October Expenses

No, I haven't been procrastinating due to the abnormally high expense report! But yes... we have had another expensive month. We're really looking forward to having a month go by without spending yet another $1,000 on Sherman!

But, it wasn't only Sherman's fault... whenever we travel back to Ontario we seem to spend a fair bit of money.

We spent a total of $3,753 CAD ($2,900 USD) for the month of October. Here's how it all broke down...

(Note, the following figures are Canadian dollars. Subtract about 25% for USD equivalent.

Gasoline: We had a rental car for the first two and a half weeks of the month when we were in Ontario. We spent $206 CAD on gas for the rental car. Which was actually not too bad.. the little VW Golf was really fuel efficient! Then, when we returned to Sherman, we put a total of $397 CAD in the motorhome during the start of our travels south. So, we spent a total of $603 CAD on gasoline during October.

Toll Roads: We spent $52 CAD for the ferry to Port Townsend Washington.

Propane: We bought a couple of those 1 lb cylinders. Total of $7 CAD.

Grocery: It's funny, but when we're doing the actual shopping, the groceries seem expensive. Yet, when we add it up at the end of the month, we always do pretty good. We spent $536 CAD and that included doing some stocking up for our winter in Mexico.

Alcohol: Expensive Canadian booze. Plus, I bought a decent bottle of single malt to share with my friends on my guys weekend away. Even we splurge every now and again! Total cost of booze for the month was $252 CAD.

Miscellaneous: Not really that bad, at $267 CAD. $114 CAD of that was cellular internet access so that we can keep in touch with you all!

Entertainment: At $345 CAD, definitely one of our higher months. I went out for an evening with a friend, Ruth went for lunch with some of her friends, and it all adds up. Oh, and we bought a U.S. National Parks Pass.

Overnight: A total of $107 CAD... a hundred of that was my guys weekend away, and then $7 that we included here when we paid for a dump station and water fill with Sherman. We have yet to pay any campground fees since we left Canada.

Motorhome: This was the kicker. We spent $1,096 CAD trying to fix that shorting wire problem. Yes, we can justify it by saying that some of the stuff we did trying to fix it was tune up related and now we won't have to do it again for a long time. But it was still a frustrating amount of money to spend on what turned out to be such a minor thing. Oh well, that's part of life on the road!

Travel: We spent $69 CAD for the return portion of our airfare back to Abbotsford. And $418 CAD for the costs of our car rental from October 1st to the 17th.

Life goes on... it's only money.

But boy, this has been an expensive year. We are now up to $9,300 CAD in motorhome repair and maintenance for the year. Sherman has been a really good motorhome for us, costing very little money for his first ten years with us. But he's making up for it this year!

November is going to be heavy in fuel expenses as we make our way to Texas during the month. But if all goes according to plan, our time in Mexico for the following 4 months should be pretty reasonable.