We try and have some laptop time in the morning after breakfast here on the cruise ship, so I'll quickly get our July expense report out to you. July was an expensive month!
We began the month of July in Scotland, and ended it in Southampton, England. But, we went to Albania in the middle of it!
It was a little difficult coming up with a budget for July because there were too many variables. We didn't know the exact cost of our car rental or the dental work. But, I put in a guess of $4,600 CAD ($3,400 USD) at the time. That turned out to be quite low, because we ended up spending $5,687 CAD ($4,119 USD).
Several things contributed to the increase. Albania is quite a bit more expensive that it had been in past visits, and the weakness of the Canadian dollar combined with the strength of the Albanian lek just made things worse. And, we ate out quite a lot, and those meals were more expensive than they had been in the past. And, fuel was more expensive. Everything just added up!
So, here's how it all broke down... (figures are all in $CAD).
Fuel: The price of gas has skyrocketed in Albania. So while we really didn't even drive the rental very much, we spent $224 on fuel.
Groceries: Even though we ate out quite a lot, we still spent $372 on groceries!
Meals out: $483. That's the most we have spent on eating out so far this year.
Alcohol: Actually quite reasonable at $152. Beer and wine have remained at reasonable prices in Albania!
Miscellaneous: Not including the dental bill, we spent $241. A chunk of that was clothing, along with foreign exchange fees, and local transportation. Then another $650 at the dentist.
Entertainment: $172, including our canyon trekking, an archeological site visit, and $47 on the cruise ship (more about that below!).
Overnight: Considering we had an apartment at a reasonable $40 a night in Albania, we still managed to spend a total of $1,389 on accommodation. Which I suppose given the price of accommodation in many countries is still pretty good!
Motorhome: Our monthly registration, insurance, and storage expenses for Igor. Total of $141.
Travel: $1,862. Of this $800 was the car rental which was quite a bit more than we had expected. But, July and August is busy season in Albania, and the prices reflected that. Then there was also our flights to and from as well as the car rental we finished up with in Scotland.
The cruise expenses are interesting. Essentially, the approximately $3,000 gets divided into $187 over 16 days. And that $187 gets evenly divided between travel, accommodation, entertainment, and meals out. So, $47 or so dollars per day per category.
So, a total of $5,687 CAD ($4,119). More than we expected.
August won't be much different. Even though this cruise is a deal, it is still costing $3,000 over two weeks. And then we have to fly back to Canada and we've got some things planned with our daughter and her family, and taking our grandson back to Ottawa with us. It all adds up. So we've got a total budget of $5,200 CAD ($3,765 USD) for the month of August. September will be cheaper.
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Decent price drop on this Countertop Ice Maker.
And in Canada...
Know what you mean. No matter how much you plan your budget, it always goes off the planned path.
ReplyDeleteStay Safe and Enjoy the adventures.
It's about time.
Not always but yes, many times something unexpected always seems to come up!
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