But before we get to that...it's now August. That means we can say "next month we're outta here!"
Not that we're counting the days or anything. Well, actually we are!
Okay, so July wasn't anything out of the ordinary except for the airfare tickets we bought to go from Ottawa to Halifax in October. Oh, and although we bought a camera in July, we don't pay for it until this month and we only expense things as we actually pay for them. So August will be a little higher because of that.
Our total expenses for the month of July came to $1,052. Here's how it all broke down...
Gasoline: That weekly trip to the big city of Prince Albert starts to add up, even in the little blue car. We spent $60 in gas last month, although $20 was only yesterday so hopefully August will be back down to $40. Gasoline right now is $1.259 per litre. Taking into account the current exchange rate, that's around $4.62 U.S. per gallon.
Groceries: A little more back to earth in July. After spending $521 in April, $626 in May, and $490 in June I guess some of the stocking up we did is starting to average out. We spent $458 on groceries in July. Hopefully we can keep around that in August and then September should be lower as we try and use up everything we've got before we leave.
Alcohol: Nope. Nothing. Didn't buy any booze all month.
Miscellaneous: Not bad, at $216.52. Considering our fixed expenses of internet ($115.50) and car insurance ($75), that's about as good as it gets. August will be higher because this is the category our new camera will fall into.
Entertainment: $3.78. Ha! I always laugh at this. That was for a half a Subway sandwich when I went into Prince Albert one day. All meals out go in to this category. We spend less in this category than people on welfare. I'm sure of it. Although, our internet expense is really our only entertainment.
Travel: This is where we expense anything like bus, plane or train fares. Obviously haven't had any of them lately while we're here working at the campground, but we did purchase our plane tickets to fly from Ottawa to Halifax in October because the price was too good to pass up. $157 each, so $314 in this category.
Total of $1,052. Including the new camera, August should be about the same.
We admire you for getting the best bang for your bucks - proud of you two!!!
ReplyDeleteB&C
Being here and pretty much working all the time we really don't have anywhere to spend any money, so really it isn't to hard too do.
DeleteYou guys sure do a great job budgeting. I'm curious about whether you have to pay vehicle registrations fees in Canada. I average ours out per month which adds $21 to our monthly expenses. We also pay $300 a month for health insurance with a $10,000 deductible each. I also see you don't mention any vehicle insurance for Sherman. Is he insured in Mexico? Just wondering because these extra costs we have make our monthly amount higher than yours. We also have satellite TV, but that's our choice.
ReplyDeleteYes, but it's different in each province. The little blue car is currently registered in Ontario and those fees are now up to $82 per year but we expense that at the time we get this sticker. Same with Sherman. No, Sherman currently has no insurance.
DeleteWill it help if I tell you our fuel prices here are 1.39?
ReplyDeleteYeah, crude oil prices are near a three year high, so that's reflected in the price of gasoline.
DeleteWho paid for the other half of the Subway sandwich?
ReplyDeleteKevin only bought the 6" not the foot long! :-)
DeleteDugg don,t let tham fool u ,, that was a whole sub thy eat 1/2 and took the other 1/2 home and add it to the Groceries list
ReplyDeleteLol, then that would have made our grocery bill higher!
DeleteAre you telling me that internet in Canada costs 115 dollars? and your groceries are an average of 500 dollars a month?
ReplyDeleteBoy, nothing like Mexico is it! Booze included we can't spend more than 200 dollars a month and our landline, high speed internet, plus 100 minutes of national long distance is 38 dollars.
I don't think we will ever visit Canada unless we save up for a couple of years. Ouch!
We really wanted to go to Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland this summer but couldn't figure out how to do phone and internet and then the increased costs of being there and staying in the parks there scared us away. We LOVE Acadia so perhaps we can be better prepared for the Maritimes next time we come.
ReplyDeleteHigh speed WiFi is free all over the place here in NS. IF you insist on having, or your work requires your own VPN or account to connect to, then I have no idea how to connect. My provider allows me to manage account/webpages/email via HTML, as I think most do these days, aos a quick stop at MacDonalds or Tim's for a coffee, and free WiFi...check/reply to emails, and update blogs/vlogs/farcebook, and all is good in your internet addicted world LOL! There are also 200 government funded free WiFI sites to chose from, and many in fairly rural areas. http://www.nscap.ca/
ReplyDeleteWow your car insurance is pricey, at least you could be rid of that if you sold it.
ReplyDelete