Secret tip for saving money in Switzerland

Oh, yodelers. Lately, The Frau has been talking about things she wish she’d known about life in Switzerland, only to discover one important thing eight years too late.

As most yodelers know, tips for saving money in Switzerland can seem as secretive as a Swiss bank (pre-American government intervention, at least).

For the last eight years, The Frau has left Switzerland for several weeks at a time to travel or visit family in the States. Little did she know she could have been making money while she was gone.

Ja. By turning in her GA (Swiss Train Pass).

Here’s what The Frau should have done:

Before you go on a long trip, give your GA to your local SBB train station. You can do this up to three days before you leave. They then give you a travel card that is valid to use until you leave the country and upon your return, so you don’t need to worry about getting to and from the airport.

When you return to your home station, you simply pick up your GA and receive a voucher for use at any SBB. The Frau’s husband was gone for 13 days so he turned in his GA for the first time and here’s what he got:

A voucher for CHF 126.

The amount works out to be less than CHF 10 per day, and you also have to pay a CHF 10 fee just to turn it in, but it's still totally worth it if you’re going to be gone anyway.

The Frau is sad she didn't know about this offer years earlier since it certainly would have saved–at least her parents–a lot of money in train fare. 

But alas, The Frau’s loss is your gain. 

Enjoy reading about Swiss life? Then you might enjoy The Frau’s new book, Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known. It even has a section on Mutterhood. Available at fine online retailers and on Zurich’s most famous shopping street too (Bahnhofstrasse 70).

12 Keywords That Bring You Here, Part I

The Frau isn’t really into analytics, but that doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy the Google version. Especially when it tells her how people like you end up here. Over the next two weeks, The Frau will explore 12 interesting keywords that yodelers are using to arrive at One Big Yodel, along with a short commentary and links to other blog posts on these oh, so popular topics.

Life in Switzerland for foreigners

All roads lead to The Frau

Oh, here is the keyword search that sums up The Frau’s entire Swiss experience and blog. Well done, Google searchers! Here are some additional posts you might like:

Foreigner or expat in Switzerland?

9 questions about Switzerland

Six years in Switzerland

Why is Switzerland so rich

Great question, searchers. Well, for one thing, the Swiss buy Swiss. They support themselves whenever possible. It’s a nice concept. But very expensive. Click on the link below for more.

Dear Frau: Why are the Swiss so rich?

Giving birth in Switzerland

How does Google know? Yes, The Frau gave birth in Switzerland. Welcome, future mothers.  You may find a few posts below interesting. Swiss hospitals are very supportive. Just don’t order the sausage salad and you’ll have a pleasant experience.

Five reasons Switzerland is a great place to have a baby

Having a baby in Switzerland: Are you ready?

You know you’re becoming a Swiss parent when…

Reka Checks

Why yes, Google, The Frau will do anything to save money in Switzerland. And Reka Checks are perfect for saving up to 20% on things like train tickets, hotels, and ski lifts. Here are some posts for the Reka-curious:

How to use REKA checks

Your Very own Swiss Holiday Preishit

Eight ways to save money in Switzerland

Switzerland on a budget

Buy Christmas Tree Zürich

The Frau has brought a lot of things home on a bus. A Christmas tree. A carpet. Her brand new baby. But she digresses, quick answer for "Buy Christmas Tree Zürich": The Frau buys her Christmas tree at the Jumbo Hardware store because they start selling trees around Thanksgiving (end of November) and she doesn’t have the patience to wait until the week before Christmas when they sell them right below her building.

How to buy and get rid of your Swiss Christmas tree

Christmas tree transport success

Swiss blggers

Not sure why so many people spell bloggers without the “o” but thanks, Google, The Frau learns something every day. Is The Frau a Swiss blgger or an American blgger? Or is she stuck somewhere between both worlds? For more Swiss blgs, check out the links below.

Reader Appreciation Day

Yodeler Appreciation Day

Stay tuned for six more great keyword searches next week...

Your Very Own Swiss Holiday Preishit

Attention Yodeler Glühwein Connoisseurs and Fellow Cheapskates,

Maybe you’ve noticed how much the Swiss hate cheapness. If not, consider that their term for a sale—Preishit—has the word “shit” in it.

