CATEGORY
|
AMOUNT
|
Groceries/Household
|
536.18
|
Rent/Utilities
|
1030.15
|
Transportation
|
369.21
|
Doctors/Dentist/Meds
|
257.54
|
Dogs
|
38.23
|
Entertainment
|
0.00
|
Trips
|
0.00
|
Workshop/Garden
|
246.59
|
Furniture/Fixtures
|
62.63
|
Misc.
|
0.00
|
December 2013 TOTAL
|
2540.53
|
 |
| Cheese!!! Enough cheese to make Wallace and Grommit happy. |
 |
| Saw these on first visit. Didn't buy. They were gone, gone gone a week later :(. |
Remember last month, the first month that I published our
expenses, where I said we were trying to keep our expenses under $2,000? Well,
that was before we joined Price Smart (the Costa Rican COSTCO) and shopped
there … twice. True, the many staples I purchased will last us for months, but
will we be able to avoid the Siren Song of smoked sausages, imported cheese,
GHIRADELLI CHOCOLATE CHIPS!???
I hope so. We actually only bought one pricey chunk of
cheese, skirted past the smoked sausages and, much to my broken heart (and the main
reason we’d returned to Price Smart for the second time in as many weeks) the
Ghiradelli chocolate chips were gone. Shoulda bought them on the first trip.
We will probably go back sometime in January because the
giant bag of premium dog food at Price Smart was twice the size and half the
price of the dog food we’ve been getting downtown in Grecia. But I’d still like
to keep our grocery/household budget to about $100/week. I also prefer shopping at Grecia's Central Market and especially the Farmer's Market. It makes me feel much closer to becoming a "GringTica" which I hope some day to consider myself.
What else kicked us over our $2,000 budget? Well, as
everyone who owns a car in Costa Rica knows, December is Marchamo month.
Marchamo is the annual liability insurance that car owners are required to pay.
It’s based on the kind of car you drive and the age of the car. For our 2004
Subaru Forester, this year’s Marchamo was about $300.00.
I’m thinking that our doctor/dentist/meds category will
probably stay around $250.00 until we get on the CAJA, so for the foreseeable
future that’s not going to go down and may increase – neither of us has seen a
dentist yet and although they are supposed to be a lot cheaper than in the
U.S., we are going to wait for a few more months.
 |
| EPA -- just about everything for home and garden. |
The other expense that is high this month is workshop/garden
(besides being seduced by Price Smart, we were also lured by EPA, which is similar
to Home Depot. It doesn’t help that Price Smart and EPA are within a half mile
of one another). Paul is still putting together his workshop, and, unlike last
month when we counted the electrical wiring as an extraordinary expense, we’re
considering the lighting and shelving as more of “development expense.” And apparently the only place to get organic insect control is at EPA. So those items are in the budget.
 |
| An EPA purchase and husband installation: Critical to my culinary happiness and Paul's evening dish washing tasks -- lighting over the kitchen sink! |
Well, even though we didn’t stay below $2,000, we spent a
lot less than we would have if we were still living in the U.S. And most
importantly, we love it here – we love our house, our garden, our workshop, our
community … and especially the friends and discoveries we are making.
