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.
In April, Mark, Maya, and I kept exploring Colombia in depth with our truck camper Thirsty Bella. We drove quite a bit again, mostly south, because our visas would expire on May 8th.
(As always, click on or hover over photos in galleries to read their captions.)
Three items were responsible for our above-average total: Mark’s upcoming flights to the US ($324), two bags of dogfood for Maya ($170), and a new part for our Ford engine ($160). If you don’t count this $650 of “extras,” we did pretty well, because we were extra careful with “splurges,” like eating and drinking out. We are on a tight budget after all.
The car category is the highest one last month, but not because of the fuel this time. For a while, we’ve been hearing a “funny” woowoo noise coming from the front, when the truck turns left. Mark suspected it was a bearing issue. When in Bogota, we visited a mechanic recommended to us by Juan from Overland Sally to diagnose the problem. Indeed, the bearing on the passenger side is bad and the hub needs replacing.
The mechanic located the correct contraption for an F350 in Colombia, but the price was over US$500. Mark did research on the spot and discovered he could buy one in the US for 1/3 of the price, so the guys just replaced the brake pads (which we had brought with us) and put everything back together.
That same day, leaving Bogota, our tire got sliced by a group of banditos on motorcycles. One of them stuck a purposefully created metal tube with a sharp edge into the front tire on the passenger side. It deflated in seconds! We were obliged to pull over immediately, which caused more damage as the rim shredded parts of the tire. It’s a long story, which I wrote about on my Roaming About Facebook page a couple of weeks ago.
The bottom line is that this was a scam to urge us to their tire shop for a new tire or overpriced patches. One of the guys even appeared with an air compressor and plug to temporarily hold air in our tire to reach this particular tire shop. Instead, we remained at the gas station we’d parked and used a tire shop there, after making a big scene that involved police officers, the head of the police department of Soacha (the town we were victimized in), and two undercover intelligence guys. They kept the tube, copied the footage we had on our dash cam, and inquired about video surveillance at the station. In addition, and at my request, they bargained the price down for the repair of the six (!) punctures in our newish, expensive, all-terrain tire that is not available here…
There is a fuel story as well. When we bought gasoline in Colombia, we always put the amount on our credit card. Just like at grocery stores, the attendants asked “Cuantas cuotas?” This basically means, “In how many installments do you want to pay this amount off?” We always reply “una” (one). Who knows how our American credit card company would deal with anything else? Well, we think one of the attendants typed in “6 cuotas” instead of “1.” This charge has not come through yet, so we will find out firsthand what will happen with that. There were a few more tolls as well, for good and bad roads.
Because we are always looking for the best deals and time is our friend, Mark spent about two months, every day, looking for affordable plane tickets from Ecuador (Quito) to the US (Boston). It was a frustrating and painstaking exercise with massive fluctuations, but eventually he snagged a decent price for his trip in the middle of June. The flights are awful, yet for this price, we can’t complain. The $324 is for one leg; we collected enough points for the return, which was the real deal at $125!
The other amount in the transportation category went to taxis (Uber and InDrive) getting to, from, and around Bogota, where we didn’t want to drive ourselves. Until going to the mechanic threw everything off – and destroyed our tire.
The grocery category was normal for Colombia at just above $200 but Maya set us back a bit. We stocked up on two bags of her “fancy” dogfood, because, even at more than twice the price than in the US, the cost was lower than in Ecuador and Peru. We haven’t checked further south. She also went to her fourth vet in two months for a health certificate to cross into the next country ($6) and we ordered more heartworm medicine in the US. Now that Mark plans a quick visit there, we are ordering a bunch of stuff for him to bring back.
As mentioned last month – and because of the extra costs we faced in April – we refrained from eating and drinking out too much. We succeeded, but still had a few fun and tasty outings.
The entertainment category was high and the Salt Cathedral was mostly to blame for that. We hemmed and hawed about visiting and initially only I would go and then show Mark the photos. But because so many people recommended this special site and we’d only be here once, we “gave in” and spent the $20 per person and $2 extra for Maya to be able to join us in a cart! Was it worth the money? I enjoyed the sights, but let’s just say that we would have stuck to the original plan on hindsight. To put things in perspective: $20 buys us six lunches/simple dinners out or two weeks of produce in Colombia.
A highlight in April was our time at San Agustin’s archaeological park ($15/person); also not cheap, but no regrets there. Maya was allowed to join us on the trails and we spent three hours walking around and marveling at the statues and tombs.
