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A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: camper costs

Monthly Expenses of a Nomad in South America – October 2024 (Argentina & Uruguay)

Expenses - image

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.

After we returned to Thirsty Bella in Argentina, Mark, Maya, and I needed about three weeks to find our travel groove, get readjusted to the lifestyle, prep for new adventures, and see friends before new horizons lured. The first week of October, we headed north in Argentina and on October 9th, we crossed into Uruguay, a new-to-us country. We stayed through Halloween.

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)

Despite Uruguay being a very expensive nation – even by western norms – our monthly budget stayed below average. Why? Mark and I were super careful spending money, stocked up in Argentina, drove slower than usual, deliberated detours, and focused on free camping and what we really wanted to see.

The car category was the highest, as usual. Over half of our total! With fuel costing $7 a gallon/$1.80 a liter in Uruguay (diesel is 40% cheaper), it is no surprise that we spent around $560 on gasoline, despite topping up in Argentina (at $4/gallon) and filling our 5-gallon jerrycan before crossing the border. I wonder if this has been an all-time monthly record. We complained about expensive fuel in Peru – where we drove around for five months – at $5 a gallon!

The other car cost went to toll roads, which were pricy in Uruguay as well. We joked that we had to pay $4 an hour on the highways. There are five “automatic” toll stations; an ordeal for foreigners.

You’re supposed to register your license plate and car (which we did), put credit on your account (we had no idea how many tolls we’d need, so skipped this) or pay at an office (which we did each time), and a camera would read your registered plate, take the correct credit off your account, and open the gate.

That last step NEVER worked. Now that we know how many tolls there are along the highways in Uruguay and that the cost is the same at each one, we would put that amount on the account and only be annoyed once at each booth, when the gate remains closed and some manual action somewhere happens.

Our grocery expense was on the high side, due to needing a lot still after coming home to an empty camper, cooking every meal at home, and preparing a handful of dinners for friends. Monthly rates for our satellite internet subscription have gone up. We now pay $80, half of which is fronted by our business.

We also opted to top up our propane tank before crossing the border – due to higher costs for everything in the neighboring country – but are not sure now this was the best plan of action. It seems that no matter where and when we add a few kilos of gas to our tank in Argentina, we end up paying for a full tank, just for the privilege, setting us back $15. Drinking water was free everywhere.

After the hassle and vet costs traveling back and forth to the US and Belgium with Maya, we weren’t done yet. Before entering Uruguay, she needed a new health certificate, export permit, and negative blood test for Leishmaniasis. We had all that done in the Argentinian town of Gualeguaychu, over one vet visit (when Maya got attacked again) and two SENASA (agriculture department) stops. We also got some of her shots updated at the vet, adding that bill up to $53. Being patient regarding the export permit meant that part only cost $2 (processing time of 72 hours) instead of the expedited, one-day fee of $30.

We are back in wine country! Despite everything else in Argentina steeply going up in price, wine seems to have been spared. We also bought two bottles of discounted rum to last in Uruguay. We never went out for drinks.

Another one of our three website domains was due last month ($22) and we couldn’t avoid laundry in Uruguay. In Colonia del Sacramento, I inquired at three laundromats. The price was the same everywhere: $7.50 for a tiny load of 2-3kg. Yikes! We had a lot of dirty stuff. The solution: drop off the most difficult items to hand wash (sheets, towels, jeans, and shorts) and wash everything else (about three big loads) by hand. The price was high for the convenience, but the savings were even higher!

Here is the truth about our dining out experiences: Mark and I had not gone out to dinner, just the two of us, since April of this year. Before we left for the summer, restaurant prices kept going up in Argentina, so we stuck to a few take-out meals. In Belgium and Massachusetts, it just didn’t happen. Back in Argentina, we didn’t have time, plus, many restaurants don’t open until 8pm. And in Uruguay, it was too expensive. We do have a couple of donation amounts left, which we look forward to splurging with soon.

