Peace Corps Week

This week I wanted to talk about budgeting – but I first want to acknowledge that last week was Peace Corps week. J.F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. It was a time when our leaders recognized the importance of helping others and the idea that one person can significantly contribute to world peace and friendship. These ideas live on in the Peace Corps – in the volunteers serving around the world and with the returned volunteers who have forever changed the lives of others and so have had their live forever changed.

I believe all people are created equal – and all deserve a fair shot at living to their potential. Peace Corps is just one small way – everyone can do their part – everyone needs to do their part to make the world a better place by supporting others. We have way way to much greed and selfishness that wastes our planet’s most important resource – human potential – in America and around the world. (We of course also waste most of our planet’s other resources...)

Pictures from Ghana and Grenada celebrating Peace Corps week

Expenses covered by Peace Corps

Peace Corps pays to fly the volunteer to the country of service and pays to fly the volunteer back home. If one goes back home on vacation during service – those flights are paid by the volunteer. Medical expenses are covered. Peace Corps also pays a $350 U.S. dollar (USD) a month “readjustment allowance”. This is “paid” each month for the purpose of taxing SSA and medicare – but not “paid paid” until close of of service to help the volunteer get back into living in the states.

If the volunteer has to pay rent – Peace Corps pays for that as well.

Budgeting

For the normal living expenses Peace Corps intends the volunteer to live more or less like a middle class villager. Volunteers get a living allowance and a taxable living allowance. I never figured out how they determine how much of the living allowance is taxable, but it is a small percent of the total living allowance. On Grenada we also get a little bit extra for utilities.

Living allowance varies around the world – but generally works more or less most of the time – I find it helps to budget. My first year in Ghana was rough with a rapidly changing exchange rate, but became easier when we got an increase in the second year to adjust for increased prices. I was not sure how it would be here so I’ve been closely watching my budget these last few months to see how I need to spend to live within my means. Full disclosure: I’ve always lived in a budget so this is nothing new to me. And yes I am very detail oriented.

After about three months of watching my spending carefully and building up a supply of nonperishable food I see that I have been under budget by about 25%.

Tracking spending

Electricity is extremely costly on the islands. I can get hot showers, but that uses electricity – so about half the time I have cold showers which is refreshing after a hot day. I have a fan, but don’t use it. I don’t have wifi in the house so I walk to the school/church to upload this blog and do other such bandwidth intensive activities. I do have a 3 gig data plan on my phone so I can communicate with family, friends, and such anytime. That also helps in disaster situations like Hurricane Maria. I track data usage during the month with a spreadsheet so I will not go over. My utilities have not extraordinarily expensive.

A bit of my bandwidth spreadsheet with a correlation line indicating my daily usage

Obviously food and drink are the biggest expenses. I buy frozen chicken parts and I don’t eat meat every day – although I do get a daily source of protein even if it is sardines or peanut better. I buy plantains and other fruits and vegetables rather than canned or frozen food. My meals are generally simple and I don’t buy much processed foods. Milk and cereal are rather expensive so my normal cold cereal breakfast in the states has been replaced by a lot of oatmeal (because it’s easy) but also french toast, or something else cooked.

When I’ve gone out to eat it has been at low cost local places – good food with no drink as I always carry a water bottle.

I generally have a supply of coke, beer, wine, and rum in my house – I am a Peace Corps volunteer after all. However, I limited myself to no more than one a day and not every day. So if I have a coke – I’ll not have a beer the same day. OK, OK, sometimes I have a rum and coke – as I said – Peace Corps volunteer ;-).

A bit of my budget spreadsheet

All of this may sound rather drastic. However, this is much easier than Ghana – but that was because of the limited availability of fresh food as well as the living allowance issues in the first year.

Still, most of my neighbors and the families of my students go through much more serious budgeting. I have it easy.

On the other hand – part of the benefit of a Peace Corps volunteer to the country of service is the contribution to the local economy. Now that I know the baseline spending I can be a little more relaxed about my spending. This will mean a little more in the collection basket each week at Church and I will be more likely to travel into Grenville for mid-week shopping and to eat out. I can up my spending a couple of hundred Eastern Caribbean dollars a month and still be within budget.

Note: Some volunteers use their “American money” to make service a little easier, and some a lot easier. Each person has their own approach to Peace Corps. I hope this post doesn’t scare people away from the Peace Corps – it is a challenge in many ways – but most people don’t spend as much focus on budgeting as I do and manage just fine.

There is one more category of monthly stipend that volunteers around the world receive – the travel or leave allowance. This is a stipend defined in US dollars but paid in the local currency. The purpose is to allow the volunteer to see the country and or the region of service. In Ghana it was $25 USD and it looks like it is now $35 USD/month. So far I’ve not dipped into this money – it is accruing each month on a spreadsheet and will be used sometime in the future.

In summary a volunteer can live decently relative to local standards on the money provided by Peace Corps. I track my budget but most don’t go into that much detail. I have the utmost respect for the people in the world who can manage very tight finances in there heads like their lives depend on it – because it does. Those people deserve our help and support to live up to their potential.


Love always,
John