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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
We boondocked the entire month and therefore camping was free for us in April.
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
(It might be easier to read the table when turning your device in the horizontal position.)
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.
Next up: A colorful day trip from Santiago to Valparaiso, Chile.
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May 7, 2024 at 12:24
I love the bomberos sticker! Glad you are getting more means bought by your fans and followers. So nice to be treated and to know people want to do something special for you.
Hopefully Thirsty Bella is good to go for a while and your expenses can remain low for your continued journey in SA.
May 9, 2024 at 14:24
Hi Duwan,
Yes, we feel very grateful, happy, and appreciated with these donations. They really help us have more fun, as eating out and drinking wine are our favorite splurges! We hope we’re done with car maintenance for a while.
I know I didn’t mention the entire battery buying effort in this post, because the text was long enough already. But, to order this battery, we had to fill out a form online and none of our actual information would be accepted, so we gave them our name and email address and then used a local street address, local phone number, and RUT (identity number required for online orders in these countries). And, our own Visa card info, of course.
We had to make up some of the data, because it wouldn’t take the real information. Hence, the name of the RUT number we inserted came up as the recipient and the battery was delivered at a neighbor’s driveway. Luckily, we saw the delivery guy show up and intercepted the package. That’s how it’s done here.
Even though we had called the company and had them correct the wrong information details, the delivery guy had no idea that we were in an RV and Mark was the recipient! So, it was all a bit confusing and not hassle-free at all.
May 7, 2024 at 13:45
We’re paying $5.97 per gallon or gas in California these days, one of the most expensive places in the nation. It will be interesting to see how if the trend toward electric vehicles continues. We haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but one of our two vehicles is a hybrid.
May 9, 2024 at 14:33
Hi Pete,
Wow, Humboldt County must be one of the most expensive places to buy gas in the US. Here, there’s a big difference between gasoline and diesel, which is usually cheaper. But, we wanted a gas truck on purpose, to not have to deal with all the engine restrictions and such regarding fueling up in South America.
We loved having our Prius many years ago. Very different than our other vehicles that we had to live in!! Awesome fuel mileage, but we couldn’t live in it…
May 7, 2024 at 14:28
Hi, Liesbet and Mark – Your generosity is always very impressive. I love that despite a heavy expense month you still donated to the local fireman, prepared a meal for 7, and continued to take excellent care of Maya. You both deserve very good karma! <3
May 9, 2024 at 14:35
Hi Donna!
Thanks for your compliment and the karma! Always welcome. We don’t think we are that generous, really. Our tips and donations are always very small. We wish we could do more for the world and the animals! But we do enjoy sharing our food, wine, and stories. 🙂
May 7, 2024 at 16:07
Yes, your expenses were high last month, but you will never regret an investment in good tires and socializing with friends, some of whom return your generosity, which “Retirement Reflections” points out.
Cheers to a happy May!
May 9, 2024 at 14:38
Thanks for the happy May wishes, Marian. We can always use some positivity and well wishes! And you are right, of course, all those investments in the car are needed and wanted and useful. That’s why we feel pretty good about them, despite the cost, and about marking the tasks off the list. Our friends have been generous sharing meals and drinks as well. We are very happy to have had a little community lately.
May 7, 2024 at 16:55
Cable car sounds fun.
Wow, is that dog food expensive!
May 9, 2024 at 14:39
Hi Alex,
If only our dog wasn’t on a diet! But, we’ve come to terms with the specific food for Maya being pricey. We are already happy when we can find it!! It took us a year after first adopting here, before we found food (and situations) she was not allergic to.
May 9, 2024 at 22:34
I’m sure that total made you gulp when you added it all up, but it’s still amazing how much you’re doing on such a tight budget. Especially with Maya – sometimes I think pets cost more than humans! (They’re SO worth it, though.) 🙂
May 10, 2024 at 12:07
Hi Diane,
Yes, Maya will be pricey this year, because of the higher cost for dog food and all the health certificates and rabies shots we seem to need, just to be able to cross borders. Luckily, she hasn’t gotten sick yet on this trip – or ever since we adopted her six (!) years ago, actually. She’s a strong one! And, so worth it, of course. 🙂
The total for April was high, but if you consider that most of it went to car maintenance – needed for safety and comfort reasons – we were okay with it.
May 12, 2024 at 09:28
How lovely that somebody saw Thirsty Bella’s number plate, checked out your blog and donated some money for drinks. It’s a small world, Liesbet.
I love that you did some laundry in the river. I’mm guessing you guys do not iron anything as the heat gets rid of all the creases?
What are those snacks in the photo of the two glasses of orange juice? Are they what I know as Monkey Nuts?
May 12, 2024 at 12:39
Hi Hugh,
Yeah, I thought that was pretty neat about the couple from Massachusetts wanting to support us after walking by. Putting our website address on the back of the camper finally paid off! 🙂
I’ve often done some hand laundry in rivers and with water from spigots, but, man, that water is always ice cold. One time, recently, my hands were numb from the moment I washed the first piece of undies in water from a glacial mountain river. It was a painful affair. But free!
Nope, no ironing here and more often than not, washed items dry on clothes lines and not in machines. Even when we drop off our laundry. It’s a basic lifestyle! Maybe on our boat in the tropics, the heat took care of the creases, but now (especially now) it’s darn cold everywhere as it’s the fall.
Good question about those snacks! While they look like monkey nuts, they are not. These are a particular snack that I’ve only seen at grocery stores in Chile. They are actually Cheetos with peanut (mani) flavor: https://mercadorapid.cl/producto/cheetos-horneados-sabor-mani-230-gr/! Very interesting. They grew on me and I started to like them. Before discovering they have MSG in them!
May 14, 2024 at 05:35
The only Cheetos I know are cheese flavour. Were the ones you ate peanut flavour? Or did the MSG flavour enhancing ingredient make them taste like peanut?
May 27, 2024 at 08:29
Hi Hugh,
Apologies for the late reply. Busy weeks here in Argentina. With friends. 🙂
Those Cheetos in Chile were peanut flavored and tasted like peanuts, so it’s a very interesting sensation. Quite addictive, like the real cheese Cheetos, as well.
We discovered it had MSG, when offering the snacks to a friend who is allergic to MSG and asked if it contained that ingredient. We didn’t think so – we usually avoid that kind of food and check the ingredients – but to our horror, it had MSG in it and we almost made our friend sick unintentionally! So, we never bought them again. We didn’t notice the inclusion of MSG in the ingredient list, because, in Spanish, the spelled words are “backwards.”