All that being said, I did treat Mark to one dinner in Punta del Diablo, Uruguay, because the photos on Google looked super appealing for a place called Cardamomo and I had some money set aside from Belgium still (the last funds). Maya was welcome and, while pricy, the food and drinks were tasty and the atmosphere delightful.

The $5 we did use from our account went to a portion of fries from a food stand to complement a homecooked fried fish dinner. And, we needed a new plastic ladle/spoon as the old one was shedding and were surprised by its affordability ($2) in a Uruguayan grocery store.

One saving grace in Uruguay were its inexpensive – or free – attractions. More about that in my upcoming post. I climbed two lighthouses for stunning views, which only cost me $1 each time. Mark was not interested. And, both of us visited the impressive and well-kept Santa Teresa Fort near Punta del Diablo. All this for the equivalent of $4! A dam tour and Piria Castle were free to enjoy.

Last but not least, one of the most appealing things about that smallish country is its plethora of free, attractive camping spots, especially along the coast!

We also camped for free in Argentina; our friend Brandon paid for the three nights at Punta Viracho.

And that wraps up our relatively low ($1,135) and relatively enjoyable month of October.

October 2024 Overview:

Car  (fuel: $556; tolls: $21):

Groceries:

Utilities (Starlink internet: $40; propane: $15):

Dog (vet/vaccines: $53; export permit: $2):

Alcohol:

Computer (hosting fee):

Laundry:

Dining out:

Entertainment:

Household:

Camping:

 

TOTAL:

 

$577

$361

$55

$55

$41

$22

$13

$5

$4

$2

$0

———

$ 1,135

(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 three-week discovery of Uruguay

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!

Monthly Expenses of a Nomad in South America – September 2024 (Belgium, USA, Argentina)

Expenses - image

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.

After spending three months in Europe and the US over the summer, Mark, Maya, and I returned to Argentina on September 21st, the first day of spring (primavera) down here. While the initial three weeks of the month had been cheap, thanks to the generosity of our parents regarding food expenses and car use, we immediately blew the budget once we moved back into our truck camper, Thirsty Bella . The flights had been paid for last March.

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)

So, September 2024 was an expensive month for us, especially since we spent it all in the final ten days! Some of the high costs were expected, like Maya’s export permit, storage for our camper, an official campground, and renewing our car insurance for South America; others were not only surprising but also scary…

One of the mechanics needs to lie on the engine to work on it.

Our low-mileage F350 truck engine developed a serious issue – factory induced – when we did some maintenance on it upon our arrival in Argentina. A miss-threaded sparkplug (one of the sixteen) was difficult to remove and appeared to have damaged threads. This made it impossible to replace with a new one and caused profound worries about how to fix the issue. Especially since the spark plug hole was hidden, so out of view and difficult to access. We were stranded!

Long story short: we needed to hire professional, cautious, and capable mechanics who wouldn’t only be willing to drive to our campground an hour and a half outside Buenos Aires, but who could also solve our predicament. The pair came out twice and managed to install the new spark plug without damaging the engine block or anything else. The price tag: US$600 (reduced to $570, since we paid some in the local currency). It would have been cheaper ($500) if we would have possessed the full amount in pesos.

We renewed our Mercasur countries liability insurance for another year for $358, which was three times as high as six months ago! Yes, prices keep rising in Argentina. The storage fee for our camper at Julian’s place was cheap. He charges only 25,000 pesos a month, so we tipped him another 30% to make the bill exactly $100. We also paid $3 for toll roads.

To reach that whopping $1,079 for the car category, we also ordered tools to work on the sparkplug and ignition coils projects, bought fuel for my mother-in-law’s car in the US, and paid $2 for parking at Salisbury Beach, which is very close to our home base in Massachusetts, but I’d never been.

Our camper pantry and fridge were totally empty when we returned to Buenos Aires, so a giant stock-up was needed. On our first day back, we stopped by a small shop for necessities, before reaching the Zapparancho campground, where we’d regroup and prepare for the rest of our South American journey.

