Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: writing costs

Monthly Expenses – December 2020

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, we both return to the East Coast.

Mark, Maya, and I spent most of December on the road in Arizona and the last few days in California (warmer weather). We changed campsites every few days in our camper van Zesty. Our expenses were above average, because of the holidays. ‘t Was the season to buy gifts – for family members (my coveted annual calendars with a photo of our household in a different location on every page) and a few friends. We also bought special food and extra alcohol (for margaritas) for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, hence the higher numbers in the grocery and alcohol categories.

(Click on photos to enlarge or hover over them to read the captions.)

I just realized there is no dog category. We must have bought an extra bag of food for Maya in November. Also, her treats go under our groceries. Hmmm. Maybe that’s why that category was so high…

Maya feels at home in our friends’ campers!

We had help from a mechanic changing Zesty’s transmission fluid in Tucson and had a scare in Bisbee, when there was no way around low-hanging tree branches leaving  the tight town. We hoped they would be “soft” limbs. The screeching sound of wood against metal made our hearts – and later our van – stop. Luckily, Mark managed to buff the new scratches out of the acrylic window and the top side panel.

Buffing out the scratches at a mine viewpoint in Bisbee, with a railing of the perfect height to stand on and work

We splurged on entertainment, a category that’s usually non-existent. Traveling with friends encourages us to have fun once in a while. We visited the Titan Missile Museum in Tucson with Duwan and Greg and the two of us signed up for the Queen Mine Tour in Bisbee. Our bubble of six friends also took a daytrip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument over the holidays. Giving Duwan and Greg a ride allowed us to enter for free because their National Park pass includes four adults. I’ll report on that excursion – and others – in a future blog post.

I’m happy to report that my writing expenses are dwindling.  I shipped a few books to sailing magazines in the hopes of seeing their review of Plunge in print one day. The proof copy I ordered from IngramSpark was a disaster and I asked for a refund. Their customer support team should get back to me between three to five weeks! Oh well…

As usual, we boondocked (camping without amenities) on public lands and therefore didn’t spend any money on accommodation. Keep an eye out for our yearly expense report later this month!

December 2020 Overview:

Groceries:

Gifts:

Camper (diesel: $151, maintenance: $152):

Alcohol:

Entertainment (museum and tour):

Utilities (phone: $35):

Drinking out:

Writing (postage; $13; proof copy: $12):

Laundry:

Accommodation:

 

TOTAL:

 

$447

$441

$303

$149

$58

$35

$28

$25

$8

$0

———

$ 1,494

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.

Monthly Expenses – November 2020

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, we both return to the East Coast.

In November, Mark, Maya, and I lived on the road, in our camper van Zesty, and drove from Alabama to Southern Arizona (Tucson), which is reflected in our diesel cost. As usual, we managed to dump and camp for free (boondock).  One of our favorite overnight sites of all times was the spot we found in Big Fur Public Use Area in Arkansas, early in the month. We stayed as long as our water and food supply lasted. (Hover over or click on photos to read captions.)

No stipends or use of credit card miles this time, so what you see in the table underneath is what we spent. Mark fixed one of our car heaters, changed the oil, and replaced parts in the engine. To reward himself, he bought a better remote (Bluetooth) speaker. If you’ve read my travel memoir Plunge, you know how important crisp-sounding music is to my husband. 🙂

The writing category is finally going down. I owed my cover artist $50 for the paperback cover (the eBook cover package a month ago was $125), we ordered two proofs of Plunge to check for issues and mistakes, and, to self-publish my book under a different name than my own (we chose Roaming About Press as our publishing company), I needed to purchase a business license in Massachusetts for the price of $35.

You can blame our special celebrations in the desert for the alcohol expense last month. Our bubble of nomadic friends includes two other couples, Duwan and Greg from Make Like An Ape Man and Ellen and Scott, who we hung out with for Thanksgiving, the release of Plunge, and my birthday, all of which took place the end of November. We made our own margaritas; a much better and tastier deal than the ones we bought in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Not a bad expense month. Maybe we are finally back on track?

November 2020 Overview:

Camper (diesel: $150, maintenance: $229):

Groceries:

Writing (cover, proofs, license):

Household (speaker):

Alcohol:

Utilities (phone: $35; propane: $19):

Dog (food):

Drinking out:

Gifts:

Laundry:

Accommodation:

 

TOTAL:

 

$379

$306

$111

$109

$61

$54

$32

$24

$15

$5

$0

———

$ 1,096

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.

Full moonrise in the desert

Monthly Expenses – October 2020

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, we both return to the East Coast.

In October, Mark, Maya, and I lived in our room above the garage for the first two weeks and back on the road, in our camper van Zesty, the  rest of the month. The expense report is a tad messy, because of stipends and reimbursements of Mark’s employer, the US Census. These are incorporated in our expenses (*), which is the reason why the dining out category shows $0 (Mark received a stipend of $70 a day while “on location” for ten days in September;  he didn’t need it all, so we’re still using some of that money now) and why the camper category is lower than it should be (Mark received a per mile reimbursement that was more generous than what his fuel cost during his two-month Census job). I did not attribute the $60 we used in credit card points (instead of cash). Confused yet?

As you can see, I’m still spending a lot of money on my writing career. I owed my copy-editor another $528, we bought a pack of ISBN-numbers (these are exorbitantly-priced identification numbers) for current and future books (I needed three for Plunge – paperback, Kindle, ePub),  I paid my cover artist for the eBook cover, and we needed to buy the title font of my memoir, so we could utilize it inside the book. One day, I should calculate how many books I actually have to sell to get all these investments back! 🙂 Camping still remained free.

