November Expenses

November was yet another expensive month. It started off in Ottawa, Canada and ended up in Valle de Bravo, Mexico! So, there was quite a lot of travel expense involved.

I had guessed a budget of $3,750 CAD, and we ended up spending $4,769 CAD ($3,389 USD). We actually did pretty good, considering most of the extra comes down to a new laptop for me, and Igor's fuel pump needing replacing. Two things that we couldn't have planned on. Otherwise, we were actually pretty close to target.

Here's how it all broke down... (note, the following figures are all in $CAD)

Fuel: We spent $448 on gasoline. Gasoline is fairly expensive in Mexico now. It seems to average around 24 pesos ($1.66 CAD) per liter. About $4.50 USD per gallon.

Propane: Now that we have an all electric 12 volt fridge, we find that we hardly use any propane. In fact, the last time we filled up was in Ottawa just before we handed Igor off to Bjorn and Freya to take him through the U.S. to the Mexico border. And the tank is still 3/4 full! Really, we just use it for cooking now, and the occasional time we heat up the hot water tank.

We bought Solitario a ball to play with.

Groceries: We spent $267 on groceries. It makes sense that this would be fairly low since our October grocery bill was really high, and of course we were using things up before we left Ottawa. And, as you can see from the next category, we also ate out a fair bit!

Meals out: We spent $541 eating out. Much higher than normal, but that included a couple of birthday dinners, and our time in Mexico City.

Alcohol: Not bad, at $208. Considering the first two weeks or so were in expensive Canada.

Miscellaneous: Much higher than normal, at $842, but mostly due to the $650 we spent on a new laptop for me. Otherwise, it was our $62.50 cellular data, a few taxi rides and other minor items.

Entertainment: A whole $7.50 that we spent at the Queretaro pyramid, and the Mineral de Pozos museum.

Overnight: A total of 11 paid nights came to $349. A big chunk of that was the one night hotel at Reynosa airport at $168.

Motorhome: A total of $750. Insurance and registration (including Mexico insurance) average out to $98 a month. Then we had repairs on the rear wheel cylinders, the fuel filter, and the fuel pump as well as a couple of other minor items. 

Travel: A fairly expensive category in November, at $1,352. Ottawa to Cancun was $356 each, then Cancun to Reynosa at $235 each. Then my Mexico tourist permit at the border in order to import Igor at $49, and our bus trips back and forth to Mexico City at $40 each.

So, a grand total of $4,769 CAD ($3,389 USD).

And December is also going to be fairly high because we are paying for our daughter and grandkids to come and meet us in Playa del Carmen for the week before Christmas. But then the plan is that January through March should be fairly cheap. We'll see!

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