Pinching Pennies

One of the reasons my husband and I have gotten along so well lo these many years is that we're both cheap. Well, perhaps thrifty is a better way of putting it. It's not that we won't spend money; it's more that we're careful about how we do it -- no designer bags, business class, fancy hotels, or 16 euro coupes de champagne for us. We have lots of fun for a whole lot less and whatever thread count our 15 year old sheets are, that's good enough for me.

As they say, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. My mother-in-law loves to find a bargain at the Dollar Store in her home town and she can squeeze a nickel like nobody's business. She's not up to traveling these days and I guess it's a good thing because there ain't no such thing as a Dollar Store here. Instead you've got this:



The times (and the exchange rate), they are a changing. Who knows? If the euro continues its slide, two euros might end up being closer in value to a dollar than anyone could ever have imagined.

The Logic of French Banking

Ages ago I ranted about my inability to break a 50 euro bill at a French bank, a bank at which I am a paying client. (Yes, there's really no such thing as free banking in France. But maybe that's the way things are going all over.) Since then, I've heard other expats with the same beef, boiling over with frustration at ATMs that dispense 50 euro bills like candy, bills that if presented at your local boulangerie, news kiosk, or grocery will be met with raised eyebrows, pursed lips, and request for a smaller bill.

But then this week, I heard another story that got to me to thinking. An acquaintance, who is the treasurer for a local volunteer organization, was explaining that her bank will not allow her to deposit cash. Actually she used to be able to make deposits but during a recent renovation, the branch lost its facilities for securing large sums of cash. So "checks only" is now the order of the day; if she must deposit cash, she has to go to the one location near the Opera (one of the most touristy areas of Paris and one where pickpockets are hard at work) to do so. Yes, that's right. A bank that doesn't accept cash because apparently it doesn't have a real safe.

Aha! It was a light bulb moment. They can't give you cash because they haven't got any. Makes sense right?

Perhaps only in some alternate universe that we will just call "France."

On further reflection, it was one of the moments when I realized that while I am slowly beginning to understand how this country works, I still don't get it.

Measuring Up

I spent entirely too much time on Facebook the other day, having a heated discussion with a friend of a friend about health care reform in the U.S. Me: yes! now! Her: no way! The conversation was making me crazy mostly because she was busy spouting statistics that made no sense and I got myself all in a tizzy, scouring the Internet for better information on comparative health indicators, health spending, tax burden, etc. She could have cared less; it was all "socialism" to her.

Now here comes President Sarkozy with another idea that's going to make Americans like her completely flip out: stop measuring the nation's well-being with the single measure of gross domestic product (income) and start measuring it with more complex indicators that also account for quality of life or as the French say "joie de vivre" including vacation time, health care, and family relationships. I'm sure this will spark a huge debate on how to measure and weight these factors, all of which merit careful discussion. What I like is the acknowledgement that while money itself counts (and counts a lot), it shouldn't be the only measure of societal success. You can read more about the news in the Wall Street Journal.

A tip of the hat to my friend Fernando back in DC for sharing this link.

Paris by the Numbers

The folks over at Mercer Worldwide have published their annual survey of the world's most expensive cities for expatriates and Paris has dropped from number 12 to number 13, cheaper than New York but more expensive than London. Interestingly, they've also rated the cost of a fast food hamburger meal in these same spots and the numbers are completely different. In that ranking, Dublin is the most expensive and Tokyo (which took top honors overall) drops to eighth. Paris tied for fourth place with Brussels. (Chalk it up to the ubiquity of McDonald's worldwide that they even have the data for such analysis.)

And for those with a jones for statistics, here are a number of other facts you may find interesting:

The population of Paris is 2.1 million.

The population of Ile de France (Paris plus its surrounding suburban communities) is 10.5 million.

The Louvre is host to 5 million visitors annually.

The number of trips taken on the subway annually is a whopping 1.365 billion.

There are 37 bridges crossing the Seine in Paris alone.

There are 1,200 museums in France.

The French spend 15 percent of their income on food; American spend only about 10 percent on food.

Only 18 percent of Americans are smokers compared with 27 percent of the French.

The average annual rainfall in Paris is 25 inches, which is actually way less than DC (39.3 inches). I tried in vain to find comparative international statistics on days of sunshine which I thought might be more illuminating.

