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. 🙂 Since July 2018, Mark and I have been combining van life in our Zesty and house and pet sitting, which we did full-time before that. The best of both worlds!
This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for the two of us. Under groceries we incorporate all the 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 Mark's vitamins and 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.
The first ten days of May, Mark and I house and pet sat in Albuquerque and the rest of the month we lived in our camper van in Kanab, Utah while volunteering at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. I made a comment in my last expense report that May would be an expensive month for us. It was... extremely expensive... triple the amount of April, because of our camper van.
May is the month in which we pay for our annual van insurance, which increased to over $1,000 this year. That's usually what we aim to spend (but rarely achieve) every month for all the categories! We also purchased a new alternator and pullies for the engine, which Mark replaced himself in Kanab, Utah. It was a day-long project. He can now call himself a car mechanic, on top of a boat mechanic. 🙂
Our side awning window has a crack (see last month) and after much consideration and research, we decided to buy a new slider (glass) window from Mercedes, in Massachusetts. Fearing they won't make these windows anymore (our Sprinter van is a 2004), there was urgency with the decision and the purchase. After we placed the order, we found out this was the very last window of its kind in the entire USA! We will pick it up and replace our current acrylic one when we are back on the east coast.
Because of these ultra-high van expenses in May, we really tried our best - and succeeded - to keep our grocery (and other) costs to a minimum. Less than $200. That must be a new record for us. What alleviated that expense as well was eating out for lunch a few times at the Best Friends Angel Village Cafe and then eating sandwiches for dinner - reversed meal plan. Vegan buffet lunches during our break between shifts at the animal sanctuary were a welcome treat, and affordable: $5 per person for all-you-can-eat!
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June 8, 2019 at 12:19
You are so lucky, Liesbet, that Mark can do a lot of the car maintenance. Between our two vehicles and my daughter’s car, we’ve spent well over our limit recently just to keep the cars moving. Of course our cars are at least ten years old. I wondered how you two kept up with medical visits. Thanks for sharing this knowledge. All best to you both!
June 10, 2019 at 11:46
I’m such a lucky woman, Victoria. 🙂 We wouldn’t be able to travel the way we have been all these years – by sailboat and campers – if we had to hire professionals to fix all the issues. It would be cost-prohibitive. Where we are fortunate is by being residents of Massachusetts where healthcare is set up really well. Ironically, it was put into place by Mitt Romney!
June 8, 2019 at 12:36
Hi Liesbet! Wow! Just shows how vehicles can throw off the best of us when it comes to budgets. And that’s why only having one car is best if it works for you. But still, you are both amazing when it comes to frugal living! ~Kathy
June 10, 2019 at 11:49
Hi Kathy! We’ve known all along that Zesty is and would be our biggest expense “burden” – it’s part of living on the road, just like Irie was our money pit when living on the water. Our vehicles are always our homes, so their costs reflect that. Because of this reason, we were considering putting all those thousands of dollars a year towards plane tickets in the future and travel and house sit in SE Asia. But, another complication (a good one) has appeared, so those plans will be put off.
June 8, 2019 at 13:10
Considering most people ditch their cars after only a few years, that’s amazing yours is fifteen years old and still running. Glad you got that glass when you did.
The camper might’ve been expensive last month, but wow was everything else cheap.
June 10, 2019 at 11:51
Hi Alex – our camper van is quite sturdy, but the problem is that it consists of two big parts: the Mercedes engine (which has been doing great; the problem of May being the first fix we had to do) and the camper part, which rattles a lot and needs frequent repairs and replacements. Still cheaper than home improvements in houses, I’m sure. 🙂 We tried hard to keep everything else cheap. One has to sacrifice somewhere and with us, that’s always the fun parts as certain categories are a necessity in our life.
June 8, 2019 at 14:03
Apart from the camper expenses, it looks like a frugal month for you guys. It’s great Mark can handle some of the repairs, that cuts down on the expenses. Safe travels!
June 10, 2019 at 11:52
Thanks, Jill. Having a handy husband has come in, well, handy often. 🙂
June 8, 2019 at 15:11
Well done Mark! A handy sort of guy, obviously.
June 10, 2019 at 11:52
He’s one of a kind, Anabel! 🙂
June 9, 2019 at 03:01
It’s really amazing that you both manage to spend so little on groceries. I’d be interested to see a post on how you do it/what meals you make, etc., if you ever care to write one.
Sorry about the van, but it sounds like what you spent in May will save you money down the road (no pun intended). That was a lucky find with that window!
