Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting, and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂
This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for two adults and one 60-pound dog (we adopted Maya on June 4th, 2019). Under groceries we incorporate food, produce, and non-alcoholic drinks predominantly bought in supermarkets. Toiletries belong in that category as well. Dining out means eating at a restaurant/event or purchasing take-out food. The health category covers non-prescription medicines and vitamins/supplements; medical contains prescription drugs and doctor’s visits. Because of our income level, Mark and I are eligible for free health care within the state of Massachusetts. For check-ups and extensive care, we return to the US East Coast. Other health issues are resolved locally and out of pocket where needed and possible.
In April, Mark, Maya, and I divided our time between Argentina and Chile in our truck camper Thirsty Bella. We made some headway south, to Mendoza, and decided to hop over to Santiago de Chile for car maintenance. After two weeks in Chile, we slowly drove back to the Mendoza area in Argentina.
(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)
Rock formation along the highway
Roads in the valley
Police checkpoint
Descending a crazy mountain when arriving in Chile
Approaching the Chilean border which is located past a tunnel and the actual border line
Driving back towards Argentina
And then, we had to drive back up the zigzag road towards Argentina
Following a semi truck up, up, up
The trees are changing color in Central Argentina!
Our car category was huge; over $1,100 in total! A lot of that went to fuel, as always, but the biggies last month were two new tires ($326) with a $26 installation and balancing fee, a new battery for the engine ($137), and an oil change at a garage, which we did ourselves ($92). We also bought seven quarts of oil extra for our next time ($80). Mark found a spot to store those in one of our utility boxes.
Oil change in Santiago
Installing our new car battery in Santiago
The balancing of our new tires in Santiago
Attaching Bella back onto Thirsty
One of the two brand-new “Chilean” tires
Thirsty’s engine takes around 7 quarts of oil & we bought an extra 7 for next time
We paid a total of $11 in tolls and spent some pesos on parking in Santiago when leaving the camper behind and for our rental car in Valparaiso.
Cost for a full tank of gas in Argentina: $105
Topping up with fuel in Argentina before crossing the border
Gasoline is still much more expensive in Chile than in Argentina, so we filled a 5-gallon jerrycan as well, before the border crossing.
Groceries were quite expensive in April as well. We joined a couple of potlucks, prepared a special dinner for seven, made daily walks to the fancy grocery store Jumbo in Santiago, and splurged on some goodies at the El Milagro vineyard early on.
Goodies bought at the shop of El Milagro
Buying groceries at Lider
Fantastic produce stand in Santiago
Potluck with a group of international friends (Photo courtesy of Richie Gubler)
Mark and Maya wait for me to get some shopping done in the mall
The massive Jumbo grocery store
Mark prepares a fabulous pasta dinner for our group in Santiago
The meal easily filled us all up and we had leftovers!
We bought wine in both countries, since, you know, we are in wine heaven here. The Santiago area is well-known for the red grape, Carmenere, and Central Argentina produces fabulous Torrontes (white) and Malbec (red or tinto in Spanish) wines. Mark and I enjoy them all. We used half of a $25 “drinking out” donation for three bottles of wine at the store.
Free wine tasting at El Milagro
Tasty wine from Bodega El Milagro
A great little stop along our drive south
Happy hour with new friends Kilian and Marcia
A great bottle of Carmemere for $3, recommended to us by Abigail
Happy hour with more friends
While in Chile, we decided to buy one more bag of dogfood for Maya, since that’s the place where we can find her Taste of the Wild – Pacific Stream for a “decent” price ($66 for 12kg/26lbs) and we were one bag down. Also, our remaining bags are bigger than the new one and we don’t want to leave open bags of food in the camper during our summer escapade to the US and Belgium. Maya’s new toy lasted all of ten minutes!
Waiting to order our preferred bag of dogfood online to obtain a discount
Maya’s dogfood
Mark and Maya play with her new toy
It didn’t take long before Maya destroyed the rope toy.
We didn’t go out for dinner much in April; twice, one of which was a take-out pizza in Santiago the day of our arrival ($13) and the other a lunch in Valparaiso ($12). Both times took place in Chile, which, believe it or not, is now cheaper than Argentina for most things. The devaluation of the Argentinian peso is still worsening, leading to continued price increases. We didn’t eat out here at all, last month, and cooked almost all our meals at home. The other $25 in the report was a delayed credit card charge for a dinner out in March.
