Well, in June we spent $401.38 more than what we had hoped to spend this month.
When we started planning this trip we wanted to spend less than $1,500USD/month ($750 each) and for the first few months we did but we managed to blow that goal this month due to a few things:
- We actually got sick (just a cold) but to be cautious didn’t go out and do our usual groceries and ended up ordering a lot of takeout.
- We moved casa and city. We are now in Puerto Vallarta and are paying slightly over our upper limit ($500) on rent.
- We did three tourist activities – horse riding, snorkeling, and a walking tour. On there own they were relatively cheap but we purchased all the photo/video packages, tipped well, etc.
- Once we were over our cold and things started to open up more we went a bit crazy with eating out.
What did we learn about all of this?
While it’s good to have a budget in mind we are here to enjoy ourselves and shouldn’t regret the odd splurge. We are bound to have months when we are over our budget and others when we are under.
Moral of the story, maybe skip the margarita so you can ride the horse!
We also learned that eating can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. We’ve had meals out that were $150 MXN/ $6.50 USD and meals that were $1,500 MXN/$65 USD and in a lot of cases the cheap meals were the best.
If you are interested in tracking your own expenses we are using an app called Trail Wallet where you can add expenses in multiple currencies, track them by category, date, and set yourself a budget.
Here is our full breakdown of what we spent in June.
Expenses
- Accomodation $539.92
- Food $191.63
- Transport $27.94
- Entertainment $463.43
- Toiletries $18.63
- Eating out $290.70
- Laundry $30.40
- Business Expenses $190*
- Shopping $22.50
- Laptop Payments $103
- Subscriptions (Apple Storage & Netflix) $23.24
Total = $1,901.38 or $61.33/day for 2 people
Income
Total = $6,585
This is a combination of teaching English online, remote work, and freelancing.
Saved = $4,683.62
*This is for a new business we are setting up that isn’t making money yet. We do have other business expenses that are covered by the business.