After the weekend, we drove to the town of Lujan to visit two supermarkets for a first heavy-loaded run. We immediately missed the diversity and quality of goods we’d gotten used to in the US and Belgium. It will take a few more grocery stops to fill the camper up.

Maya needed a new international health certificate from the US to enter Argentina, so there went another $225. We are super happy that vet fees and shots are much more affordable down south!

Another thing I did back in Massachusetts was reclaim my Plunge books from the local bookstore, where the owner had “archived” them in the storage room, because none had sold in the last two years. Better to distribute them from our camper!

Reclaiming my Plunge books from a local bookstore. The owner had put them in the storage room!

On the first day of our return to the continent, we filled our camper with potable water, installed a new part on the water heater – which leaked and needed a few tightening attempts; we hate plumbing! – and discovered the bathroom faucet was leaking. We use this handle in the sink and as a shower head. Wasting water in a small camper is detrimental.

Who would be returning to Buenos Aires soon as well? Our US motorcycle friends Katherine and Brandon! And, yes, they could bring back the small and light replacement part. We paid more than normal to ship it to their address in time. A few random other parts rounded out the camper category.

In general, our health and fitness category is low, since we rarely go to hair dressers or buy health products. But, a visit to the US is the opportune time to stock up on specialized toothpaste (which I now rely on), a bottle of aloe vera, and nine months’ worth of vitamins.

Mark and I always fly with carry-on luggage only, unless we have a huge amount of gear, products, and/or parts to bring back. In this case, we checked one bag for $60 and donated it afterwards. Many packages waited for us in Massachusetts after our break in Belgium. Most were Vine Voice items, which we order for free in return for an honest review. We brought back a lot of useful products!

We counted on a week at an official campground to get ready for the road again – unpacking, organizing, shopping, cleaning, filling with water, fixing issues, engine maintenance, catching up on sleep, and researching a route and upcoming destinations. Our unexpected engine issue extended that stay, so we paid around $50 for eight nights at Zapparancho.

Two of our three website domain name registrations were due for renewal in September and the monthly subscription fee for our Starlink satellite internet service went up. Depending on the exchange rate, we now pay about $80 a month, half of which is taken care of by our business.

Within an hour of arriving in Bella, after getting Thirsty’s engine started with an extra boost (first things first), Mark unpaused our internet service and reregistered our Starlink account in Argentina instead of Peru, where we’d bought the unit. The fees in Peru had risen enormously and being registered here works better if the policy of only being allowed two months outside of the host country will be enforced.

A nice evening with friends at their lake house in New Hampshire

Money also went to alcohol/wine ($29) in the US as gifts for friends and in Argentina for ourselves, an Uber taxi from the airport in BA to our camper 45 minutes away ($22), shared meals at Zapparancho and a food stand choripan ($18), a new doormat and baskets from Dollar Tree ($4), and laundry ($3).

The chocolate we brought back and our share of the Airbnb we rented with our German friends in Liege was paid for with my Belgian funds, which are not part yet of our bookkeeping records.

While our total amount for September is well above average, we did manage to stay under $2,000 despite the extra expenses. We boondocked after leaving Zapparancho and are cooking all our meals at home. Having been “sponsored” in Belgium, I did realize that Mark and I never went out for a meal just the two of us, there or anywhere else, in the last four months.

On the plane back home to Bella, I promised myself I would become less frugal when it comes to spoiling ourselves, which includes eating out. It’s something we thoroughly enjoy and, you know, cooking and doing dishes every evening gets old. Then, we faced that extra $600 bill for the engine (the world’s most expensive sparkplug), and my intentions went out the window! Give me a few months without unexpected bills and I might reconsider again. 😊

September 2024 Overview:

Car  (rep.: $581; ins.: $358; parking: $102; fuel: $35; tolls: $3):

Groceries:

Dog (US health certificate):

Camper:

Health & Fitness (toiletries & vitamins):

Travel (checked bag fee):

Camping:

Computer (hosting fees):

Utilities (Starlink internet):

Alcohol:

Transportation (Uber airport):

Drinking out (shared meals):

Household:

Laundry:

 

TOTAL:

 

$1,079

$235

$225

$98

$66

$60

$48

$44

$39

$29

$22

$18

$4

$3

———

$ 1,970

(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 one-week vacation in the Black Forest of Germany.