Take-out pizza in Santiago ($13)
Gnocchi – pesto meal at home
Mark grilled a few meals in April
Many snacks and drinks were consumed at home in April.
Some of our followers have been generous with one $25 dining out donation (which we will use this month) and two “$25 for drinks” donations, most of which we will enjoy in May as well. For the first time ever, someone walked by our camper (in Santiago de Chile), noticed our Massachusetts license plates, checked out this blog, and treated us online to drinks, because he is also from our state! Thank you to all our supporters, followers, readers. and contributors!
Our propane tank is a tight fit in the cubby hole
Walking to the store in San Juan to get our propane tank filled
The friendly family that helped us out with propane gas
As usual, $35 went to our Starlink subscription, while the other half is paid by our business. And, we topped up the propane tank for $10 in San Juan, Argentina. That usually lasts three months. We managed to fill our water tank multiple times for free in April as well.
Our water thief didn’t work so well here, as I got soaking wet from the back push and spray
Adding more water into our tank in Santiago
Free water fill along the road
Transportation costs consisted of splitting a rental car for the day with our friends from Meat Around The World, to explore Valparaiso (see next blog post) and the expensive fuel to get there – they paid for the tolls and we covered parking – and a useless taxi drive in Santiago. We were dropped off in the wrong place and had to walk back!
Mark ordered household items and camper parts on Amazon in the US, to fix a few things upon our return next September and we bought a new frying pan and spray bottles in Chile. Did I mention yet that anything imported on this continent is cheaper there than in Argentina?
The mall near us in Santiago, that contains every shop we could have wanted
New non-stick frying pan for the galley
We also paid $12 for two baskets of dirty laundry in Uspallata, Argentina, after waiting through the weekend because the laundromat wasn’t open and hearing from our friends that this cost $2 six months ago! Not willing to spend even more, Mark and I washed a basket-size worth of linen and clothes by hand in river water.
A massive bag of dirty laundry!
This is where we dropped off our dirty laundry in Uspallata
Hanging our hand laundry to dry in the strong sun and dry air of Uspallata
The other categories were low. Entertainment ($7) was had on two different transportation methods in Chile, namely a cable car in Santiago and two old-style elevators (ascensores) in Valparaiso. Mark ordered an app for his tablet and I needed throat medicines after being sick for over a week. A bad bug/cough had me in its grip for two weeks. Once, we had to leave our quiet camping spot in nature to find a pharmacy in town.
A cable car ride to the top of the hill
Mark, Maya, and I shared a car along this line
Our friends traveled in the cable car behind us.
One of the old elevators we took in Valparaiso
The two elevators work in unison – one comes down, while the other one goes up along a steel cable
View from our elevator going up
The only money Mark and I spent on drinking out was $3 at a pricey café in Valparaiso, where we split a juice. We also gave a small donation to the firemen (bomberos) and had our car sprayed for $1 at an agriculture spot.
Sticker from the firemen in return for our donation
Fumigation station in Argentina
We paid $1 to get the underside of our car fumigated
We boondocked the entire month and therefore camping was free for us in April.
Our attractive camping spot in El Mollar over Easter
One-night stop at the park of Catamarca
Overnight spot on our drive south in Argentina
Free night at El Milagro winery
Free parking and camping in San Martin Park in Mendoza
Camped in front of colorful mountains before crossing into Central Chile
Parked among a row of other campers for two weeks in Santiago
Last (free) night in Chile, at a super busy and loud fuel station
Quiet, but chilly spot along a river, back in Argentina
A nice, grassy camping spot in Uspallata, Argentina
Our last night of April was spent along a river towards Mendoza
Our total was high again, but most of the $1,844 went to car maintenance and fuel, which were needed and made us feel productive. Without that vehicle attention, we’d have been back at our monthly average. After reaching the high numbers in that category, we really refrained from splurges and eating out. We will see what May brings!
Our group on the last night together in Santiago: Mark, Liesbet, Richie, Abigail, Zoe, Heather, Jon, and Maya