The other two attractions we visited last month were the Gold Museum in Bogota ($1/person) and a swimming pool in the Tatacoa Desert ($2/person).
Mark and I spent another $36 on two campgrounds (one night to meet up with our US friends Katherine and Brandon who are driving through Mexico, Central, and South America on their decked-out BMW motorcycles and a second night in San Agustin to fill with potable water, but the liquid was brown, so we passed on that chore) and several pay parking lots.
All the other times, we slept for free in public spaces. Economical, but not always the quietest or most comfortable.
Our alcohol amount ($43) was exactly the same as in March and Mark managed to order a new SmartPhone for $28; another thing he’ll bring back from Massachusetts in June. Laundry was manageable – the owner of a parking lot in Cota, where we spent almost a week, let us use her washing machine for free and the loads I had done in San Agustin were affordable.
Last month was the cheapest ever regarding internet. We bought a 15GB Claro data plan for $7 and it came with another 15GB for free. That was plenty for our remaining two weeks in Colombia. In Ecuador, data costs more than twice. The rest of our pesos went to my contraceptive meds (yes, I found the same kind), a hot beverage each, and a new dish towel. In case you wondered…
Filling up with water at a fuel station in San Agustin, after a failed attempt at the campground
We managed to fill up with water for free all month and, to conclude, a few photos of the nicest, quietest, yet hottest spots we boondocked in April.
Find all our expense reports here. To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.
If you are enjoying these posts, please consider donating to Roaming About in support of our website and our lifestyle. A big thank you to all our readers who have helped out in the past!
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May 6, 2023 at 16:27
I am amazed at your savvy traveling. You mentioned the plane tickets and said “The flights are awful,” which I take to mean that the outgoing and incoming flights are at inconvenient hours. My sister got a great deal on her flight from Philadelphia to Jacksonville through Frontier Airlines, but her outgoing flight time was at 9:45 p.m., getting her to her destination around midnight. So it goes.
Tell Mark he get an “A” as diagnostician. Those banditos, an F, of course. I enjoyed all of your photos but related especially to the canopy of trees early on, captioned Driving through Colombia. It reminds me of Mandarin, a neighborhood in Jacksonville with such cathedral-like foliage.
Well done! 😀
May 7, 2023 at 15:25
Hi Marian,
I think Mark’s flights “beat” the one from your sister. 🙂 His outgoing flight leaves at 3:30am from Quito airport (Ecuador) to Panama City (2-hour layover) to Boston, getting there at 2:30pm. This one is the best of the two.
His return flight from Boston to Quito leaves at the perfect time of 11am, but it takes three flights with long layovers to get to Quito at midnight the following day. He has a nine-hour layover in Charlotte and another nine-hour one in Miami (at night). Lots of time in airports for him!
We’ve driven through a few tree-lined “highways” in Colombia like in the photos and they often remind me of the roads in the South, especially Georgia and Florida, but they come without the Spanish moss here. 🙂
May 6, 2023 at 18:09
I’m always amazed if we get through ANY month without unexpected expenses. On the rare occasion we don’t have any extras, I feel like we got away with something, like bandits in the night. Maybe one day, electric vehicles will be able to run for so long that you won’t need to keep filling Thirsty Bella. Safe travels, Liesbet.
May 7, 2023 at 15:28
Hi Pete,
I believe Ford is experimenting with an electric pickup truck. But, if we keep carrying our home with us like a turtle, we will keep needing a heavy-duty gas or diesel guzzling beast. That’s the trade-off.
I hear you about unexpected expenses, they are part of the journey called life! I feel like you, whenever we have a cheap month without anything breaking or needing replacement. Rare luck! Those months are helping to keep the average down. 🙂
May 6, 2023 at 18:28
I love the pics of the desert.
So sorry Maya didn’t like the cart because she looks so cute in it – well, actually she looks a little pitiful.
We didn’t do too much worse than you this past month but it’s probably only be ause we having paid our camping bill yet. We did beat you on dining out, though! But, of course, not on alcohol.
Are you going to miss Colombia? So me of that food looks wonderful! And the scenery is amazing!
May 7, 2023 at 15:36
Hi Duwan,
Now you make me extra curious about your expense report! You beat us with eating out? That’s amazing, as we kind of tried to keep that amount down, haha. But not really, based on the photos. Yeah, I think we have it easy winning the alcohol category, especially since we rarely socialize these months and that’s when we might go a bit overboard. 🙂
We think Maya looked cute in the cart. We could have easily left her in the camper, as the visit lasted only one hour and half, but we wanted to bring her for the fun of it, in the cart. Apparently, it was only fun for us!
