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, we both return to the East Coast.
In July, we boondocked in the woods of White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, with Zesty for a week and stayed put in our “room above the garage” in Newburyport, Massachusetts for the rest of the month. Our time in nature cost approximately the same as not going anywhere, except for the fuel. We bought groceries and alcohol as usual and camped for free. Yet, the camper expense was higher than normal, because Mark replaced a heating element.
Early in the month, we had dinner with relatives outside on picnic tables at a brewery. That was the first time we ate “out” in months and probably the last time. We prefer take-out, which we ended the month with. Of the four items we ordered at this Thai restaurant, two were wrong. I guess we will stick to cooking ourselves from now on!
And, there is a new expense category! Writing. It immediately became the highest cost of the month. Almost $500. That amount in July went to my editor and is half of her fee for the first round of (substantive) edits she performed for my travel memoir. This month, we paid the same amount and I expect two more expenses like these for the second round of edits in September.
Where we saved money is by taking advantage of a credit card offer I wrote about last month. Because of using our miles at 1.5x their value for groceries and restaurant expenses, our actual spending in July was $496 dollars less than reflected in the total underneath.
I don’t tire of this view of the White Mountains!
On paper, it was a relatively expensive month for us, about $100 above our monthly average, but that’s mostly due to a new “investment”. I hope to earn that back one day. 🙂
I encourage any questions and thoughts in the comment section underneath!
To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the expense blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.
New Hampshire’s attractive White Mountains are located 150 miles (241km) northeast of our current home base in Massachusetts. It takes a little over three hours to get there in our van (as opposed to 2.5 hours by car), since we stick to an average highway speed of 55-60mph (90km/h) in Zesty. This consumes less diesel, and we rarely have to pass anyone!
White Mountain National Forest was our destination this past week. It is huge, at 800,000 acres (which expand into Maine), attracts millions of visitors annually, and offers countless recreation possibilities, like 1,200 miles of hiking trails. When Mark and I returned from visiting people in Maine and Vermont in June, we drove through this stunning area and were impressed. We vowed to return for a proper immersion.
(Scroll over or click on images to read photo captions in the galleries.)
A walk through Clearwater, FL reveals fancy signs, magnificent buildings, and a certain amount of secrecy. If you wouldn’t know better, the reason for these appearances stays forever hidden. Take a stroll through town with us and read the captions by hovering over or clicking on the images of this photo story.
We had no idea when we parked Zesty along the street, next to this imposing white building in Clearwater.
Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting, and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂
This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, 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, we both return to the East Coast.
Most of June was spent away from “our room above the garage”. After six weeks of sheltering in place in this tiny, uninspiring, yet relatively comfortable setting in Massachusetts, Mark, Maya, and I loaded up our campervan with belongings and groceries and traveled north.
We self-isolated for two weeks in Lincolnville, Maine, where we helped out with renovations in a house recently purchased by our brother-in-law and his wife. We didn’t spend any money during those weeks as we didn’t do anything and didn’t go anywhere. The numbers of Covid cases in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have always been low, but we quarantined for 14 days nevertheless.
(Captions appear when you click on or hover over the photos. I have posted more visuals of last month’s experiences in previous blog posts here and here.)
That visit concluded with a couple of hikes and a quick stop in the cute seaside town of Belfast on day 15 and 16, before we moved on to Kingfield, Maine, to hang out with friends for a couple of days.
Next up, more relaxing with another set of friends at a lake house in Island Pond, Vermont. That was a VERY enjoyable weekend, despite the 90-degree weather. We concluded our “grand tour” with a quick “hello and goodbye” to one more set of friends met on the road last year. Again, it was extremely hot and there was no shade for Zesty. We cooled off in the woods on their property and in a swimming hole by Troy Falls. Other than the last three nights of camping in our van, we stayed inside houses.
Some of the June categories were higher than usual: groceries because we stopped at a Trader Joe’s (which means splurging on goodies like dumplings, goat cheese, and snacks) and shared special home-cooked dinners, alcohol because we are social drinkers and we socialized a lot, and the dog section because of Maya’s new flea & tick collar and heartworm medicine.
All things considered, June was a decent spending month for us and the numbers underneath are accurate. But… a Covid-related action made us spend much less in real life. Let me explain. With our Chase credit card, Mark and I have been collecting points over the years, accumulating to $1,500 in cash last month. Usually, we save the points and use them for flights to Boston or Belgium. Well, that isn’t happening anytime soon, so we considered alternative benefits. At the same time, Chase announced that customers could redeem points during the pandemic for 1.5 times their value when paying for groceries and dining out, retroactive for 90 days. Our $1,500 instantaneously turned into $2,250!
