The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Friday, February 1, 2019

January Expenses

Well, nice to see our expense report is finally back to normal for January! In fact, it's the cheapest month for us in almost a year.

Normally, we do not spend very much money while touring Mexico. Last year's trip was an anomaly because we were still responsible for our fuel and toll road costs and there was a lot more driving involved than usual. This year, our route is a lot less distance and we try to stay off toll roads when it makes sense to do so.

We spent a total of $1,430 CAD ($1,095 USD) for the month of January. Here's how it all broke down...

Gasoline: Fuel is expensive now in Mexico. It's about $1.33 CAD per liter, or about $3.80 USD per gallon. We spent $358 CAD on gasoline in January.

Toll Roads: We spent $149 CAD on toll highways in Mexico. Most of that is related to bypassing Mexico City to the north. February should be quite a bit cheaper in this department.

Propane: We filled up the propane tank near the beginning of the month and it cost 10.5 pesos per liter ($0.73 CAD per liter, $2.00 USD per gallon). We spent $32 CAD in January and we will have to top it up again sometime in February.

Groceries: The grocery bill is fairly low, at $229 CAD. That's actually a pretty typical month for groceries in Mexico because we tend to eat out more while in Mexico... as is evidenced by the higher "entertainment" category below.

Alcohol: We spent $135 CAD on booze for the month. Not bad.

Miscellaneous: We spent $155 CAD on miscellaneous stuff. About $43 of that was related to taxis and local transportation. And $50 for cellular and data. The rest was laundry etc.

Entertainment: We spent $182 CAD on entertainment, and that includes all meals out. In fact, $160 of that was meals out!

Overnight: Our camping expenses are covered by the caravan, however we paid out $139 CAD for the two night hotel room in Mexico City.

Travel: We paid $48 for our transportation to and from Mexico City.

So, not a bad month and we expect both February and March to be similar.

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10 comments:

  1. January sucks for us - I spent 15X that! When do you expect to be in QRoo?

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    Replies
    1. Hey Kent... not coming that far this year! 15X... holy crap... what did you buy??

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  2. Property taxes for the Texas house we are never at is half of it! Ugh. Enjoying your travels, hug to Ruth!

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    Replies
    1. Ouch, sort a makes you wonder if you still really need to have that property! Thanks for the hug. :-)

      Hope you are both doing well and enjoying your time on Cozumel.

      Ruth

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  3. As always your expenses are super low - liquor prices in Mexico are fortunately still quite good (hubby was happy to see vodka which even then was all imported at about $12 CAD for a 26). I partook in the rum which was even cheaper

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    Replies
    1. Much better than they are in Canada. I like the rum here as well, and yes it is pretty darn cheap.

      It will be interesting when we are in Australia what they will be like. If the booze prices are too high, I doubt there will be much drinking going on!

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  4. Good for you all! I like how you get to see so much of the world over these past many years and do it well and frugally. Great examples of you can find good deals and make great choices to live the lifestyle you want.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Randy, we definitely love to travel but we don't have unlimited funds so we just learn ways to do it frugally and still have a fun time in the process. We really hope that by showing our expenses and how we do things when we are traveling that people can learn that traveling can be done on a shoestring. :-)

      Delete
  5. Wow, my January expenses were $1,056 rounding to nearest dollar. But that is about my normal expenses. Summers are killer months for expenses due to utilities...a/c running 24/7.

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    Replies
    1. So we spend almost the same amount of money and got to travel! :-) I think that is one of the many reasons that we don't have a house anymore, it sucks up the money.

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