August Expenses - Another expensive month

We spent the first 15 days of the month of August on a cruise ship going from Southampton, England to Greenland with stops in Ireland and Iceland.

While the cruise ship trip was inexpensive by cruise ship standards, it still added quite a lot to the monthly expenses.

When all was said and done, we spent $80 CAD ($58 USD) per person per day on the cruise. So a total of $2,400 CAD for the 15 days that we were on the ship during the month of August. Now the question was, how do I distribute that expense over the various categories?

I decided to even it out between travel, meals out, entertainment, and accommodation. So there is $40 per day put into each of those categories for the days that we were on the cruise. 

We had a budget of $5,200 but we ended up spending a total of $5,846 CAD ($4,241 USD) for the month. Here's how it all broke down... (the following figures are all in $CAD)...

Groceries: We spent $357 on groceries, although $277 of that was over the last two days since we arrived back in Ottawa! Yikes. It will be interesting to see how much we spend on groceries for the almost six weeks that we will be here.

Meals out: A total of $740 for the month. That was $40 per day on the cruise ship, plus a dinner that we took Ruth's aunt out for in London.

Alcohol: We didn't drink at all on the ship, or in Nova Scotia. But we did stock up a little bit when we arrived here in Ottawa. A total of $76 for the month.

Miscellaneous: This was where we went over budget due to my medical misadventure. We spent a total of $1,294 in this category. $693 for the Barcelona hospital, $17 a day for WiFi on the ship, Sadie's birthday day out, the London tube, several new clothing items. It all adds up.

Entertainment: $40 per day on the cruise ship, plus $341 that we paid to take the family to OnTree Adventure Park plus $28 for a Sportsnet subscription so that I can watch Toronto Blue Jays baseball games while we're here. A total of $989 for the month.

Overnight: $600 for our time on the cruise ship. 

Motorhome: Our monthly registration, insurance, and storage expenses for Igor.  Total of $141.

Travel: $40 per day on the cruise ship came to $600. Plus our flights from London to Barcelona were $135 per person. Then our flights from Barcelona to Halifax were $364 per person. A total of $1,649 including the bus from Southampton to London, and London to Gatwick.

A total of $5,846 CAD ($4,241 USD) for the month. It was actually very close to what we expected other than the Barcelona hospital experience. 

So far we are averaging $3,600 CAD ($2,610 USD, £1,941) per month for 2025. But the next four months are expected to be quite a lot cheaper. 

We have a budget of $1,800 for the month of September.

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Good deal on JBL Bluetooth Headphones.

And in Canada...

Apple Watch Series 10.