This mulled wine deal has your name on it...
at least if you're The Frau.

So The Frau was pleased when a Glühwein money-saving theory was brought to her attention by a Swiss German-speaking American lawyer who buys anything he can with REKA checks.

Because REKA Lawyer can’t buy mulled wine with REKA (and he really really likes wine), he has developed a way to save at least as much money on Glühwein as he does using REKA to buy his train tickets.

Drum roll.

His theory is:

The first Glühwein stand at any Swiss Christmas market will charge you the most for a cup of the sweet stuff. If you want to save 10% a glass or more, keep walking (it’s a Swiss pastime anyway), and move further into the market.

The Frau loves saving money, especially in Switzerland, so she has tested REKA Lawyer’s theory at two markets in the last week and both have proven it correct. Last night at the Baden Weihnachtsmarkt, The Frau scored a glass of Glühwein for CHF 3 from a stand in the middle of the market. Take that, CHF 5-Glühwein stand at the front of the market!

Viel Spass with your next Glühwein Preishit, mitenand and Happy Holidays from One Big Yodel.

Switzerland on a Budget

The words "Switzerland" and "budget travel" are not often found in the same sentence. Wilkommen, tightwads, to The Frau's blog. Cheapskates, you've come to the right place, even if Zurich may, after your first CHF 30 ($32) plate of Kung Pao Chicken, seem to be the completely wrong place.  (For The Frau's Top 10, "No way, that cost what in Switzerland?" blog party, see The Frau's post about the cost of living in Zurich.)

Anyway, The Frau would like to apologize ahead of time for those of you who may try to buy used socks at a Swiss flea market and find that they're out of your price range. Zurich wasn't listed as the world's most expensive city this year for nothing.

Save money! Go to the dentist in Germany.

But fear not. The Frau is here. And she once was able to bargain a seller down to CHF 1 ($1.08) for a pair of used baby socks at a Swiss flea market (the things she goes through for Baby M!). It wasn't easy, but then again, it's not easy to save money in Switzerland.

So in honor of The Frau’s article on how to save money in Zurich in easyJet Magazine this month, she’d like to give those visiting and/or living in Switzerland a few additional tips.

Take Advantage of RailAway Offers

Every month and also for every season, the Swiss train system partners with places like ski resorts, zoos, and hotels to offer discounts to train riders going there. The catch? You have to buy the tickets at your local Swiss train station before you depart. So if you’re buying a RailAway offer to the zoo, you need go to your closest train ticket office before you start your journey and buy the rail, transfer, and zoo ticket together.

Try your luck at SuperSaver Tickets

These are limited and train-specific, but if you’re lucky, you might find a great train fare (up to 80% off) by searching SuperSaver Tickets online. For example, The Frau was once able to find a ticket from Zurich to Lugano for only CHF 11 using SuperSaver Tickets. Now that was a real deal. 

Rent an apartment instead of staying at a hotel

If you’ll be staying in Switzerland for at least a week in one location, try renting a Swiss holiday apartment instead of staying at a hotel. For example, last January, The Frau was able to rent an apartment in Oberwald for six adults and one baby for CHF 1000 for the entire week. Plus, you will save money by being able to cook your own meals. Make fondue for six for CHF 50 instead of CHF 200 by shopping at the grocery store.

Eat at grocery store restaurants   

Don’t want to cook your own food? Then do the second best thing. Eat at grocery store restaurants. Coop, Migros, and Manor all have buffet restaurants that are open during store hours (so don’t think of using them for a late night dinner or Sunday meal). For lunch at Coop, for example, you can try penne with mushroom cream sauce and a small side salad for CHF 10,95.

Drink from the tap

The Frau has never understood the high prices of beverages in Switzerland. So instead of BYOB, BYOS—bring your own Sigg bottle and fill it up with water from Swiss sinks and fountains to carry with you when you’re out and about.

Do you have any additional money-saving tips? The Frau does. Click here to read more about how to save money in Switzerland.

The Price of Free, Part I

The airline industry has an interesting way of defining free: by charging you for it.