Banking Crisis

This was one for the record books. The other day, I stopped at the ATM to get some money and dang it, if it didn't give me 50 euro bills. As I've probably noted before, it's not hard to spend 50 euros in Paris but there's no way you can use a 50 to buy a baguette, a newspaper, or any other purchase under 20 euros. So I went on into the bank and asked the teller if she could give me smaller bills. Her response? We don't have change. I hope I didn't roll my eyes but that's what I felt like doing. Instead I just said thanks and left.

A little while later, I passed by another branch of my bank and thought I'd give it another go. This time the teller didn't give me an automatic no. Instead, he said he'd have to ask his colleague who happened to be busy with another client. Okay fair enough. So we waited and waited. Finally the colleague wrapped up the business with the other client and she told the teller who was "serving" me, yes fine. He made me fill out a form and took a photocopy of my ID. Then he opened up his drawer. Guess what? No change. He rooted around in another drawer for an additional set of keys and told me that he'd have to go downstairs to the safe. His colleague came along. After a bit, she came back up, searching for more keys, saying there was a problem with the safe. Finally, some 15 minutes after this whole ordeal started, my own teller re-emerged and handed over the three bills in change: 2 twenties and a ten.

I'd heard that banks were tight with credit these days but change?

Not All Change is Good

Life in the Euro zone means handling a lot of change. You got your 1 and 2 euro coins. And then there's the small change: 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 centimes. On September 1st, a new 5 euro coin came out. There must not be that many in circulation, because I never saw one until today when I received one after a transaction at the post office. As you can see, it's shiny and silver and looks a little bit like a carnival token.

Who knew though that trying to get rid of that sucker would nearly cause an international incident? The cashier at our corner market took one look at it and asked me what it was. I tried to reassure her that it was real French money and even got the backing of the fellow behind me in the line. But she was spooked and went off to consult the manager. And of course, the line at the register started growing and the grumbling from the other customers started. After what seemed like ages, she came back smiling and rang up my one purchase, a two-liter bottle of milk. And of course, she made absolutely sure I knew that it wasn't her fault. (Trust me, that's a classic.) For the amount of trouble it caused, I'll stick with the 5 euro bills.

A Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear

Okay so the global economy is headed straight into the toilet and there's not much we can do but sit on the sidelines and watch our pensions and the kids' college savings accounts swirl downward into the abyss. But there is one small bit of good news for American expats: the dollar is the strongest that it's been in over a year, clocking in at the close of business Friday at $1.35 per euro. (It was as bad as $1.60 last winter.) I've had my share of economics courses but lately, it seems the more I read, the less I understand. In the meantime, our daily bread is that much cheaper. Guess I'll take what I can get.

Purchasing Power

Well the rankings are out and it turns out that Paris isn't the most expensive place for expats to live. Not even close. Moscow comes out on top of Mercer's latest Worldwide Cost of Living survey and Paris, in 15th place, is lagging behind several other European cities including London, Copenhagen, Geneva, Zurich, and Milan. Kind of softens the blow of those 4.5 euro café crèmes. Thanks to the weakening dollar, New York is way down the list at number 22 and my adopted hometown, Washington, DC, is a veritable Filene's Basement at 107th. I'd go out and celebrate, only we're going to Denmark soon so I'd better save my nickels, oops I meant centimes, darn it, that's kroner.

It's About Change

I'm doing my best to follow the U.S. presidential primaries from a distance. Not only is it the most important election in my voting lifetime, it is also so far the most exciting. While it's easy to keep track of the wins and losses, I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of the subtext. As my mother used to say, all notes and no music. But Barack Obama's mantra about change has definitely come through loud and clear.

I've been thinking a lot about change lately too although not the kind that's on Obama's mind. It's the French retailer's obsession with change of the monetary variety. I don't know whether cashiers don't want to be bothered making change or they are saving it for something special. Just what that might be, I have no idea. In a typical situation this morning, I offered a museum clerk a 20€ bill for a 7€ admission only for her to ask, "don't you have anything smaller?" Now let's get this straight, ATMs here dole out 20€ bills the same way American ATMs dole out $20 bills, in other words, constantly. If you have a 50€ bill, good luck to you because you can't break it for something like groceries or stamps. In a moment earlier this week when I felt that I had finally crossed the French-American cultural chasm, I actually apologized to the clerk before she started ringing up my items that all I had was a 50.

