Where does the money go?

I've recently started logging all our expenses on my calendar. I was interested to know where the money went. I could see the withdrawals from the checking account, but who was getting our money? April was my first full month of keeping track, when I added it all up it was around $850, and I knew that had some frivolous purchases. Last month in May our total money spent $753, here's the breakdown

Bread/postre $14.60

Groceries $230.50 (includes $18 for dog food)

Beer/wine $46

Water $23 (both cistern and bottled)

Restaurants $78

Hardware $18

Misc $57 ( art supplies and curtain rods)

Rent $250

Power $11.50

Internet $25

This could have been brought down further, if we hadn't been to the Big City, because that is where we spent $57 on art supplies and curtain rods. In my calendar I have the groceries listed under what market I get them at, so I know if it's $7 at Jenny's or minimart, or $13 at Charapoto mercado. Because I do it by the day, I also know we ate out 7 times, all that for $78! And that does include drinks, beer or milkshakes for dessert. The heading of hardware, is all to Joffre, I bought nightlight parts, silver spray paint and toilet fixing parts, which got Joffre a $4 tip included, because he was so Johnny on the spot to come help. Under the bread heading, I added postre, because Nexar the bread man has been very diligent about making cake for us. (we shared with Joffre some sweets too.)

 We don't have medical insurance, but several people we know do, $70 a month, no copays, dental included and easy breezy to use. (From what we hear) We also don't have a car, and since we didn't go anywhere, we had no transportation costs. (The ride to the Big city was free, even tho I did offer to pay for gas, but gas is only $1.48 gallon so even if I did pay for gas it would be less than $5.)

Kinda exciting, I think back to when we lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, just to run the house was $2000, my monthly food budget had been $300, but that wasn't adequate and had to be raised to $500, no wonder we had to work so much! I prefer this life MUCH better! So there you have it, I would not say we have gone without, we are not deprived of anything, we are happier and probably healthier than ever before, and so the adventure continues, stay tuned.

 

Groceries vs. Eating out

I sat down with a calculator this morning and was trying to figure out what we spend on groceries, and what we spend on restaurants, so far for THIS week it's been $78 for BOTH. I make breakfast at home, we've eaten it out, but I can do it just as well. (Even with only one skillet) 

As far as groceries goes, it's eggs (7/$1), milk ($1), bread (silly, like .10 cents a roll), peanut butter ($1.89), jelly ($1.25), fruit/veg ($2.50), tortillas ($2), tuna in water ($1.31) *a note about tuna, tuna in oil is the norm here, I bought one, it wasn't bad, but I can't abide the extra calories, so I buy the more expensive canned tuna in water $1.31 in big city, usually $1.50-1.80 in small tienda.

Yesterday I needed to buy more jelly, so we walked on the beach down towards San Jacinto to find something to eat then hit the market. We decided to have al muerzo at the San Jacinto Hotel, it was very good, and as always the atmosphere was terrific. Lunch was $4 and came with soup, entree, juice/soda and dessert, and we shared a beer for $1.25.

The soup had two big shrimp in it, the entree was pescado chicharron, we weren't sure what it was, but on the menu they usually charge $10 so we figured it was good. It turned out to be fish nuggets. Tasty, but certainly not worth $10... The salad was nice, had corn and radishes, the soda...well as most sodas, too sweet for me, kinda like Mountain Dew, and the dessert...hmmm, all we came up with is, the taste of bread pudding with a weird texture. Not great, but nice to have something a little sweet to end with. Hotel San Jacinto has scenery in the bag, it's a beautiful oceanfront patio.

After lunch, we continued into San Jacinto, stopped at the pharmacy, got ear drops for Mike, and bug soap for the pups=$7.80 ( this figure was not added into the $78 I just realized)

Mike got water in his ear from a big wave the other day, and of course all our medicine stuff...all together now...IS IN THE CONTAINER. I found a flea on Shadrach, and have been on the lookout for some kind of flea and tick stuff, decided to start with the soap (we could probably use it too, it says it's herbal). Mike found the ear drops avail online for $38... We bought it for $4!

At the market we bought toilet paper, sugar, jelly, a small bag of dog food, butter, cocoa, eggs, milk. I had a $20 ready to hand over, when he first told me nueve, I thought yep $19, but then I realized he'd said $9! So since we left the house, we'd spent $26? Lunch and two stores? We call that $100 in the States! Ha!

Back home for a nap, then the tummy was growling, so we thought we'd go try Chifa. Pablo had the shawarma ready, but we went with Chinese. Told him to just make us something special, it was like having our own personal chef! He made us sweet and spicy pork and veg, and Thai fried rice. What a perfect pairing, it was Muy Rico! A bit on the expensive side...$13. (of course we had leftovers) and beer.  We tip him $1 because he deserves it, and honestly doesn't charge enough...

Our sunset view, shared a beer...

A pretty expensive day, still under $40 which is unheard of for most places. If we break it down to lunch and dinner that was only $22, we don't do that all the time, but it was an especially nice day. I'm sure when I get my kitchen set up there will be more groceries, and more cooking at home, which is fine, I'm honestly looking forward to more than one skillet! 

So an updated total for the week (including pharmacy) is $86, let's say that's $100 per week, that's $400 per month, we spent that and more in the States just on groceries! I tried to limit our eating out budget in the States to $30 per week, that got us usually one meal out. If after we get the container we stick to $100 a week, our monthly budget would be under $1000. That would be nice, I'll do another calculator day in the future and see how we come out. Stay tuned, the adventure continues...as for today, the tide is low, so a walk on the beach is calling. Hasta mañana!