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!

Lance 830 Truck Camper Saga – A Look Behind the Scenes of Buying Our Perfect Home on Wheels for South America

WARNING: This is an incredibly long post, the size of a book chapter. It’s a slice of our relatively challenging lifestyle; the part where we hunted for a different camper for months and pretty much every lead failed. Only proceed if you are curious about how our current, time-consuming and not-so-straightforward camper purchase occurred.

In a previous blog, I mentioned that Mark and I bought a Cirrus 820 truck camper in Vermont last summer (2021) and that this was not our top choice. When in Baja California, Mexico, a month before we sold our Sprinter Westfalia campervan Zesty, we decided to switch gears – from a van to a truck camper – and created a list of our top brands. The number one was a Northstar Arrow U. The Cirrus was our second choice. 

We had seen neither in person. On our long drive to check out the Cirrus 820, we stopped at a dealership in New Hampshire to peek into an Arrow U, which was not for sale. After this quick encounter, we were even more convinced about our preference. We liked the layout, bigger tanks, and affordability of a used one. 

Then, we visited the Cirrus 820 with a private party in Vermont and – for reasons mentioned in my previous post – we decided to go ahead with that purchase. We called the camper Temp, because we would keep looking for a used Northstar Arrow U. After finally finding a heavy-duty pickup truck (in Rhode Island) and retrieving the Cirrus, we equipped both for full-time living and traveling. In mid-September 2021, we – once again – left New England for our migration west, and south, to the Baja peninsula. 

Inflation hit, fuel became much more expensive, our living costs rose, and we found ourselves postponing our winter trip to Mexico with six weeks, to make extra money in Arizona. You can read about that fiasco here

Settled at Leaf Verde RV Park, Buckeye (Phoenix area), in December 2021, we were still on the lookout for a Northstar Arrow U, which we felt would be the perfect camper to take to South America. But the prices of that model – and others – had gone up so much that older years were selling for more money than what we paid for our 2017 Cirrus 820 in the summer. This would defeat the purpose of changing over! We realized then and there that going for a much older – and therefore cheaper – camper offered more advantages.

Mark did a random search on Craigslist for truck campers, when he noticed a Lance 830, without a pop-out tent in the back. Its side entry stood out. We researched this model, which was made for five years, from 2008 until 2012. Some models came with a fold-out tent in the rear. Mark contacted the owner, who was asking $18K for this unit. High, because of the inflated “Covid prices.” The camper was sold already, within a week of posting. We had seen it too late and didn’t know enough about this model yet. 

Strangely, another Lance 830 came on the market within days and it was located in Phoenix, 20 minutes down the road. This one had a hole in the side and delamination at the front. Not good. The unit was listed at $7,000. “Who would buy something in this bad of shape?” we wondered. We contacted the owner to have a look at his 830, just to get an idea of its layout and if this model would work for us. He replied the unit was sold; he hadn’t taken the listing down.

We left the US in the middle of January 2022 and spent 3.5 months in Baja, Mexico, keeping a loose eye on ads for certain truck camper models whenever we had reliable internet. 

When camped in Cabo Pulmo, Mark noticed a parked Lance nearby, which had a side entrance. He took the binoculars out and deducted this was a Lance 830. We immediately walked over, but the owner wasn’t home. The next morning, we had an early start lined up to go on a day hike with our friends, Duwan and Greg. I hoped the owner was awake by eight, as he might be gone when we returned from our hike. 

I noticed movement inside and knocked on the door. We were greeted by Monte, a friendly, welcoming man from Oregon. He invited us in for a look. We debated as we didn’t want to inconvenience him. He insisted, so we had a quick tour of his Lance 830. From then on, we were convinced this was our future camper. But, where and – more importantly – when would we find one?

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