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.
In September, Mark, Maya, and I covered long distances across Brazil before slowing down in Paraguay in our home on wheels, Thirsty Bella.
(As always, click on or hover over photos in photo galleries to read their captions.)
As usual, the car category topped our list of expenses. We might have set a new record, spending $642 on fuel, which made up almost half of our total monthly costs. Add $50 in tolls—mostly in Brazil—and the road budget was definitely the winner. We also bought a bucket for our sixth oil change on this continent in three years.
Groceries came to $331, about average for us. Produce in Brazil was cheaper than in Paraguay, while other items were priced similarly. We remembered Paraguayan stores being cheaper during our previous visit, but that must have been because we’d just come from pricey Argentina five months ago.
We treated ourselves to a few meals out in Brazil last month, though most of our dinners are still cooked and eaten at home. Once we settled in Paraguay for a couple of weeks, we didn’t dine out—there weren’t any restaurants within walking distance!
Our alcohol costs continue to hover around $80 a month, covering a new bottle of rum (our favorite hard liquor), beer for Mark, and wine for both of us.
Starlink internet costs went down a bit, since the Argentine peso finally weakened against the dollar. Half of our subscription (now $30 instead of $40) is covered by our business. Our account is registered in Argentina; we switched it from Peru—where we bought the antenna two years ago—after costs there became too high. We filled with potable water for free each time.
Filling with water at the free campground of Hernandarias, Paraguay
Before leaving Brazil, I couldn’t resist using their amazing self-serve laundromats one more time. Four cycles—two wash and two dry—cost $12, paid by credit card. You don’t find laundromats like these elsewhere in South America; they are drop-off only, with mixed results. I’ll miss doing laundry myself in state-of-the-art machines! In Paraguay, it was back to hand laundry…
We also renewed our annual email hosting subscription ($10) during a sale before prices went up, and paid $9 in entrance fees for a private waterfall in Brazil and a small national park in Paraguay.
Maya needed one of her yearly vaccinations, which we got done in Hohenau, Paraguay, for a very reasonable $7. We might return to the same vet for her next round of international travel paperwork.
Maya at the vet for another shot
One night in Búzios, Brazil, Mark and I went out for a drink ($7), and we spent $6 on a replacement switch to repair our broken water pump—Mark was thrilled to find a compatible part in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, and modified it to fit!
Fixing our freshwater pump
Other small costs included $3 for medicines and $3 for a campground night in a Paraguayan national park. We actually spent more time in campgrounds in September, but our current site’s fee won’t be due until we leave in October.
Most of the month, we boondocked for free, parking in nature or on the edges of towns—with mixed results for sleep quality.
And finally, after my old computer corrupted a batch of photo files, I gave in and switched to our “new” spare laptop, which we’ve been hauling around for over a year. I’m still getting used to it, but at least my photos are safe again!
Despite all the driving, we managed to stick close to our average monthly total of $1,300.
(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, check out the blogs of our nomad friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.
Next up: Back in Paraguay!
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October 9, 2025 at 14:08
Fascinating as always to see how your money is spent on each category, Liesbet.
October 9, 2025 at 14:25
Thanks, Annie. I’m glad you find these reports interesting. Mark thinks that they are boring and is encouraging me to quit these kinds of blog posts, so I might wrap them up at the end of 2025.
October 9, 2025 at 15:16
I don’t know how you manage to pull this off each month, Liesbet, but somehow you do. Vaccinations for $7.00? It’s like it’s 1960.
October 13, 2025 at 12:27
Haha, Pete. In some ways, Latin America is like the sixties, I guess. I’d like to write “feels like the sixties,” but I wasn’t born yet, so I don’t really know. That being said, vet fees have been very affordable. I don’t think we’ve ever paid more than $10 for a vaccination for Maya and that includes rabies shots. She’s had a lot of booster shots in three years. The good thing is that vets usually don’t charge a separate office visit fee. That would drive us crazy.
October 9, 2025 at 15:30
Maya did not look happy.
October 13, 2025 at 12:29
Maya was actually having fun at this vet, at first, doing tricks and receiving a lot of treats. And then, she unexpectedly got jabbed in her side and the fun was over… Poor girl. She actually was itchy in that spot the rest of the day, which we’d never experienced before.