Mark and I jumped on the offer, waving grocery and restaurant expenses from the previous three months and using points for all our current grocery shopping and take-out meals. To put things in perspective, a $30 food order, for example, costs us $20 as only that equivalent of points is redeemed. It’s a bit of an accounting nightmare, so I’m keeping the spending numbers in my reports equal to what we paid, not incorporating the “free money”. But, based on this fortunate turn of events, we only spent $410 of real money last month and a few hundred dollars less than recorded in February, March , and April as well.
Sorry for the confusion, but I added this explanation to provide total transparency about our expenses. At the end of the year, I will have to post two sets of numbers because of the generosity of our credit card company during these challenging times. Thank you, Chase!
To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the expense blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.
I hope my American friends and family are enjoying their Independence Day Weekend. The three of us had a mellow social-distanced BBQ with my brother-in-law and his family yesterday.
After three unusually rainy and/or cold winters out west in our 19ft camper van, Zesty, we had one objective for this last season: be warm. The only place in the lower 48s to assure that: Florida. Southern Florida. Since Mark and I always “bring” weird weather wherever we go, something would be amiss in the Sunshine State this winter as well. Firstly, Sunshine State is a misnomer better suited for California or Arizona, as the skies have been mostly cloudy (except on the days I take photos :-)). Secondly, we regularly had 40-degree weather (5 degrees Celsius) in January and, skipping spring all together, upper eighties from March on. Unseasonably hot.
Here’s what we’ve been up to the last three months…
(Hover over the photos to read the captions or click to enlarge.)
January 2020
The new year and new decade couldn’t have started better. After work and a bit of sightseeing in Kentucky, we drove to Florida to celebrate the arrival of 2020 with good sailing friends in Marineland. Even Maya liked her week-long visit to their refurbished catamaran, Sauvage. We were invited by a business owner in St. Augustine, who welcomed us with open arms and spoiled us with splendid company, food, and promises. Good times!
I hinted on it in a recent blog post: in January, Mark, Maya, and I spent about two weeks – spread over multiple visits – in historic St. Augustine, Florida, in regards to a job. Our life would potentially take an entirely different turn here. Promising and exciting. Or, was the anticipation part of a mind trick? Something that sounded too good to be true? A case of me falling for the trap I usually avoid: expectation leads to disappointment?
While in town, we had access to electricity, bathrooms, showers, and laundry. Luxurious and easy! Our AT&T data plan works splendidly in St. Augustine, so I could continue my own projects. The neighborhood was a bit shady and the traffic and train noise were horrific, but we could walk into the cute downtown.
For the last five years, Mark needed to return to Massachusetts in January for doctor visits. Sometimes, I joined him. Not that I wanted to (who prefers to be in the Boston area in the middle of winter?) but because it was my only solution. Other times, I stayed at a house sit. This year, because of our lovely dog, there was no way out. Maya and I would remain in Zesty for those five days.
Mark and I have pretty much been together 24/7 since the day we became a couple in December 2004. Despite our compatibility, I’m quite independent and truly, utterly adore time alone. In the past, I treasured spurts of me-time on visits to Belgium (which didn’t happen in 2019), a few solo days in California, or evenings apart during Mark’s job at Amazon. Still, I’d never been alone in our camper van for more than 11 hours. So how did that work out last January?
Continue readingEvery first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing. A different question is posed each month as a writing prompt. Answering it is optional. For February, the question is: “Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?”
This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson.
My answer to the question
I think this month’s question is more fitting for fiction writers. As a non-fiction writer I have never been inspired to write a story when seeing a photo or art. I’d love to play around with that, one day. I have gone back to my own photo archives (which contain tens of thousands of images – I have been traveling for a while) to bring back a memory of a scene, place, or event I wanted to write about.
If it wasn’t for an interesting job opportunity, Mark and I would never have considered visiting Kentucky. Yet, upon reading what the state has to offer and actually driving through its attractive countryside, we discovered beauty from rolling hills to majestic buildings and from famous events to dark, long caves. We are not alone in our positive findings; we kept hearing about surprising discoveries other campers and visitors made as well.
(Scroll over the image to read captions or click to enlarge.)
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we thought we’d have time to explore the area during our seven-week job commitment, but the night schedule was too exhausting to venture far on our one full day off. That being said, we found a few fun hikes around lakes near Campbellsville and saved the other attractions until the Amazon job was finished. We actually planned to head south as quickly as possible, that December 25th, but unseasonably warm weather made these Kentucky stops possible.
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