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” is our motto. 🙂 At the beginning of each year, I produce an expense report for the previous 12 months. This is the most recent one, for 2021.
Our first yearly expense report (2016) can be found here, the report of 2017 is here, the one for 2018 here, our 2019 expenses are located here, and our total costs for 2020 are documented here.
These reports include ALL of our expenses, in US$, for two adults and a 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, we both return to the East Coast. The utility cost refers to phone data plans with AT&T.
In 2021, Mark, Maya, and I traveled in our campervan Zesty for three months (in California and Mexico) before selling it, drove across the USA in a rental car for one week, lived in the “room above the garage” at my in-laws in Massachusetts for five months (to change gears), and headed to the southwest again in our new-to-us truck camper T&T (Thirsty the truck and Temp the camper) during the last four months of the year.
(As always, click on photos or hover over them to read captions. Note: a bug must have slipped into my most recent WordPress update, because I can’t move photos around within my galleries anymore. The result is that my images are not shown in chronological order. My apologies.)
Despite our fears of spending way more than our annual average in 2021, because of inflation and the rising costs of living and fuel, our final sum is pretty close to that of the previous year. The reason: we received a few thousand dollars in credits after issues, claims, customer support calls, and points from using our trusted Chase credit card. Years past, these points went to flights which then didn’t get recorded in my expense reports. Last year, they went against groceries (during the height of Covid) at 1.5X their value and towards credit card payments. If you’re interested in a new credit card that offers 60,000 points (a value of $600) when you spend $4,000 in the first three months.
Our main expenses, just like other years, were the camper and groceries ($328 a month, which appears pretty high). The biggest chunk of vehicle money went to fuel, insurances, parts, and maintenance. Why is the maintenance amount ($53) so low then, you ask? Because we received $1,907 from a claim when a third party put a scratch in the side of Zesty. We managed to buff it out ourselves and used the money against other camper projects. We also sold $1,600 worth of accessories that came with our “new” truck and our camper.
A lot of “cash” went to plane tickets (to Belgium), our trip across the country in a rental car, a root canal and crown for me (which I had done in Mexico), an early Covid test for me, and a Shingles shot for Mark (both in Arizona). We hope to cut these kinds of expenses down in 2022. But other surprise costs will pop up, no doubt!
Did you know that taking care of one dog can cost upwards of $800 a year? The dogfood category was higher than usual, because we stocked up on bags of it for our trip in Baja, where they don’t sell high-quality kibble with salmon. Of course, Maya is worth every dollar!
Unlike our drinking out category, which is minimal, dining out (on patios and take-away) took a big bite out of our budget. This has to do with birthday celebrations and reconnecting with friends. We also spent quite a bit on gifts in 2021, part of that for an Airbnb “weekend” in Bahia Concepcion, Baja California, Mexico, for Mark’s 50th birthday.
Utilities are what they are. We are bummed about the high propane costs, because we prefer a fridge that works on electricity; hopefully we can solve that issue later this year by replacing it. Internet is what keeps us connected and in Mexico, we pay for drinking water. I decided to add our Arizona campground expense from December to this report (and updated last month’s as well), to avoid “hidden costs.” Sure, we usually don’t stay in RV parks and this amount was incorporated into Mark’s wages, but it was still something we paid for. Hopefully, never to be repeated.
The other two categories we might be able to do better with this year are household and alcohol. The first one contains items we needed to equip our new camper (which will only be repeated somewhat if we change gears again). As for the booze, beer, and wine, we are social drinkers and enjoy a glass on the weekends and when hanging out with friends. No excuses needed. I’d say we did pretty well with the bottom part of the report underneath. Who else spends $30 a year on clothing? 🙂
In conclusion (and to our relief), 2021 seems to be another average expense year, in which we succeeded to live on around $16,000 a year, which amounts to $1,333 a month. It proves to be a feasible goal, especially when we leave the first world…
Cheers to friendship, with Denise
(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.
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