June 10, 2019 at 12:02
I’d love to write a blog post about our eating habits and how to keep those expenses low, JH. One of these months (years?). 🙂 One thing that’s important to know is that we cook all our meals at home and that we obtain a healthy, plant-based diet. Also, we (I) eat a lot! 🙂 Our grocery expense in May was an all-time low. We usually do better when we milk everything we have and don’t shop until we really have to. Usually, we top off our stores along the way. In May, we didn’t do that 1) to save money as the van was extremely expensive, and 2) Kanab only has local grocery stores that are more expensive than where we usually shop, so we only bought things on sale.
June 10, 2019 at 11:43
We used to pay our insurance in lump sums every 6 months but when we were sailing we realized that we could put our vehicle in “storage” and get a lower rate. The insurance company would then refund what we had already paid for with a check – despite my pleas to not send any checks. Since we were using a mailbox service and had no access to the mailbox where we were staying at Greg’s parents’ house and therefore had no way of retrieving any mail – I would have to go round and round with the insurance company before they would cancel it and give us a credit instead. Eventually I just started paying month to month so I wouldn’t have to deal with them not listening to me when I said, “Don’t mail me a check!”
I do like just getting that bill completely out of the way and not having to think about it again for a while – especially when we are on the road – but I also think it works nicely on an expense report broken out over 12 months.
Anyways – so sorry your bill went up! I wonder why? Ours actually went down a few cents this last time.
Despite the all the van money – you have, as always, done amazingly well with your expenses. And no razor expenses for the next five years!
June 10, 2019 at 12:15
Hi Duwan!
Yes, I’ve noticed that you guys pay for your van insurance month to month. We were quite “happy” when the total amount was around $900, but it really jumped up this year. Despite Mark researching other companies and trying to get the rate down again. No competition in Massachusetts, unfortunately. The boat insurance of many of our friends went up as well, but campers aren’t affected by hurricanes… The annual fee is still less than half of what we paid for Irie, though. Sorry to read you had such a hassle with the insurance company. They have their own way of dealing with things. So many times, Mark has left messages or notes to shipping companies, re-sellers, … to tell them about our needed shipping methods and many times, it got screwed up.
Haha about the razor expenses! We bought 100 (same price as 50) and re-use them often as it is, so maybe we last even longer than five years. 🙂
June 11, 2019 at 17:39
That’s an ‘ouchee’ month for sure! And compared to here, wow, insurance is CHEAP! 🙂
June 12, 2019 at 08:40
How much is car insurance per month/year in Canada? I have no clue. For our Prius, we paid $600 a year. The camper is much more, but we live in it. So, I guess one should compare it to home insurance. 🙂
Hopefully, the expenses will even out over the year. We will have to do better this summer. Although, June has another interesting expense.
June 12, 2019 at 15:58
600? Lol, that’s unheard of here. Big traffic cities are way more. Also depends on type of vehicle, zip code and driving record, but for all things good, roughly double what you pay for Zesty, for a car with a perfect driving record.
June 12, 2019 at 16:57
That’s pretty crazy. I guess we could never live in Canada! 🙂
June 12, 2019 at 06:11
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post Liesbet. You two are an inspiration. As they say “Where there is a will, there is a way”. Given the high monthly expenses for the vehicle, you two really focused on keeping all the other expenses down. I had a little giggle that the alcohol expenses were not a lot less than your food balance for the month. But, really thumbs up on all accounts. We lived in a caravan full time for 2 years. It is amazing how cheaply you can live. I think some people thought we were well off to be able to travel full time for 2 years. But we learnt to make wise choices about where we spent our money. I did think of documenting our monthly budget. But it never happened, as it’s a lot of work to document everything. So, well done and keep enjoying wonderful travel adventures.
June 12, 2019 at 09:12
Hi Estelle!
I’ve been traveling my entire life and it’s funny how – especially in the beginning – people thought I was rich to be able to live my life this way. Haha! I’m sure I have less money than EVERYBODY I know. It’s all a matter of priorities and choices, like you said. And, making just enough money to maintain ourselves. For now, anyway.
It’s a well-kept secret, apparently, how to travel on a budget. I’m glad you and I belong to that amazing “club”. 🙂
The thing with alcohol is that we buy a bunch (with Trader Joe’s far and few between in Utah and Northern Arizona) of wine whenever we can. Our favorite bottles cost $4 or $5 (depending on the state) at Trader Joe’s, so we had to buy enough to last a month at the one in Albuquerque. And, beer with full alcohol strength is hard to find in Utah (blame the Mormons), so we had to buy a bunch of that as well, before entering the state.