's not extensive. Interestingly enough, they say the happiest commute, like whatever will make you the happiest, is 17 minutes no matter what mode of transportation. Really? Yeah. So i'm pretty happy with that yeah no that's a better commute than i have i mean i literally if i showed you

on a map where i live compared to my work it looks really close but it's actually like a 40 minute commute just because the subway is just crazy jam-packed and i i like travel right when it's like rush hour for people but still it is a better commute than if I live somewhere further away. It's not that bad. You get used to it. No, it's still not bad. What I like about biking is it's just consistent. Every day it's pretty much within a minute. Whereas the bus, if you miss the bus,

you might have to wait an extra 10 minutes. Or driving. I take the subway every day. Literally almost every day there's some kind of delay. It's insane. Biking actually in Toronto is becoming or is like, I wouldn't say as popular as Vancouver, but it is becoming more popular. I just personally find like Josh does bike quite a bit in the summer.

But first it's like the winter is so crazy. People still bike. I have no idea how because because the wind hurts your face. How do you bike in that? But it's also icy and stuff. But I don't know. I don't know how people do it. The traffic in Toronto is crazy.

I could never feel safe. They need some more dedicated infrastructure. Absolutely. They really do. Hopefully something will happen with that. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points.

Visit superstore.ca to get started. Get back to travel? Let's get back to travel. So, I don't know if you'd have these numbers in your mind or anything but like what is kind of the average price of your like trips i guess it depends on what country you go to i mean or what okay what's the cheapest trip you've done because you've kind of traveled almost everywhere what's like kind of the southeast asia is super cheap it is. You can spend money.

You can spend as much as you want. You can spend as much as you want, but you can also like, you know, I stayed as cheap as $1 a night and you could eat for $1 a day. I mean, you're sleeping in a hallway, but you can do it or a hammock. But honestly, the average I spent often getting my own room, like it wasn't like nice or anything, was $5 a night. And then you're eating for like $2 to $3 a meal. And beer was $1.

And transportation is generally $1 an hour. Each country I kind of figured out per hour. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, well like Malaysia is like $3 an hour, but you get nicer buses. India was like $0.50 an hour. It was super cheap. But also really crazy. Really crappy, yeah. You didn't have an option of upgrading.

Is it kind of like the movies where people just stuff as many people into a bus as possible? To be fair, I was in the south mostly, which is quite different than the north, I think. But, I mean, like on the trains, the trains are everywhere, they were built by the British back in the day

and if you're a tourist generally if you buy more than a day in advance you can get a reserved seat so you get like a sleeper class or first class air conditioned or second class air conditioned basically you just want a seat number that's what you want, this is the goal first class air conditioned or second class air conditioned, basically you just want a seat number.

That's what you want. This is the goal. This is the goal. But if you go to the train station on the day of, you can't get a reserved seat. That's just like their policy. The administration, that is crazy. Yeah, I bet. Yeah. Anyways, so only one time did we do that. We showed up at the train like 20 minutes before it left and we were like, we need a ticket. And they were like, well, we can only give you unreserved second class. Which when you look at the car that's unreserved second class, it's a pile of men. That's all it is.

But packed into these containers. And you're like, I can't actually go onto this train. Plus you have your huge backpack on that weighs 10 you know, 10 kilos at minimum, right? So, but they have this thing for tourists because they know you can't go on that. They're like, oh no, you just go to the reserve class and then when the ticket conductor comes around, you paid upgrade. Oh, okay. Which they may or may not come around, basically because they realize that you can't go on.

So yes, there's parts of it where you're like, oh, I can't go there. But they've also figured it out. Like I remember New Year's we were in Kochi in Kerala. It's really well known for its New Year celebrations. And they have this thing on the beach and they have this big like old man time burning and it was a really cool experience. But on the beach is like probably 20 to 30 000 men wow and you're like where are all the women and you don't really yeah you're kind of like oh that's weird and then these police are like oh you're white okay you go over here and they have a roped off section for the tourists oh

really oh yeah because there's been problems so, we were like behind everything and it was kind of cool. It was like being backstage kind of. So that was fine. And then like we talked to the guest house owner who was a woman, which was actually really nice to talk to. And she was like, oh, you went down to the beach for the New Year's celebration? We're like, yeah, but it was like cordoned off and it was pretty cool. And she's like, oh, yeah, all the local women, we don't go.

