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 lived and traveled full-time in our camper van Zesty, which has affected our expenditure, compared to our previous house and pet sitting lifestyle.
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. Health insurance and costs are related to my health care as a permanent resident in the US. Mark is still eligible for free health care in the state of Massachusetts as of today. If a non-emergency were to happen outside of that state, it will be expensive! For check-ups, we both return to the East Coast. I still pay a small quarterly fee in Belgium for health care (required to retain citizenship), which I mention in my year report.
October was more expensive than other months, mainly because we bought flexible solar panels for Zesty, drove a LOT, and took a ferry from Vancouver Island back to the US. Before we left Oregon, we stocked up on wine from Trader Joe's, as this state does not charge sales tax. It's also the reason we had the solar panels shipped to a friend's house here. Savings in the long run. 🙂
A new category has been added to our expense report: phone charges. In the past, our business took care of that amount. Mark and I still buy the same 5GB T-Mobile data plan (with free streaming) for $30 a month. Because he's always on the lookout for better deals, we usually manage to find discounts and pay around $25 for this "skimpy" plan. We manage to deal with all our internet-related tasks by adding visits to libraries, information centers or McDonald parking lots with free WiFi for extensive research and blog commitments (posting, reading and commenting). Our cell data limit is enough for daily life on the road and communications. If we pick up a signal...
One of our less attractive library visits in Northern California.
Fun with the air popcorn machine to pick our non-winning lottery ticket numbers
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November 4, 2018 at 14:22
Another great month Liesbet. But LOTTERY TICKETS??? I would never have guessed you for the type? I sincerely hope you got a bit of entertainment from them because that’s about all the EVER deliver. I’d far rather spend it on a sale priced bottle of wine!!! But good for you for spending not one dime on camping fees. As always you are an inspiration. ~Kathy
November 5, 2018 at 08:21
We had a lot of fun with it, Kathy. That’s why the lottery tickets are under the entertainment category. 🙂 It’s the first (and possibly the last) time we ever bought a few. The possible winning amount was up to one billion. We were staying with friends in Oregon and used exciting ways to pick our numbers, like an air popcorn machine (I posted the video on Facebook, the day of the lottery). It was hilarious!
November 4, 2018 at 15:36
I’m happy to see you’ve gotten your car repairs taken care of, Liesbet. Hopefully, no more of that this year! Periodically, we play a North Carolina state only lottery. Once we won around $450 and the other time we won $350. It’s all for fun. Great job on the October expenses! The month sure went fast, didn’t it?
November 5, 2018 at 08:23
Those were some nice winnings, Jill! As expected, we didn’t win anything, but we had great fun with the picking of the numbers. The friends we stayed with were very creative. 🙂 October went crazily fast. Soon enough 2018 will be finished!
November 5, 2018 at 06:06
Smart to have those panels shipped to a state with no sales tax.
November 5, 2018 at 10:25
We are the experts on frugal living, Alex. 🙂 One day, I should share some tips and tricks in this blog. When we had our sailboat, we registered it in Delaware to escape paying tax on that. Big savings there!
November 5, 2018 at 17:21
Ooh, I hope the new solar panels will be a huge help towards future Zesty expenses….
November 11, 2018 at 22:24
They should be a huge convenience, as we now have to run our generator or be deprived of computer use when sitting somewhere longer than three days. Not that this happens often yet… There’s still an issue with the charger, but we hope to get that figured out later this month. 🙂
November 8, 2018 at 14:41
Socks seem to wear out when you hike a lot. We both just bought new socks. I absolutely destroyed many pair last winter hiking in the desert.
I often think we should find a new cell plan. I like ours with Google Fi. It is a great deal when we house sit and use little data and I have high hopes it will work well in Mexico, but our bill can run as $84 if we use more data. I always hated T-mobile when we were with yhem, but I am intrigued by the free streaming. Will have to look into options.
November 12, 2018 at 09:28
Mark’s destroying all our socks, because he walks around in them. Not that there’s a lot of walking around to do in our van. 🙂 I wear indoor slippers (or “sloefkes” as we call them in Flemish) with wool inside to keep my feet warm. It saves the socks as well. By the way, did you know we use grey socks as armrest protectors in our van?
T-Mobile is the worst when it comes to coverage. It was a pain when we needed it daily for work, but now, we can relax and totally forget about the Internet when we don’t get a signal. We have an extremely cheap plan that is not available anymore, so we’d hate to change it. Although, depending on our future (and internet-related work) we might have to get an unlimited plan. We will see. For now, we will stick to the 5GB a month and only paying $25 for cell and internet. 🙂
November 22, 2018 at 00:25
I’ll be interested to hear how the solar panels work out. We have thought about getting some for our camper for our longer trips. We presently don’t have a generator either.
Jude
November 23, 2018 at 11:39
The solar panels look amazing and store flat against our bathroom wall in the back, taking up no space. Plus, they were affordable. Unfortunately, we still have a little issue with our charger (which Mark bought many months ago with the added idea that it would also work with solar panels if and when we would purchase those), but hopefully that will get resolved during our current house sit. Tools and space available, and it’s OK that Zesty’s interior looks like a work zone, since we sleep in the house.
We decided to go for portable ones, so we could park in the shade when it gets hot, but still have the panels in the sun. I’ll keep you posted, once we start using them.