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, April 30, 2021

April Expenses

In case you missed it, this is the second blog post of the day. You can read the first one here...


Regarding our April Expenses...Yeehaw... it's very rare for us to come in at or under budget. I purposely set our base case budget for the month on the low side so that it gives us a goal to strive towards. In the case of April 2021, our budget was $2,300 CAD ($1,875 USD), and we came in at $2.380 CAD ($1,940 USD). 

Not under budget, but close enough. We'll take it! 

Note, the following figures are all in Canadian dollars.

Here's how it all broke down...

Gasoline: We spent $110 on gasoline. Yes, fuel is expensive in Albania. Fortunately, the car is fairly efficient and it's a small country!

Toll roads: We spent $9 on the ferry one day.

Groceries: Compared to Turkey or Tanzania, groceries are pricey in Albania. More than we thought they would be. We spent $443 on groceries for the month. Yes, we know... compared to Canada or the U.S, that's still pretty good.

Meals out: But despite the fact that groceries are higher than we expected, meals out are actually quite reasonable. We spent $66 on three lunches out.

Alcohol: Beer is cheap in Albania. The average bottle of wine is reasonable, but you can buy 3 liter jugs of drinkable Italian wine for a cheap price. And then there is the raki which is really cheap, and often offered to you by the locals because everyone makes their own homemade raki . We spent $110 for the month. 

Miscellaneous: Around $330 for the month has become pretty standard for the past few months. That's our Heyondo travel medical insurance, cellular calling and internet access, and whatever other odd things that come up. In April, it included a $60 dental bill. By the way, dental work is very cheap in Albania. Total for the month came to $335.

Entertainment: Because we spend a lot of time just exploring and hiking, we don't often feel the need to spend extra money on entertainment. We spent a total of $166 for the month, and that included $142 for river rafting in Osum Canyon, which we totally enjoyed. Otherwise, it was just a few castle entrance fees.

Overnight: We spent $828 on 30 nights in various AirBnb rentals. An average of $27.60 per night.

Travel: Our car rental from Go Rent Albania has been great at €210 ($315 CAD) per month.

So, a total of $2,380 CAD for the month of April, and we're expecting about the same for the month of May.

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And in Canada...


4 comments:

  1. You did excellent for everything you did.
    Be Safe and Enjoy the month of May.

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We think so too! We are quite pleased with our expenses this month, especially after our first two months of the year being so expensive.

      Delete
  2. Thank you for the detailed report especially in CAD funds as we are exploring the idea of traveling Albania. Has language been an issue? Do most locals speak English or French

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome, we hope that you will find the information useful for your trip to Albania, which we highly recommend by the way!

      No, we haven't really found language to be an issue, we have always managed a way to communicate with people. Google translate really helps too, although we try not to use it unless we have to.

      We are finding most locals do not speak English or French. If you are in the city of Tirana or down along the coast you, especially in the tourist spots such as hotels and restaurants then you will normally find someone that speaks English. Also many of the younger generation can speak English. We don't usually go to the more touristy places or restaurants so we haven't found as much English as we thought we might have. Italian is perhaps a more common language here and as you get closer to the Greek border there is a fair bit of Greek spoken as well.

      Delete

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