Groceries and alcohol are a bit high, which has to do with us visiting a few sets of friends in October. Same reason for the gift items. And then there is the clothes category. Here’s that story…

The three of us had just left in our camper, destination Annapolis, Maryland. A couple of hours north of town,  we stopped to eat lunch in Zesty. We don’t usually wear our shoes inside, so Mark had left his outside. After our meal, he needed to call a friend. There was a lot of noise, because someone decided to drag race his dilapidated car in front of the gas station we were parked at. I shut the door to keep the ruckus out as Mark talked. Two hours later, we arrived at the home of our Annapolis friend. Before Mark got out of the car, he asked: “Where are my shoes?”

His go-to brand has been discontinued, so for the next ten days he researched and eventually bought another pair of shoes, slightly used. We had them shipped to the post office in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and, since they were not brand new, he obtained them for half price. After two weeks of only wearing flip flops in fall, he was delighted to own a pair of hiking shoes again!

October 2020 Overview:

Writing (editor, cover artist, and publication prep):

Groceries:

Dog (food, Whistle data plan, groomer):

Camper* (diesel, registration, license, heater):

Clothing (shoes Mark):

Alcohol:

Gifts:

Health & Fitness (vitamins Mark):

Utilities (phone):

Medical (drugs):

Computer (domain hosting):

Household (cloth shelving):

Entertainment (brochure NP):

Dining out*:

Accommodation:

 

TOTAL:

 

$963

$372

$142

$121

$82

$72

$58

$51

$35

$21

$18

$13

$1

$0

$0

———

$ 1,949

To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the expense blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.

Monthly Expenses – September 2020

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, we both return to the East Coast.

During the entire month of September, Mark, Maya, and I lived in our “room above the garage” in Newburyport, MA – no side-trips in Zesty. Mark had a job with the US Census bureau in August and September and I’m 100% focused on my upcoming travel memoir. He made good money at $27.50 an hour, especially when working overtime for1.5x that amount. During his week-long stint on Cape Cod, putting in 12-hour days, he sometimes made $500 a day! I generated zero income working on my memoir… Instead, I spent a bunch more on it and will keep doing so this month.

Sign for the parked car when Mark performed his Census job

My editor would have been the most expensive category last month (and for four months in a row), if it wasn’t for us buying tires. Zesty made it through the annual Massachusetts inspection with flying colors, but a new set of tires was recommended and – as a matter of fact – we had been planning to replace them before heading west. Mark’s careful research and patience paid off. We managed to upgrade our tires to all-terrain and bigger ones for less than $600. Not only will we be better equipped for dirt roads this winter, but our clearance is an inch or two higher; just what we needed!

For my father-in-law’s 90th birthday, Mark, his brother, our sister-in-law, and I organized a socially distanced outdoor party, where the four of us cooked and provided food and drinks. Sixteen family members were present and we were grateful for the sunny weather and space on the patio of my in-laws. The second expense in the gift category went to a non-fiction book written by a friend.

Another perk of Mark’s temporary relocation to the Cape was a daily food stipend of $70, which he never used up. So, we managed to get a few take-out meals and even an outdoor restaurant dinner that didn’t cost us anything! Also, with the last of our credit card points being allocated to food, we actually spent $400 less than this report shows. But, Maya’s fish oil cost almost as much as a 28-pound bag of dog food last month!

At $1,800, September was an above average month in which we spent much more than usual, but for good reasons! 🙂

September 2020 Overview:

Camper (inspection: $36; tires: $558):

Writing (editor):

Groceries:

Gifts (party: $107; eBook: $25):

Dining out:

Computer (domain hosting):

Utilities (phone):

Dog (fish oil):

Alcohol:

Household (brake pads bike):

Transport (train ride from dentist):

Health & Fitness (meds):

Accommodation:

 

TOTAL:

 

$594

$528

$342

$132

$56

$36

$35

$30

$24

$12

$4

$4

$0

———

$ 1,797

To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the expense blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.

Monthly Expenses – August 2020

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, we both return to the East Coast.

During the entire month of August, Mark, Maya, and I lived in our “room above the garage” in Newburyport, MA – no side-trips in Zesty. As I mentioned before, he has a job with the US Census bureau for two months and I’m 100% focused on my upcoming travel memoir. Other than a neighbor I’ve gotten friendly with, we are not seeing friends or eating out, which is reflected in our expenses. I did finally buy some shorts online, because clothing shops and thrift stores don’t let you try anything on yet; fitting rooms remain closed in Massachusetts.

Maya and I met Mark after work for drinks at a brewery – with picnic tables outside – once, I treated my new friend for ice cream (that’s the eating out category – yep, $5 a scoop in this touristy town!), and we cooked all our meals at home last month.

Our twin nieces celebrated their seventh birthday at a socially distanced family party, which called for a few gifts. Groceries is on par with a “normal” month and my editor is, once again, our biggest expense in this report. In general, August was a decent spending month, all things considered.

August 2020 Overview:

Writing (editor):

Groceries:

Clothing (shorts, socks):

Health & Fitness (vitamins Mark, haircut Liesbet):

Camper (repairs):

Gifts:

Utilities (phone):

Dog (food):

Alcohol:

Drinking out:

Household (fan):

Dining out (ice cream):

Accommodation:

 

TOTAL:

 

$484

$347

$93

$81

$45

$36

$35

$34

$33

$25

$18

$10

$0

———

$ 1,241

To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the expense blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.

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