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.
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