In fact, the airline industry complicates “free” so much, that it’s going to take a few One Big Yodel posts to cover just how complicated free can be.

Let’s start with fares for infants, since Ms. One Big Yodel now has one.

Supposedly, infants (defined by children under two) fly free. I decided to test this theory by booking a flight.

Here’s what “free” means, defined by two different airlines for the same round-trip flight:

ZURICH to CHICAGO on SWISS

Infant price:

-Fare CHF 44

-Fuel Surcharge CHF 328

-Airport taxes CHF 52

TOTAL “FREE” FARE: CHF 424 ($460)

ZURICH to CHICAGO on UNITED (same code-share flight as SWISS)

Infant price: $106.40 (includes one 5-minute dropped call, one 45-minute phone call with a non-native English speaker, and plenty of bad on-hold music to determine)

TOTAL “FREE” FARE: $106.40

Conclusion:

1) As we all knew, nothing is free in Switzerland

2) The USA is no longer the Land of the Free but is still much cheaper than Switzerland

3) The only thing free about the infant ticket was the headache it took to figure out the best price

Have you been amazed by the airline industry recently?

Save money on your rent

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren

There's something your landlord probably isn't going to tell you.

The interest rates have fallen in Switzerland and therefore many renters are entitled to a rent decrease. The catch? Unlike rent increases (which have happened to us once already over the last four years) rent decreases don't typically happen automatically (unless you have a really nice landlord).

Please do not let language issues get in the way of your rightful savings like I have been guilty of doing in the past. Here are the basics about what you need to do:

1) Check your lease to see what the national reference rate that your current rent is based from (Hypothekarzinssatz). Our lease, from 2006, shows a rate of 3%, which was later raised in 2008 to 3.5%, which increased our rent a lovely SFr 150/month. The rate has just been lowered to 2.75%, so we should (fingers crossed) be entitled to a nice rent decrease.

2) To qualify for your decrease, you must send a letter by registered mail to the people you rent from. But don't worry, the letter is already written for you. You just need to download it and fill in the blanks. To download your letter, click here. As I understand it, you must send this letter within 30 days and every person listed on your lease must sign it. You can visit the renter's association website for more information by clicking here, where you'll also find the letter available in a Word document.

Here's to trying to save money in Switzerland! Good luck. And if anyone has information on where to find these letters in French, please let me know so I can add the links to help our friends on the other side of the roesti ditch.

Has anyone had success with rent reduction in Switzerland? Please share.

Vote for One Big Yodel on Expatica.com

Hi Yodelers,

If you read this blog regularly and sometimes enjoy what you read, then please hop over to Expatica.com today and vote for your favorite Switzerland blog post. My post, "Four Ways to Save Money in Switzerland," has been nominated and naturally I'm competitive and would like to win as well as save you money in a land where a plate of Chinese food is $25 (come on, Chinese food?).

Thanks for your support in making One Big Yodel the one of the loudest yodeling blogs out there.

Click here to vote.

Swiss Survival Kits

Hello Yodelers,

Tomorrow, stay tuned for another sorry soul who needs your help. I mean, stay tuned for the Dear Frau column. Thanks to all who gave advice last week on what to pack when moving to Switzerland. But in the meantime, some news and links for you:

Last week, I was over on Expatica giving advice on how to save money in Switzerland. Yes, it's possible.

Yesterday, I was over at ACC talking about the 25 ways you know you're in Switzerland. For instance, does every other country you visit now seem cheap?

And today I'm over at Two Fools in Zurich, trying to explain why Americans are so creative in German class.

Finally, I just started offering a Swiss Survival Kit, in other words, specially chosen items of interest for Yodelers on Amazon.com. Any items you order directly from this site will get me a profit of 4%. I can't wait to get rich. I might even make enough to buy a ketchup packet from the Swiss McDonald's! But mainly, I want to help, and these are the items that helped me survive this crazy country. If there are other items you've found helpful that I should know about, please leave a comment and I'll add them to the survival kit.

Dear Frau: What should I pack?

Welcome to the fourth edition of Dear Frau. It's kind of like Dear Abby, except with an international twist. If you have a question, be sure to contact the Frau and maybe your little Frage will be in next week's Dear Frau column.

