December Expenses and 2022 Expenses Review

We had a budget of $1,600 CAD ($1,180 USD) for the month of December and how much did we spend? 

We spent $1,598 CAD! I don't think we've ever come that close to being right on the money as far as our projected expenses for the month go. Of course you couldn't come much closer if you tried. So, we're pretty happy with the way we ended off the year, from a budget perspective.

We were slightly higher in some categories and slightly lower in others. Before we have a look at the full year expenses, here's how the month of December broke down...

(The following figures are all in $CAD...)

Fuel: We started the month in Andorra, and ended it just outside the tiny village of Huélago in the province of Granada, Spain. Really only about 1,000 kms (624 miles), but with quite a few minor detours along the way added on to that. We spent $307 on fuel.

Our approximate driving route in December.

Toll Roads: We did not spend any money on toll roads during December.

Propane: We filled both tanks early in the month for a total of $35. They are both now empty! We need to find some more LPG in the next day or two.

Groceries: Slightly higher than we expected, at $553. But, we did a fairly big shop just the other day and the fridge and freezer are actually pretty full.

Meals out: We ate out twice during the month for a total cost of $74. While we're finding groceries to be reasonably priced in Spain, restaurants are more expensive than we thought they might be.

Alcohol: Beer and wine are cheap in Spain. So we took advantage of that. Probably a good thing that we are going to Morocco in January where booze is pricey and we won't drink so much of it! We spent $157 which is quite a lot considering the cheap prices.

Miscellaneous: $155. A chunk of that was our Tiekom cellular SIM card at $81. Part of that was the original shipping and activation charges. But it was really well worth it for us to have essentially unlimited internet for the month. It won't be active during our time in Morocco, but we'll be able to use it as soon as we return to Spain in April, and right through to September. Other than that, I paid $45 for the lifetime upgrade of our TravelSpend app that we use to track our expenses. And the rest was basically laundry and some parking charges.

Entertainment: We paid $14 to go visit Miravet Castle. the rest of the time, our entertainment was free!

Overnight: We didn't stay in any campgrounds, but we did end up paying for three nights worth of secure parking. Total was $30.

Motorhome: A total of $272, which consisted of a power wash for $3, a set of tire chains that I bought in Andorra for $35, and our monthly expenses related to insurance and registration for $235.

Overall, very happy with the month.

Now, lets look at the full year of 2022. 

We spent a total of $28,639 CAD ($21,154 USD at today's exchange rate) for the year. We visited 21 different countries and we were on 10 different airplanes.

Our flight map for 2022.

March was our cheapest month at $951. We were in Turkiye the entire month. And August was our most expensive month, at $4,680 when we went back to Canada. But those two are extremes, and our average month was $2,387.

Here are the totals and averages of the different categories...

2022 Expenses.

(Toll roads includes ferry expenses to and from Denmark-Norway.)

So, we're pretty happy with that. 

Looking forward, we're expecting 2023 to be slightly higher than 2022 and January is starting out with a bang. While Morocco itself is cheap, there's a fairly costly ferry to get there. And our upcoming Mauritania trip is fairly pricey, but a cheap February on our own in Morocco should make up for that. Then we've paid for our daughter and grandkids to come visit us in March so March will be on the high side. April will have some ferry expenses back to Spain and then to Ireland for May.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves... it's hard for us to plan that far in advance!

Happy New Year to you all!