June Expenses

We started the month in Albania, having no idea how the month was going to go. Would we end up in Germany? How would we get there? Would we be able to get into our new motorhome? What would it cost to get the motorhome set up?

So it was really tough to come up with an approximate budget at the beginning of the month. But as you know, we did make it into Germany and we did get into our new motorhome. So June expenses include not only a our normal day to day expenses, but also the figures for capital expenses for the motorhome itself.

First, lets have a look at our normal day to day expenses for the month. We spent a total of $3,179 CAD ($2,563 USD).

Here's how it all broke down... (note, the following figures are all in $CAD. For $USD equivalent, subtract about 20%)

Fuel: We spent a total of $82 putting gas in our rental car in Albania at the beginning of the month, and our loaner vehicle we had at the dealership here in Germany. Our motorhome Max was given to us with a full tank, and it was still 3/4 full at the end of June!

Groceries: We knew groceries would be high in June. And most of it was in the last two weeks. We spent $645. It's expensive starting from scratch to equip the motorhome, and of course we were doing it in Germany which is not a cheap country to begin with. And it's difficult to shop around for sale items in a new country that has some unfamiliar stores. And that figure also seems high considering we spent a fair amount in restaurants as well (see next item).

Meals out: We spent $287 eating out! That's the most we've spent on meals out in a long time.

Alcohol: About average at $125.

Miscellaneous: Fairly high, at $442. Our travel medical insurance cost $217 for the month, and cellular access to keep in touch with you all cost $152, mostly because we did an annual recharge on our emergency cell access device from Keepgo. And then there was your typical laundry, haircuts, and that kind of thing.

Entertainment: $84. We did the Komani Lake Ferry, the Tirana cable car, and the Tirana bunker museum.

Overnight: $630 up to and including June 17th. Average of $37 per night. Since we moved into Max on June 18 we have not had any overnight expenses.

Travel: $885. This included $122 for our car rental in Albania, $371 for our flights to Poland, $235 for Covid PCR tests, and $147 for our rideshare drive from Poland to Germany.

At the beginning of the month, I had guessed a fairly random budget figure of $2,800 for the month, so all things considered coming in at $3,179 was not too far off.

But of course that's not all. 

We also spent €54,890 ($82,708 CAD, $65,000 USD) on a new motorhome!

And another €675 ($990 CAD, $800 USD) to equip the motorhome with all kitchen equipment, outdoor table and chairs, bedding, inverter and odds and ends. We decided that anything we bought that was intended to stay in the motorhome when we sold it would not be included in our monthly expenses, but would instead be part of the capital costs of the motorhome itself. 

July will be an entirely different report! We have a budget of $1,340 CAD ($1,080 USD) for the month, so now that we are in motorhome mode for the entire month of July (for the first time since July of 2020) our recent sky high monthly expenses will be coming back to earth!

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Nice price drop on the popular Bikeroo Oversize Padded Bicycle Seat.

And in Canada...

Bissell Carpet Cleaner. Very rare for Amazon Canada to have a deal this good.