I think we will miss parts of Colombia and one of its biggest attractions to us: its affordability. We’ve heard every other country in South America is more expensive. We will see. We usually manage to find the cheaper grocery stores, eat more produce than meat (unlike other overlanders), and have found, in Colombia at least, that the vegetable tiendas and markets are relatively cheap.
As far as the scenery. I’m convinced that other countries will easily beat Colombia, especially Peru, Bolivia, and Patagonia.
May 6, 2023 at 18:28
Hi, Liesbet, Mark and Maya – Every post I read on Roaming About, I admire the three of you more and more. And I already admired you all a great deal to begin with. Very impressive all around!
May 7, 2023 at 15:37
Hi Donna!
Thank you for admiring us. No need, I would say. We just life our life on the road and try to maintain it. Plus, there has to be a ceiling to your admirations, right? I hope we never disappoint you! 🙂
May 6, 2023 at 19:48
Looks like you’ve been to some amazing places, but seriously, you’ve got to stop getting into trouble 🙂
May 7, 2023 at 15:40
Haha, Margie. I hope we can stop getting in trouble, because it’s getting exhausting and totally warps our impressions of a place we really loved. Now that we are in a different country – Ecuador – and we have three big and unwanted experiences behind us, maybe things will look up in every way! 🙂
May 6, 2023 at 20:36
Liesbet, Well done keeping your expenses as low as possible. Above all, I’m glad you’re safe in spite of what that group of banditos tried to do.
May 7, 2023 at 15:42
Thanks, Natalie. Yes, being safe is the most important thing – everywhere! To be honest, this tire experience touched us more – or at least on a different level – than the attempted armed robbery over Christmas. Such an evil deed. I’m still mad when I think about it. Plus, can we keep trusting our tire? This is a longterm – and potentially expensive – ordeal, unfortunately.
May 7, 2023 at 10:00
What a month! I am always amazed how you handle every problem thrown at you. I would feel like it’s too many! Love seeing Maya in that cart.
May 7, 2023 at 15:45
Hi Jacqui!
Maya looks super cute and funny in that cart. But I feel a little bad we did that to her. Just a little bit, though. 🙂 She always wants to be with us and has separation anxiety when left alone, so you’d think joining us in a big-enough cart would be bliss for her, but I don’t think she realizes any of that…
Believe me that Colombia wore us out, because of all those trying experiences. And then some. We hope Ecuador brings us more peace and rest.
May 7, 2023 at 12:23
Wow, your trip is stressing me out! Too much crime, too much noise, gruelling drives… I’m glad it’s you and not me. It’s nice to hear you’re still getting some enjoyable experiences, though!
May 7, 2023 at 15:50
I’m sorry to stress you out, Diane! But isn’t all this great material for another book? 🙂
Honestly, it has all been a bit much lately and the first thing we want to do here in Ecuador is sit still and rest for a few days. Maybe sleep through the night for a change and hopefully not get hassled. Of course, that might be wishful thinking, because even if we take a day “off”, there is always a lot to clean, fix, and attend to! Sigh. Enjoy your comfy couch! 🙂
May 7, 2023 at 20:02
Thank you; I will! Your experiences make me love my comfy couch even more than I did before. 🙂
May 9, 2023 at 14:50
Haha! When people ask me what I miss most in this lifestyle, my answer is “comfort” or “a comfy couch.” 🙂 Secondly, a community.
May 7, 2023 at 14:10
Sorry about your tire. Jerks.
Since you only have until May 8, where are you headed now?
May 7, 2023 at 15:53
Hi Alex,
Thanks for reading and commenting. And, for connecting me with fellow ex-sailor Lynn of the sailboat La Vita! Yeah, the entire tire episode sucked and still does, when we think back about it and when we think about our heavily patched-up tire.
We have arrived in Ecuador, the next country south! Our visas are valid for three months. Then, Peru. If we don’t get extensions here.
May 7, 2023 at 18:08
Oh my, what drama! Hope Ecuador is proving more relaxing.
May 9, 2023 at 13:06
So far, so good, Anabel. We’ve only stopped in one place and haven’t moved since, because the nights are quiet. But, we are at 9,100ft elevation and the cold – and being out of breath – is getting to us. So, we will start exploring soon. 🙂
May 8, 2023 at 03:45
I can feel a new book will be on the cards, you have so many exciting adventures to tell. Colombia has had many ups and downs but team Roaming About has survived and thrived. You guys are amazing!
I hope Equador will treat you well.