October 9, 2025 at 15:42
MARK gets the prize for Mr. Fix-It! And YOU, for your careful documentation here, including the monthly expenses!
October 13, 2025 at 12:30
Hi Marian,
Thank you for the compliments. You remain to have a positive effect on me with your kindness, support, and encouragement. Especially since I’ve been getting close to (temporarily) giving up these days – the blog and the lifestyle.
October 9, 2025 at 15:56
I love the Bubble Box. So sorry that you are doing laundry by hand again.
When you wrote how much your camper cost was, I thought, oh no, this will be an expensive month! But you managed to keep your costs down despite treating yourselves with some dinners out! I’m impressed.
October 13, 2025 at 12:34
Hi Duwan,
Oh, we will miss those self-service laundromats. A good thing about house sits are the free laundry facilities. 🙂
I thought the same as you, when Mark started going through our expenses and I noted them down, per line item. After hearing the exorbitant amount for fuel, I was sure we’d end up at $1,500 or more. But, sitting still for a while always helps. Especially when we didn’t eat out during those two weeks either.
October 10, 2025 at 13:28
You did do a lot of driving though! Anyone interested in your camper yet?
October 13, 2025 at 12:48
Hi Alex,
We’ve had a few inquiries about our camper and the truck, separately, so we might split them up and sell them as two parts. We shall see. At the moment, we are trying to figure out if we should drive back to Chile or stay in Paraguay, which is getting very hot as summer is around the corner.
October 11, 2025 at 12:57
Another good month! You’re doing amazingly well, considering all the unexpected things that have confronted you. Will you miss Thirsty Bella when she’s sold?
October 13, 2025 at 12:54
Hello again, Diane!
We are pretty happy with the total amount for last month. With what we have in mind at the moment, the coming months are sure to blow the budget!!!
I think we will miss not having a home anymore, but Mark and I are both ready to move onto (into?) something new and different. Of course, once we will be faced with actually selling her – and everything she represented in the last 3+ years – it will be hard and bittersweet. We can take this camper everywhere and live in it. Without it, we really don’t have much left… But we try to not get too emotionally attached to our vehicles and boats – each one and each time has their purpose and once we completed that purpose or goal, it’s time to move on.
October 14, 2025 at 12:46
That’s a great attitude. I’m a “mover-onner”, too – I take a while to decide when it’s time to move on and I don’t make the decision lightly; but when it’s time, I go without regrets. 🙂
October 25, 2025 at 15:32
That’s perfect, Diane – to go for a new decision, path, or direction and sticking to it. I am still open to regrets at times. 🙂
October 13, 2025 at 10:06
I’m sorry to hear about the corrupted photo files! I hope you didn’t lose any. Do you store them on the cloud (for safekeeping?)
I see Thirty Bella lived up to her name with those fuel costs. But there must have been a lot of driving involved.
October 13, 2025 at 13:00
Hi Hugh,
Welcome back!
I actually did lose a bunch of photos and the ones I’m most bummed about are from a beach town we really enjoyed. Luckily, I had created a Facebook post about this place and I could recover those photos and move them back onto my laptop. But, they are resized.
I probably lost about 50 photos in total. If I wouldn’t be so adamant about deleting photos from my recycle bin – I hate clutter even digitally – I could have recovered them from the bin.
We always make back ups of our photos automatically – our computers get synched with our back-up system in the camper – but the files got corrupted before they were synched. We don’t use the cloud as it would cost a lot with the amount and sizes of the photos we take.
October 16, 2025 at 17:45
You guys have done very well. When I look at those prices I have to laugh. The price for drinks is so cheap. You are way better off living in South America than North America. The food looked divine too. Medicine $3 lol, is that a price? You can’t even buy a box of bandaids for that price here! Stay well! 💜 xx
October 25, 2025 at 15:35
Hi Debby,
Sorry for the late reply. We have been driving for over a week and were very busy with other stuff as well. Back in Chile now! 🙂
Yes, prices down here are better than in North America, but we remain careful with what we buy and you can’t get as many nice products/varieties as up north. That being said, we did find Canadian maple syrup in a fancy grocery store called Jumbo yesterday. Browsing that store in Santiago was heaven. But, we stuck to mostly “window shopping.”