When you embark on an exchange year, it’s like taking yourself to a new country and starting a new life with no one you knew before. It means you have a lot of freedom, but, of course, when you live with a host family, you have to follow rules you don’t necessarily agree with, and sometimes, those rules are not fair at all. They don’t adapt to you; it’s you who adapts to them.
In today’s article, I’d like to address one of the biggest issues that an exchange student can face: the money problem. Below are some of the reasons why it’s challenging to control spending, based on my experience in the exchange program so far.
1st Reason: Currency and Inflation
When you live in your home country, everything is priced the way it should be. This is because you grow up with that price tag, so your perception is that it’s normal and a fair price. However, when you move to another country with a different currency, located in another continent, they price things differently. During the first two months of my exchange, I barely spent any money buying the things I wanted to eat, the things I wanted to buy. Actually, I don’t feel like buying anything at all. After some time, I felt more comfortable in the country and started to spoil myself by spending money on the things that I wanted, but did not really need. This habit keeps growing, and now it’s quite tough to control my spending on food and snacks.
2nd Reason: Parental Control and Influence
The second obvious reason is that in my home country, my parents are there to control and influence what I buy. They help me decide what tech gear I want to buy and how useful it will be. Here, I’m all on my own, making all the decisions. This is also because my parents want me to learn to manage my own money, so they don’t interfere much with my decision on spending.
3rd Reason: Travel and Commute Fee
All the costs of traveling, including the commuting fee from home to school and vice versa, are paid entirely by me. In Thailand, I have an unlimited budget for commuting to school or to important events, and when it comes to traveling, I always go with my family and that means that they cover my gas fee and my travel expenses like when I buy food and snacks. Also, because I and my friends want to explore many cities of Sicily (an island we live, in Italy), we have to pay quite a lot of money to go between cities at least in my opinion, because in the past I don’t have to pay and now I am paying the train and bus fee of around 15-30 euros. These fees add up significantly.
When I want to go to another city with my group of friends, the thought of the fact that this trip will cost me another 30 euros comes to my mind every single time. While it’s quite depressing to have this thought pop up every time when I am deciding to go on a trip, it’s important to think of how much you will allow yourself to spend in order to stay within the budget. Especially in the last 3 weeks of the exchange when every exchange student just wants to go out and make the most out of this year abroad. But just a reminder that every trip costs money and I already run over my budget, but I am planning to go on the last trip that will cost me 30 euros. Lastly, I promise myself that this will be my final trip in Italy and I will end it with this one. (The reason behind my decision to go on another trip when I am already running over the budget is that this is my last 2 weeks in Italy and actually, I still have quite a lot in my savings because luckily, I saved up quite a lot during my first few months into the exchange.)
All of the above reasons are the ones that I come down to the realization myself, but the following reasons after this will be the ones that are suggested by ChatGPT which I found are true and resonate with me. Keep in mind that the thoughts on each reason are formed entirely by me, just that the title or the reason’s perspective is recommended by the ChatGPT.
4th Reason: Socialization and Peer Pressure
ChatGPT suggested that this might be one of the reasons and I think it’s very true from my experience over the past 8–9 months in the exchange program. There are some times that I have a night out with my friends or my host brother’s friends. On those nights, we usually go to eat at a burger place or play bowling or billiards. All of the 3 things I mentioned in the previous sentence cost money, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little because we share the fee like billiards for example. I am saying that it’s not my fault, neither is theirs. The problem is that if we want to go out at night and we don’t do these activities, there is barely anything else to do. And Italian teenagers only go out at night with friends. On the other hand, most of the Thai teenagers (I am Thai) that I know go out to socialize in the afternoon after school and return home before 7 or 8 in the evening. In Thailand, if you go out at night like Italians, we consider those people as not good kids. Our lifestyle is frankly different, completely different. For example, Italian people wake up at 9 or 10 if it’s a weekend. But Thai people consider the people that wake up later than 8:30 as lazy people. A lot of Thai citizens usually wake up between 6 and 8 in the morning which is considered way too early in Italy.
I want to mention the peer pressure point too because when your friends are eating burgers, you don’t want to just sit there and stare at them while they eat. My personal solution is that sometimes I eat a burger, and sometimes I eat a hotdog because it’s cheaper. And even though a hotdog is smaller in quantity compared to a burger, I just don’t want to eat a lot in the evening anyways so it’s not a problem. At night you shouldn’t be eating a lot too scientifically, because you might have Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) if you go to bed right after you finish eating. The ideal time you should be going to bed is 3 hours after you are done eating according to my quick Google search, which is not what Italians do as far as I’ve seen.
5th Reason: Emotional Comfort
This point, suggested by ChatGPT, is something I can’t verify fully, because I love to buy tech gear once in a while no matter what. In Thailand, I often ask my dad to buy me tech gear and justify its benefits. Also, I have to raise the point that when I am in Thailand, I get a different amount of pocket money from my dad compared to this year when I take my exchange program. So when it comes to this, I can’t really clarify and distinguish the difference that Emotional Comfort has significantly influenced my spending. But one thing is that I see myself buying the tech product that I want faster in the sense that I don’t think about it for 2 weeks or a month before buying it, instead that duration lasts between 2 days to 2 weeks at max. Actually, I recognize this is something I should change about myself, I have just came to recognize that.
What do you think about these reasons? How’s your experience with money management? Let me know in the comment. And thank you for sticking around until the end.
As always,
See you later, alligator!