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Tag: Lakes district

Monthly Expenses of a Nomad in South America – April 2025 (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.

Mark, Maya, and I traveled throughout Argentina in  Thirsty Bella for the entirety of April. The last week, we mostly stayed put to save money, as the numbers were adding up quickly again! This way, we managed to keep our expenses within budget, despite a massive splurge, for which we used some donation money. 🙂

Previously, I mentioned the dollar was getting stronger against the Argentina peso, but that was short lived. After a week or so, both presidents, the local one and the US one, made changes that decreased its value. Argentina is becoming cost-prohibitive for us, so we are wrapping up our stay in this country.

Because of the uncertainty of the US economy thanks to the one in charge, we – as well as most Americans – have lost a bunch of our savings, causing more insecurity. The ripples are felt internationally, of course. On a personal level, we are working more than usually to make up for some of the losses. My blog updates might become less frequent, since there will be less to report and we’ll be stationary for longer periods of time.

On to the expense report of April. I will add some ways we try to keep our costs down. Fuel is the highest category once more. We drove about 1,700 miles (2,700km) in a month, which is a lot for us. We are ready to leave Argentina, so tried to cover ground north and east. Because of the lower exchange rate, the increased price per liter, and our crappy fuel economy of 10 mpg, our gasoline cost for this stretch was $524. Insane.

Still in the car category, $19 went to toll roads. Due to the height of our truck camper, we get charged twice as much as a normal car, which adds up at $4 a toll. We tried our best to avoid the booths as long as the extra distance wouldn’t be more costly in gas or the dirt roads wouldn’t become too annoying or time consuming. For our fifth oil change on the continent, we bought a $2 bucket.

We tried to be careful in the grocery stores, only buying items on sale and produce that was affordable.

Two factors influenced our $364 food cost in April: together with our friends Heather and Jon, we bought heaps of meat ($100 worth) and ingredients for side dishes when visiting European friends in Maipu, near Mendoza, for two nights. We wanted to give our ex-overlanding friends a break, culinary and financially. Unbeknownst to us, there was another (hungry) couple staying on the property.

And, our budget was relieved a bit by food items given to us by Heather and Jon, before they stored their camper in Mendoza and flew to the US for the summer. I am still enjoying their cheese, butter, and mayonnaise!

Our big splurge for April was a fancy lunch out at a Michelin-star restaurant (Zonda) in Luján de Cuyo with our friends. We figured it would be our only chance to ever eat in a star-rated place, so we decided to celebrate everyone’s anniversary early. Ours would be the end of April and theirs sometime in May.

Zonda was an exclusive affair and we enjoyed the different courses with wine pairings, but, since all of us have eaten in similarly renowned establishments before (Mark and I in the US, Belgium, Peru, and Bolivia) and could compare, we found the portions meager, the menu slightly uncreative (three dishes involved sorbet), and the service less professional than expected. That being said, the food and wine were tasty and of excellent quality and the company and fabulous time together trumped it all!

This seven-course meal set each couple back about $300, including tips. In our case, we finally used the generous Christmas donation from our supportive and kind follower HR and another donation of MD to set off the expense. All donations have now been used up.

I also treated myself to a three-scoop ice cream ($2) following the lead of Jon and Heather, which, believe it or not, had not happened since last September. It had been six months since I grabbed my previous ice cream treat from my mother-in-law’s freezer! Ice cream is still affordable in Argentina. Now that I know this, I might repeat this experience.

Just like in March, we only ate out once, also for a special occasion, which means that our other meals were cooked at home; it’s healthy, tasty, and affordable.

Regarding alcohol ($76), Mark and I bought wine from grocery stores – we enjoy red Malbec and white Torrontés the most in Argentina – and had a little “stock-up” at our favorite winery of all times, Giaquinta in Tupungato.

The utility cost went up because of the worse exchange rate. Our Starlink antenna for internet is registered in Argentina, so this affects our total. Half of the monthly subscription price is reflected here, since our business pays for the other half. We topped up our propane tank as well, for $17. All the water we added to our tank in April was free.

Most of the month, we camped for free in nature and on the edges of cities, which was a mixed bag between noise and peace.

Two nights, however, we stayed at a campground called Valentin Storage to see our friends again and to focus on chores like an oil change, cleaning the car and camper, and laundry.

