September Expenses

A bit of an expensive month!

But, that's partly because we paid for a lot of our November airfare this month, which means that pretty much all of our winter travel is bought and paid for which means that all you'll see for the coming months is our living expenses. Really curious to see how that works out in South Korea!

Getting down to it, we spent $1,573 during the month of September. Here's how it all broke down...

Gasoline: $50 worth of fuel in the little blue car. Interestingly, the price of gas has remained all summer at $1.269 per litre ($4.35 U.S. per gallon) in Swift Current. It never changes. Actually, it did one three cent drop all summer. When we arrived here in May it was $129.9.

Groceries: Finally, it's nice to see a lower monthly expense in this category as we used up pretty much everything we had in the fridge and freezer. We spent $316 this month. If we average out the last five months, we come to $545 per month, compared to $461 per month for our five months at Sturgeon Lake. One thing that makes things a little more expensive (but not a lot) is that we are both eating gluten free now and last year it was just Ruth. As I said, it's not a huge difference because I was eating pretty much the same as her anyhow. The only real difference was the price of some breads would have been cheaper.

And we had Lindsey and the grandkids here in June, so that made groceries that particular month a little higher, but I think the main reason that our grocery bills were higher is that things are more expensive!!

Miscellaneous: Yep this category got a little out of control again. I needed new hiking boots at $147. One of the things I don't mind spending a little money on. Good value, for the amount that we use them!

Our internet bill was high again, at $155. That was actually payment for our August usage. Then, we paid for our new Saskatchewan driver's licences at $61 for the both of us. And, a few items of used clothing and the oil spray stuff for the little blue car. It all adds up and we spent $406 total for the month.

Travel: We paid for our flights from Oakland to Mexico City, Mexico City to Puerto Escondido return, and Toluca to Puerto Vallarta. Total of $400 per person, so $800 in prepaid travel expenses. The only thing that will be left to expense as we do these upcoming journeys will be any ground travel...trains and or buses.

Not including the actual cost of travel (airfare etc) we normally try and spend about $1,000 per month when we're traveling. That's roughly broken down into food, booze, misc, entertainment, and shelter. We've found that although our goal is $1,000, the range is between $750 and $1,400...and the actual average is closer to $1,100. As I said, it will be interesting to see how we do in South Korea for the month of October.