The change issue goes deeper. Several months ago, I stopped in at a market and bought a few items with the total coming to something like 3.30€. I handed the clerk a five and stood there with my change purse open, waiting for her to hand me back my small change. And can you believe it, she actually pulled my wallet towards here and started rooting around in the change compartment for exact change. I was so taken aback, I didn't say a thing. She found what she wanted and handed me back my 5€ bill.

So what's the deal? I haven't got a clue. Which do you suppose will happen first, the U.S. elects its first black president or a French cashier, when asked to make change, responds, "Yes, we can"?

The Not-So-Almighty Dollar

The last month we've been watching the U.S. dollar, not particularly strong six months ago, go into what seems like a free fall against the euro. When the euro became legal tender in 1992, it was trading at about 86 cents to the euro. Last spring, the euro was up to around $1.30 and by fall, it was hovering between $1.40 and $1.46. On Friday, it closed at $1.57. This morning in early trading, it's gone to $1.59. When the pundits said it would go to $1.60, no one believed it. And yet now we're pretty much there.

All things considered, it's probably not the best time to be an American in Paris. In the great heyday of American expats, Hemingway and his pals were buying francs at 35 to the dollar compared to about 6 or 7 francs to the dollar at the time of the switchover to the euro. But what are you going to do? Sigh. Just pour me another glass of good French wine.

Paying with Plastic

Credit cards are rarely used in France. That being said, paying with plastic is very big but most everyone uses debit cards. Except for in the subway, where you can use your carte bancaire for purchases as little as a euro plus change, most places have a 15 euro minimum. (With prices being what they are, that's never much of a problem, though.) In restaurants, when you pull your card out to pay, the waiter brings over a wireless handheld terminal, inserts your card and then hands it back to you to punch in your PIN or as the French say "code secret". Out comes the receipt and you are on your way, no need for a signature and no need to add the tip because it is already included. (To be nice, you should leave a euro or two for the server, but no more.) Very cool.

Sticker Shock

Six months into our stay, I'm pretty adept with the euro and can even give a cashier exact change without too much trouble. Getting used to the high price of living in Paris is another thing. To give you a sense of what I mean by "high", here's a list of some of the things you might buy while in Paris, whether as a tourist or resident, and the typical prices in our well-to-do neighborhood(assuming the euro is about $1.46):

• two liter bottle of milk(just a bit more than a half gallon): $3.73
• Starbucks tall coffee (actually, here the smallest size is called "moyen" or medium): $3.77
• cup of coffee in a local café: $3.51
• cup of coffee on the Champs Elysées: $6.58
• sandwich at your local bakery: from about $5.40 to about $8.00
• chicken: $1.96 per pound for the whole chicken and up to $5.14 per pound for split breasts; roasted whole chicken from the butcher's rotisserie: about $12
• baguette fresh from the oven: a steal at $1.31
• bottle of wine from the corner market: from $2.07 (which looked questionable) to about $15; many bottles can be had in the $4-$6 range.
• the least you can probably pay for dinner in Paris in a non fast food restaurant (for two courses, not including wine or coffee but including tax and tip): $36.57
• two Snickers bars out of a vending machine: $2.92

The good news: walks through the city and most museums are free for those under 18 and free for all the first Sunday of every month.

Show Me the Money

Guess where we bank in France? Yep, that's right: Societe Generale, the bank that has reportedly lost over $7 billion at the hands of a single employee conducting fictitious trades. Our debit cards are still working, and at least we don't own any stock which at this point is worth less than half than its value a week ago. Guess that greed is a universal phenomenon.

Check Writing 101

Seeing how it's getting to be the end of the year, I sat down this morning to write out some checks to charities back home. I always do this once a year in December because it's the only way I can keep track of to whom I've given. Suddenly I found myself confused because the last dozen checks I've written have been on our French account, and like so many other things, the French checks are just a bit different. How so? Well, you start on the first line with the amount in text, giving you a chance to practice your numbers. The second line is for the payee. On the date line, you must of course remember to write the date with the day first and then the month and then fill in the all important "à" (not to be confused with the "à" who is the payee) showing where you wrote the check. (Why? I have no clue.) Then comes the tricky part....the signature. Naturally this is the most important part of the check but there is no line for signing! So just slap that John Hancock somewhere in the lower right hand corner and you're done. Now I just have to remember not to write "le 14 decembre" on my Chevy Chase Bank checks.