I was out of birth control pills, which I usually get for free in the US or buy abroad for $1-$2 a month. Not in Argentina! When I finally found a pharmacy that carried the medicine with the correct balance of ingredients, I was charged $8 for one strip. I bought it, thinking I wouldn’t find it elsewhere. After checking one more pharmacy in Córdoba and being quoted $5 for the same thing, I bought it and returned the other pack by walking another mile. Yes, we do those things to save a few dollars. Don’t get me started on the hassle involved when we discover the supermarket receipt is incorrect! 😊

Mere dollars went to laundry (I did one load of sheets, towels, and heavy clothes at the campground and washed everything else that month by hand), sending a fax to a health institution for Mark to get Power of Attorney for his mom, and a museum visit for me. More about that one in an upcoming blog.

So, all in all, we kept it manageable in April, but we really tried hard to stay under our $1,300 average. We are now heading to Paraguay, counting on a cheaper cost of living. Stay tuned!

April 2025 Overview:

Car  (fuel: $524; tolls: $19; maint.: $2):

Groceries:

Dining out:

Alcohol:

Utilities (Internet: $41; propane: $17):

Camping:

Medical (meds Liesbet):

Laundry:

Miscellaneous (fax):

Entertainment (museum Liesbet):

 

TOTAL:

 

$545

$364

$196

$76

$58

$20

$5

$3

$2

$2

———

$ 1,271

(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: Completing our year-long travels throughout Argentina

If you are enjoying these posts, please consider donating to Roaming About in support of our website and lifestyle. A big thank you to all our readers who have helped out in the past!

Monthly Expenses of a Nomad in South America – March 2025 (Argentina & Chile)

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.

In March, Mark, Maya, Thirsty Bella, and I left the Carretera Austral in Chile and explored the Lake Districts in that country and in Argentina.

We hopped back and forth between Argentina and Chile a couple of times.

Before I get into our expenditure details of last month, I want to say something about our income. Throughout my blog posts, I mention that we both work on the road. Yet, some of you are still surprised about us trying to make a living, not being retired (will we ever?), or the extra challenges that come with the need to earn money.

Mark and I have been nomads for 20+ years and we have had several jobs during that time. (I elaborate on those in my sailing memoir Plunge.) Otherwise, we couldn’t have traveled this long and this far. And, no, we don’t have rental income or a property anywhere. Our camper – and whatever it holds – is all we own, apart from a few boxes of memorabilia, stored with family in Belgium and the US.

At the moment, since my translation and proofreading jobs have dried up, Mark and I both work as freelancers, completing different tasks that aim to improve AI. While Mark’s work is straightforward, steady, and poorly paid, my projects are sporadic, specific, complicated, and with a higher hourly rate. Rarely, our monthly income covers our expenses. We still have to dig into savings to support ourselves. That’s the reason we need to spend less money. We always try…

Which brings me to our expenses of March, during which we did not succeed to live frugally. As a matter of fact, it was an expensive month. But if you look at the details, it is easy to understand why our total reached $2,000; many hundreds of dollars above our average.

As you’ve come to expect, the car category is the highest again. We actually left Chile to cover a substantial distance in Argentina, where the gasoline is cheaper, before returning to Chile. Still, we spent $419 on fuel. Since motor oil (as well as any imported products) are cheaper in Chile than in its neighbor, we bought enough for our next oil change (7 liters), at a price of $49. The rest of the “car money” went to tolls ($4) and a parking lot for a hike ($3).

Filling up with gasoline in Argentina

The extra category that made our total “jump” was an occurrence that we usually attend to in April or May: Mark’s annual summer visit to Massachusetts for health care and family reasons. He and I were loosely chatting about where in South America he should leave from in July, while Maya and I stay behind. I’m confident we will be in Brazil by then, so he looked into plane rides from São Paulo (more affordable than Rio de Janeiro), and, before I knew it, he had booked flights, because the price was right. Indeed, $435 for a return journey between São Paulo and Boston is a good deal!

Our grocery bill went up again, because we bought a few things in Chile that are not available, or twice the price, in Argentina. We do feel $400 a month for food shopping in third world countries is on the high side. To be honest, we can’t wait to reach cheaper countries again after more than a year of expensive shopping.