Because there's just always problems. Oh, really? So, yeah. Things are... Lesson learned? I mean, to me it's kind of crazy because it's like, well, yeah. I don't know. I read a lot of op-eds and stuff

in the local newspapers and they were like, well, they're talking about segregating men and women at school. But that's just like a band-aid solution, right? Like they have to learn how to. I guess that kind of just kind of makes me think because I feel like with a lot of those countries that are cheaper to travel in, there is also or seemingly so more risk or they seem more dangerous. Like, I mean, you know know a few years ago if you said you're going to columbia people were like uh do you want to get shot by a drug lord like that's a dangerous place to go but actually and you're like yes i do yes i do yes i do that's why i'm

but lately it seems like that's actually kind of a hot place to go yeah so but still i i kind of wonder if like in your experience because you kind of going to lots of these cheaper places, lots of these places that were like North Americans kind of have this weird perception like, Oh, well, I don't know. It seems a bit dangerous or whatever.

Like what, what's your kind of perspective on that? To be fair in terms of like safety standards that are lacking. Yes, that is true. I also, one of the things I like about it is you might go on a hike and like whatever you're going to see

isn't roped off and you can actually like, not that I'm like disturbing it, but you don't have a glass wall in front of you. And I actually like the freedom of being in these places and like if you have a little bit of money, someone will take you where you want to go.

That's true. And I like that because there's this entrepreneurial spirit where it's like here they're like, oh no, you can't fit more than four people in a cab. And they're like, well, fit as many as you can. Let's try.

I don't know, I really enjoy having that freedom. You still have the bureaucracy but it's a different way and of course there's corruption and of course this is being an idealistic traveler. You just got to be smart and careful. Don't put yourself in situations where... Yeah, I haven't had too many problems. There's always people looking out for you.

The places that have been defined as the most dangerous, like El Salvador. Honduras had the number one murder rate in the world. El Salvador was number two. Wow. Did you go to those places? Yeah. Oh, you did.

El Salvador was number two. Wow. Did you go to those places? Yeah. Oh, you did. Of course. El Salvador I loved. And the people were so grateful to see tourists because- Because everyone's afraid of going there. Exactly. And they're not jaded, right? You go to someone like Thailand and they're like, well, I've seen a million tourists. Or like Burma a few years back is when I went before they even opened up the country.

And there was a bit of controversy because is your money going to the government? They changed a lot of policies by the time I came in, so no, my money wasn't going. And the people there were just like, thank you for being here. Please go tell everyone how wonderful it is. We need more people. We want outside sources of information, that sort of thing. I don't know, people just, you look at you know, you look at like Mexico, right? And everyone's like, we can't go to Mexico other than all inclusives.

And I still like talk to people. They're like, well, I'll go to Mexico, but I won't leave the resort. So you're not really seeing Mexico. You're just seeing some random beach. You can be anywhere at that point. And to be fair, like, you know, I traveled in the south of Mexico a couple years ago and people were like, okay, you probably don't want to go to the border of the states, really north.

Other than that, you're fine. And I mean, especially in Central American stuff where I'm not hanging out in the big cities, like Guatemala City to be fair. I remember taking a bus in and then these people like where are you going and I was like oh I'm just going to this other town I'm waiting for the other bus like okay do not leave the bus station and these were local people oh okay you know like do not cross the road oh wow okay but like I'm not hanging out in these 10 million people cities that have no tourist sites yeah I'm hanging out in these beach towns or small villages

or historic sites. You know, it's... And it's true. The only kind of comparable thing is when I went to Thailand, I never felt in danger. The only times I did was when we were in Bangkok late at night.

There's just such a crazy amount of people and just cars everywhere. And you just don't really have an idea of where you are in the city. And so I don't think there was actually anything dangerous going on, but it's just like, I don't know. I feel like we could get mugged just because of the volume of people and who knows who's out there. But whenever we went to one of the kind of smaller villages or beach places or whatever it was like fine you know and lots of people were like oh like you know lots of people i know are like oh thailand you know because i mean there are i mean you just got to be smart it's like well you know yeah if you're

gonna go to i mean some of the like the party islands yeah be careful because some of the parties that go on there are just like well well, you know, there's like drugs, there's, you know, secret cops and stuff. You just got to be smart about it. I met people all the time that were like, oh,

I lost my iPhone and my camera and my passport. And I was like, well, why were you carrying them down to the beach? Why would, yeah. Or why would you bring those? I don't think it brought anything valuable with me.

Cause I'm like, just in case something happens, I don't want to be like, oh crap, I lost my really expensive laptop. I've had a, like I had my credit card stolen in Latin America. I think that's the only thing I've ever had stolen.

I mean, yeah. The other thing is I have a rule where the other thing I love about going to cheaper places is that I've totally gotten lost in the middle of the night by myself or not. I get a cab. Yeah, exactly. And it costs me all the $5 to get back to my hostel. Exactly. I mean, I'm not saying like, you know, I know there's places like I heard, you know, quite a few stories in Venezuela and stuff.

