Erica Love, Pitt in D.C.-Brussels Summer 2023
On my trip, we kept a relatively consistent schedule. Weekdays normally included lectures or site visits in the morning, an hour or so break for lunch, and then would continue through the afternoon. Our evenings and weekends were completely free.
In terms of budgeting, I will admit that it was a bit tougher than I thought it would be. Having spent virtually no time in D.C. in particular, I didn’t realize how much more expensive things would be there compared to where I live, namely meals. I had to quickly adapt to the reality that even getting lunch at a casual restaurant or chain would always land me in the $15-$20 range, while in my hometown or in Pittsburgh the same meal would come in around $10 max.
Luckily, I happen to be a pretty budget-conscious person, so I avoided a lot of shopping or otherwise frivolous spending. A definite benefit to the portion of my program in D.C. was that most of our activities and sightseeing was free, since we were provided with loaded metro cards and also, the Smithsonian museums and many other mainstream attractions are free to visit.
In Brussels, things such as food were still a tad on the expensive side, but not nearly as bad as in D.C. and mostly only in the more touristy areas. Again, we also had preloaded metro cards here, but when we did run out of rides and refill them, the rates were rather cheap.
During one particular weekend, some of my friends and I decided to buy train tickets to travel elsewhere. Though this is definitely an expensive venture, we saved money by getting student rates which was very helpful. I would say as some general advice to others to always look for student discounts with anything because you never know where you might find them!
Another tip I have to save money is to take advantage of free meals. In both D.C. and Brussels, our hotel breakfasts were free. Though I personally don’t get hungry for breakfast, I really tried to strategize and make sure I was getting all the bang for my buck that I could. Sometimes we would even try to bring some extras from breakfast along with us, like fruits or single serve cereal boxes.
The last thing I did aside from generally being smart about where I spent and what I spent on was buying my flight home very far in advance. This may be general knowledge, but nonetheless as soon as I knew the dates of my trip, I bought my tickets for my connecting flight home so that they wouldn’t sell out and I would get a good rate.
Above all, I think the best way to save money and budget is to try and adapt a lot of your habits from home and apply them to your life abroad. Many people may go on a trip with the intent of buying a lot of souvenirs and eating at the best of the best restaurants, but I found that if I continued to use sensible spending habits and did not go on any crazy shopping sprees, I was able to spend comfortably.
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