And, since we would leave Chile indefinitely in March, we stocked up on Maya’s dog food ($200) as well, for reasons mentioned above – it’s either not available or more expensive elsewhere in South America. Unless Brazil surprises us! Now, she can keep eating her high-end, salmon-based, chicken-less kibble for another six months or so. We needed a new international health permit for her to cross into Chile as well.

Mark and I went rafting in Chile, which you might have read about in my previous post. Yes, for the privilege of almost drowning, we paid $188. Other than that unfortunate glitch, it was a lot of fun. I’ll mention here that the US dollar kept devaluating against the Chilean peso. So, while a year ago 1,000 pesos amounted to one USD, this was not the case anymore in 2025. Another reason the scales are shifting towards Argentina again, where the US dollar is becoming stronger.

Mark celebrated his birthday on March 1st, so we could potentially have added all our activities for that event under the gift category, but we didn’t. The rafting trip is mentioned above and other related expenses below. Because we changed plans, we arrived in Futaleufú that day, allowing us to enjoy a fabulous, fancy dinner at an excellent restaurant. The cost was $80. The other $11 for “dining out” went to empanadas and a portion of French fries bought at street stands.

We only ate at a restaurant once in March and that was for a special occasion. All the other dinners were cooked and consumed at home.

A bottle of Bacardi rum and a myriad of Malbec, Carménère, and Chardonnay wines constituted our $56 bill for alcohol. Thanks to a donation from MD, this number wasn’t higher. 😊

Dinner al fresco

While we were heading north on the Carretera Austral in Chile (where no facility fills propane bottles), we were running low on propane gas, causing us to be super careful using the heater. We often felt cold inside the camper. This precaution allowed us to reach Argentina, where American tanks can be filled, either at depots or by the gravity-fill method. Unfortunately, the facility we planned to get our tank full again didn’t have crew on Saturday morning to help us out, despite the depot being open…

This meant we had to make it to a bigger town before noon (when businesses close for the weekend), namely Bariloche. Three attempts later, we found a man willing to sell us propane… at the crazy price of $5 per kilo (or $45 for a full tank). Since we were in a bind – our tank was utterly empty by then, because we had confidently run the heater in the morning, thinking we’d get propane an hour later – we had him fill half our tank. Only to repeat this cautious and stressful procedure a month later. Our next camper will NOT have a propane system.

And we paid the usual monthly subscription to Starlink for our satellite internet ($36). Our business takes care of the other half. A better exchange rate in Argentina saw a slight drop in this fee.

Mark never wants anything for his birthday, so we went rafting and I bought him some goodies – Belgian-style beer and homemade jelly – in a small grocery store. This year, I didn’t even have access to a Western-style supermarket to spoil him.

On his birthday, we also went out for a drink at a brewery in Futaleufú, something we rarely do. It was nice to just listen to music and relax on a patio with Maya. Until it got too chilly.

Anyone who follows us on Facebook might have seen multiple series of photos of us doing laundry in the icy Patagonian rivers. We continued that tradition in March, since laundromats are, really, very expensive.

One shop charged $1 per piece of clothing; sheets, sweaters, towels, and jeans didn’t count. Well, those are the exact items that are difficult to hand wash! Luckily, lake water is warmer than river water! We eventually found a shop where we dropped off our sheets and bigger items for a total of $10.

The last two categories were peanuts. We bought more painkillers, since the container of Tylenol we brought back from the US is going fast, due to my frequent headaches and migraines. And, we needed a new spray bottle for a bleach solution to attack the mold created by condensation and frigid weather.

Every night in March, we camped for free. We enjoyed most of these quiet places in nature.

In April 2025, we will still be driving a lot – this continent is big – but we will do our best to stay within our budget.

March 2025 Overview:

Car  (fuel: $419; oil: $49; tolls: $4; parking: $3):

Travel (flights Mark):

Groceries:

Dog (food: $197; permit: $28):

Entertainment (rafting):

Dining out:

Alcohol:

Utilities (Internet: $36; propane: $17):

Gifts (B-day Mark):

Drinking out:

Laundry:

Medical:

Household:

Camping:

 

TOTAL:

 

$475

$435

$395

$225

$188

$91

$56

$53

$19

$11

$10

$4

$2

$0

———

$ 1,964

(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: The Life of a Prehistoric Nomad – a guest post by author and blogger Jacqui Murray

If you are enjoying these posts, please consider donating to Roaming About in support of our website and lifestyle. A big thank you to all our readers who have helped out in the past!

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