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!
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