Like when people, when I was in Colombia, people coming from Venezuela, like, yeah, you go to Venezuela, you're going to be kidnapped. But, you know, other than that, you know, there are other, you're right. Something could happen. But I could also be walking in Vancouver. Exactly. There's just as much chance. You know how people are afraid to fly.

Well, there's probably a bigger chance that you'll get struck by lightning. There's a way bigger chance you're going to get into a car accident. Exactly. So you can't really live your life being afraid of these things because you may miss out on some really awesome experiences. The other thing I loved, especially when I was doing six months on, six months off, is you just didn't have the time to acquire anything because I'd come home and I'd be like, well, what's the point of investing in this new TV

or this new couch? I'm just going to be leaving again in six months. I don't care. And I love that. TV or this new couch or like, I'm just going to be leaving again in six months. Exactly. I don't care. And I love that. And I think when you're on the road for six months living out of a backpack, so you literally have 10 to 12 kilos, you have three t-shirts, you just realize that you really don't need a lot.

I mean, obviously you can get away with a lot more when you're backpacking, but you really are used to the minimal lifestyle. And then when you get home, you're just like, oh, nice bed. But yeah. Yeah, you realize, hey, this doesn't actually change my happiness in any way. Like for a split second, if you buy something new, ooh, that'd be fun. But otherwise, yeah. And you know, it's funny that you say that just because when we had to sell all of our

stuff here in Vancouver, because we didn't want to bring that much. We just had like a carload of stuff. Drove to Toronto. You know, we weren't really sure how we didn't want to bring that much. We just had a carload of stuff. Drove to Toronto. We weren't really sure how long we were going to stay in Toronto. So we were like, well, let's not try to accumulate anything. We bought some furniture because we needed to. We had nothing. But otherwise, it's like literally I didn't buy books because I didn't

want to bring a bunch of books back if we decide, oh, this sucks. We're going to move back. And so we've been really careful on not buying stuff. it's been actually really nice like sometimes like i kind of wish we had like another side table or something like that but otherwise it doesn't really change our happiness in that way if anything it's kind of nice not having a bunch of stuff to clutter your house or i don't know just anything And another kind of like the first time I experienced that was when, you know, I was 18 and went to Gambia as a volunteer and yeah, I was pretty much living out

of the backpack for the first time for two months. And when I came back, I was just so like, it just shocked me how materialistic everyone was and they didn't notice they were. It's not like they were doing it maliciously. It's just everyone just put so much importance on stuff and because I'd be living out of a backpack for two months I had no idea why I'm like, I don't want that stuff anymore. I feel so free not having anything because it really means that

the opportunities are limitless. If I want to jump on a plane tomorrow and it's not like I'll have to figure out where to put all my stuff. My roommate and I always joke that we leave the door open quite a bit. You do.

It's not a big deal. My landlord's lived here for 40 years. She's never had it broken into. This is a safe neighborhood. But also, if someone broke in, what would they take? Exactly.

My eight-year-old laptop. And a six-year-old. I don't know. Got some beer in the fridge. Yeah, I don't know what they would take. I mean, to be fair, when I moved in, I moved in five years ago. It was with another friend. Our other friend had moved out.

And so they, and our other friend had moved to Hawaii, so she was moving away. So she had like quite a bit of stuff. But she had acquired some stuff. Anyways, everything's basically like secondhand. And I've lived in the same place five years. The rent hasn't gone up, which has been really lucky. But I haven't looked for a nicer place. And a lot of people who see this place are like,

oh. It's fine. But I don't know. It's good enough. This is like a typical Vancouver place, honestly, though. Yeah. Yeah, it's a character home. Yeah, it is. There's lots of character. And what I love about it is that we can have people over all the time,

and we don't worry about, oh, you spilled on the coffee table. I don't care. It's true. So, yeah. Well, I think we're going to kind of wrap things up. Wow. We talked about a lot of stuff. Thanks so much for joining me.

This is really awesome that we could do that. You're welcome. So just to plug Steph a little bit more before we go, she has her travel blog, which you can find at borderlinecrazyblog.com. And if any of you are in Vancouver and you want to volunteer for BEST or anything so you can visit their website at best.bc.ca

awesome we also have thebicyclevalet.ca which is kind of our main program absolutely awesome and they're also on Instagram too aren't you? I'm following you guys on Instagram of course I am Instagram You've got great photos. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, usual social media stuff.

Cool. And you all know this, but if ever you want to learn more about myself, you can check my blog out at momoneymohouses.com and Twitter and Facebook and all that jazz. So yeah, thank you so much for listening to another episode of Mo Money Mo Houses. And stay tuned for the next episode. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.