Dear Frau:

I’m moving from the USA to Switzerland soon. Are there things I should definitely pick up here before moving?

Thanks,

Soon in Lausanne

Dear Soon in Lausanne,

Is Obama the U.S. President? Is Switzerland full of chocolate? Is this blog worth reading? The answer is yes.

Yes, you should definitely pick up things before moving to Switzerland especially if (1) you have a paid move and (2) want to save money.

It’s not that Switzerland doesn’t have stuff, it’s just that the stuff they sell is overpriced compared to its U.S. equivalent. And if you plan to go car-less like me and many expats living here, it makes living great, but buying things a hassle. (This comes from someone who knows hassle—she brings her six-foot Christmas tree home on a Swiss bus every year).

If there are certain non-perishable foods (and let’s be honest, in U.S. grocery stores that’s pretty much all there is) that you crave, make sure to stock up on those.

If you are moving American beds, it might be smart to buy an extra set of sheets because European bed sizes are different and if you soil your sheets, well, you don’t want to end up having to buy an entire new bed because of it.

If you’re a book-a-holic like the Frau, stock up on English books you want to read because they go about $30 a paperback in Switzerland. Planning on traveling around Europe? Buy a few guidebooks in advance. What about a French-English dictionary, n’est pas?

Shoes are another consideration to bring, especially athletic shoes, which in Switzerland can run $150-200 for a basic pair of running shoes. The Frau does not pretend to understand Swiss prices; she just tries to avoid paying them. (She recently discovered that Intersport sells sweatsuits for the reasonable equivalent of $150. Wow. No wonder Swiss people don't wear these things).

Cold/Flu medicine, aspirin, these would all be smart to bring since Swiss colds are nasty and the amount of foreign languages thrown around this little country can often cause headaches.

If you’re not being moved, that sucks but you’ll survive. And paying for a few extra suitcases on the plane may be worth it. Your best bet for affordable furniture in Switzerland is either IKEA or Interio.

Oh, and if you have room in your luggage after all of this, the Frau wouldn’t mind some Reese’s Pieces. The ones her sister brought her last week are almost gone already.

Now the Frau is tired, craving peanut butter (put that on the packing list!), and has run out of ideas. Anyone else have packing suggestions for our soon to be expat? What did you not bring and wish you had?

How to use REKA checks

For the last four years, my husband has been getting pay slips to order REKA checks from his company at a discount of 20%. REKA checks can be used to pay for holidays in Switzerland and have been around for decades.

But like most things during our first few years here, my expat brain could handle only so much stimulation, and so the REKA check stuff would get recycled with all of the other mail that wasn't absolutely necessary to figure out.

But now, after being here for almost four years, I have energy to figure out some new stuff. So when the REKA info arrived a couple of weeks ago, I actually ordered CHF 500 worth of REKA checks, which meant I got them for CHF 400 with the 20% discount. After receiving the checks in the mail, I went directly to the train station to buy overnight train tickets to Lake Bled and used them all up in one big payment. And they worked so great, the very next day, I ordered another CHF 400 worth.

So here's what you do if you get REKA stuff from your company: take the pay slip to the bank and pay it. About a week later, the mailman will ring your bell and you'll sign to receive your checks. If you order CHF 500 worth, you'll get one envelope with CHF 300 (all in CHF 10 denominations) and two envelopes, each with two CHF 50 denominations.

REKA has a website that shows all the places you can use REKA checks, but this website, like many Swiss websites, has much to be desired and almost never functions properly. So here's all you need to know:

You can use REKA checks for anything SBB/CFF/FFS. And that should be all you need to make them worth it. You can use the checks for buying local train tickets in the automated machines. You can use to checks to buy a ticket to Paris. You can use the checks to pay for an entire SBB vacation. And you can use them to buy your GA or half-price card.

If your company doesn't give you REKA checks at a discount, you can also buy them at COOP, but this is not such a great deal as you will only get a benefit of 3% (what a typical Swiss discount!). But still, if you're buying a GA or something pricey, it's an option if you want to save a bit of money.

If anyone has experience with REKA checks or just wants to comment on how to save money in Switzerland, please leave a comment.