May Expenses

A little higher than we expected, but not by much.

Really, our only expenses for the summer are food and internet. Oh, and of course insurance and a bit of fuel for the little blue car. But we arrived here to empty cupboards so we had some stocking up to do!

Turns out we did a lot of stocking up! We spent a total of $1,108 for the month. Here's how it all broke down...

Gasoline: We really don't drive the little blue car much. Usually it's just a once a week grocery run into Swift Current. It's 71 kms (44 miles) each way. So at around four times per month we do about 568 kms (352 miles) per month. The little blue car is fuel efficient, and we drive it that way. The price of gasoline in Swift Current has been stuck at $1.299 per litre ($4.52 US per gallon) since we arrived here.

Ruth has to do a drive up to Saskatoon airport on Tuesday morning, so we filled the tank on our last run to Swift Current. Including that, we spent a total of $77.52 for the month.

Groceries: Yikes! Our highest month ever in this category. We've had a couple of months over the years where we've spent over $600 a month in groceries, but never over $700. Until now. We spent $764.85 on groceries!

May was a big stocking up month for us, and September will be a "use it all up" month. We expect to average $450 per month while in Canada.

We've learned that when something is on sale, and it's an item you're going to use all summer, you stock up on it while it's on sale. So our freezer is pretty full going into June, and we'll continue to buy large quantities of some sale items for the next month or two as they come up.

Fruits are expensive here. We usually stick with apples because we can get "decent" prices. But we saw watermelons the other day at $9.95 each! Or $4.95 for a tiny one. Sorry, no watermelon for us!

Alcohol: We are seasonal drinkers. First, we can't justify the ridiculous price of alcohol in Canada. $50 for 24 bottles of beer? I don't think so. But we're also working at a job where we're on call 24/7. So we simply don't think it's a good idea to drink. Besides, we drink enough during the winter that it's good to give the system a rest during the summer!

Miscellaneous: A little high in this category, at $266.08. We have two fixed expenses here during the summer. Car insurance, and internet. The car insurance is around $80 a month, and the internet is around $110 per month. The month of May we had a double insurance payment to start up the coverage, so $163 for that. Our internet is billed after the fact though, so it was exceptionally low at $12 for the month. June will be much higher though. Other than that, we spent about $75 on household and kitchen items that we wanted.

And that's it. A total of $1,108.45. No entertainment, and no overnight expenses. And there probably won't be for the rest of the summer. However, there will be some travel expenses. We have to pay for our flights to South Korea during the month of June, so this month will be quite a bit higher than normal!