I think you have done great with your budget, considering how many extras you had to deal with.
May 9, 2023 at 14:53
Hi Gilda,
You certainly are correct about us having many stories. Even from the time before I started sailing. Maybe a prequel one day about my backpacking years and a sequel about our overland travels in South America. But not soon. Writing a book is a LOT of work (and time and energy) and there is no money in it, so I have to focus my energy elsewhere these years. 🙂
May 8, 2023 at 09:51
I can’t believe how blatant those tire stabbers were! That would have riled me up more than almost anything on the road. Glad it is behind you, and hope that Ecuador is awesome!
May 9, 2023 at 14:57
Hi Lexie,
You have no idea – well, maybe you do – about just how mad we were after this incident. It felt so unfair and rude – and nobody even realizes what implications this had/has for us, the stabbers in the least. That’s why I was adamant about not giving in and trying to get out of this situation spending as little as possible. We made a giant scene out of that episode and in that area, so hopefully, the tire terrorists will think twice now before targeting other campers. It was also sad and unfortunate, because up to that point, we LOVED Colombia all around- and we made this clear to the cops as well.
May 8, 2023 at 12:49
Wow Liesbet, what an incredible adventure you guys are having! I’m in awe of your savvy money management, creative solutions, and indomitable spirits. Sorry you’ve had to deal with some “bad actors.” Have fun and stay safe. ???? Terri
May 9, 2023 at 14:59
Hi Terri,
There are bad actors everywhere and we are certainly aware of that. Unfortunately, we’ve dealt with three “extreme” situations while in Colombia, making us believe that the country is still “rough around the edges” for (overlanding) visitors. Hopefully, the rest of South America is kinder to us. 🙂
May 8, 2023 at 21:17
Wow, never a dull moment with you two, lol. That is awful about what they did to your tire. Some people are just so ruthless. Please be careful there! <3
May 9, 2023 at 15:01
Hi Debby,
You are certainly correct with your “never a dull moment with you two.” Honestly, there is never a dull moment and we are so busy every single day – with maintaining our life, driving, communicating with locals, running errands, walking our dog, dealing with household chores, fixing things, sightseeing, practicing Spanish, writing, blogging, and working. I would love to read a book one day. I wonder how long I’ve been saying that… 🙂
May 9, 2023 at 15:26
Lol, life is always busy in a strange country. Get settled and make yourself time to get into a great escape read. 🙂
May 9, 2023 at 21:57
Sounds good, but nope. Whenever I have a free moment, I have to work on blog posts. I’m still two months behind and now I’m already in the next country… Sigh!
May 10, 2023 at 08:49
Lol, oye! You may need a vacation 🙂 🙂
May 12, 2023 at 16:45
Haha. One day, I promise myself, we will have a vacation. Not sure where or when, but after twenty years of “running around,” it will happen. 🙂
May 11, 2023 at 07:03
So sorry to hear about what happened with that group of banditos. Seeing the pictures of all those police, it must have been a rather frightening experience but you dealt with it all so well.
And it sounds like you’ll have to stock up well on some stuff before crossing the boarder. Isn’t it crazy that wifi can be double the cost simply by crossing a boarder?
And I hope Thirty Bella does not get blocked in again. However, good that there was no mention of anyone opening the door to Bella unexpectedly while you two and Maya were inside.
Stay safe and take good care of yourselves.
May 12, 2023 at 16:58
Hi Hugh,
We’ve been through some hairy situations the last few months, but I hope this has come to an end now that we have left Colombia. So far so good! Yes, things are more expensive here in Ecuador, but we are relieved and happy to discover that fresh produce is still very cheap as that’s our main source of comida (food). 🙂
The reason that there were so many police officers during our tire ordeal is because we made a huge scene. The more uniformed bodies and emergency vehicles, the bigger the scene and, hopefully, the smaller the chance those guys will try anything like that again. By drawing so much attention to us and that area – and even the gas station – we hope to have made a difference and to at least make “gangsters” realize they don’t always get away (easy) with what they try to accomplish.
As I joked with Mark before: we sure met a lot of cops in Colombia, on a personal basis, even having their phone numbers!
Well, we wanted adventures and we are sure getting them. But a little break would be nice…
June 19, 2023 at 17:08
Another busy month. Love the boon-dock photos. Tranquilo!
June 19, 2023 at 23:17
It’s so nice to find wild camping places in nature again. But now we do miss being able to just walk into town and grabbing a treat or a meal. 🙂 But that’s what keeps the expenses down. Everything is a trade off!