June Expenses... 3rd highest month ever

Just like May, we knew June was going to be an expensive month. In fact, we had a budget of $6,477 CAD ($4,690 USD) for the month.

We ended up quite a bit higher than that, because of the overstay visa fine in Kyrgyzstan.

We were actually right on budget until then.

But due to the overstay, that cranked up our total expenses for the month to $8,685 CAD ($6,100 USD). Yikes! If we keep on like that, we'll have to go back to Canada and get jobs! Fortunately, that outcome is highly unlikely.

We asked the hotel if we could get some laundry done yesterday, and this robot showed up at our door to collect it.

Three hours later it was delivered to us.

Here's how we spent all that money... (the following figures are in Canadian dollars)...

Fuel: We were actually over budget in this category, having spent the equivalent of $434 CAD on fuel for Vladdy. That's more than we expected, but then we did have him for almost 3 weeks of the month, and he's not a very fuel efficient vehicle!

Groceries: Not bad, at $341. Actually thought it might have been lower, since we ate out quite a few times as well.

Meals out: We spent $374 eating out. I guess the total of $374 plus groceries at $341 which comes to $715 to feed us for the month isn't too bad, but I still thought it would it would have been less.

Alcohol: Not bad, at $173. We drank a little more than we normally do because we were "on holiday" with Bjorn and Freya. And although beer was pretty cheap, wine was a little more expensive.

Kevin, Ruth, and Sunny. Sunny was our concierge at the hotel in Xian, and she went out of her way to make sure we were looked after.

Miscellaneous: Total of $362. A chunk of that was clothing ($225) so we actually did okay in this category. 

Entertainment: $96... a total of the Terracotta Warriors ($50), the national park ($27), The Ferris wheel ($7), and the hot springs ($12).

Overnight: Total of $2,417 CAD. But that includes the rent for our house in Mexico, so not too bad overall when also considering almost three weeks were spent in our quite expensive campervan, Vladdy!

Motorhome: And, we are also paying for storage and the monthly amortization of registration and insurance costs for Igor, our motorhome that is currently parked in Mexico. Total of $122.

Travel: This was the really big one, at $4,364. We expensed half the cost of Vladdy here, because that's where we would normally put a rental car cost, and Vladdy was half rental car and half accommodation for the time we had him. Then of course there was the two flights... Bishkek to Chengdu, and Xi'an to Zhangjiajie. And the big unexpected expense, the overstay visa and fine in Kyrgyzstan. If you missed it, you can read that story here. Anyhow, it's all just a cost of travel now, and we've moved on.

So, a pretty expensive month. And July is expected to be the third in a row of expensive months. We've got another three weeks or so of hotel living ahead of us, and part of that is in Hong Kong and Japan... two expensive locations. Then, we are also flying a lot.. from Hong Kong to Tokyo to Vancouver to Mexico City! We have a budget of $6,412 ($4,505 USD) for the month of July. 

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