Doing the Math: Expenses for Weeks 5-8

Well, the exchange rate has not improved any since my last tallying of the expenses, and this month we felt the effects much more than the first month because we no longer had the benefit of a month’s lodging booked back in October.  Here are the totals:

Expenses for Weeks 5-8

Country: Spain
Cities: Segovia, Salamanca, Avila, Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba, Valencia

	Weeks 1-4	Weeks 5-8
Lodging	$1,332	$1,590
Groceries	$479	$475
Eating out	$351	$532
Household expenses	$28	$48
Transportation	$63	$344
Cellular service	$79	$48
Entertainment	$172	$317
Visa-related expenses	$22	$46
Health/travel insurance	$301	$301
Total for second four weeks	$2,827	$3,701
Budget for four weeks in Spain	$3,165
Total so far, including airfare to Europe	$7,757

Our expenses went up in almost every category this month, for a total increase of $874, and we are over budget for the level of cities we’ve been in.  Granted, this month we were in eight different cities rather than just one, so some increase is to be expected.  The smaller cities didn’t turn out to be much cheaper than the larger cities like I had assumed when I made our original budget.  That’s good in that we don’t have to go to places we’re not all that interested in just to balance out the more expensive places, but it’s not good in that we don’t have that option. 

Lodging

We established this month that we really don’t like staying in places without kitchens or living rooms, and we also prefer stays of at least a week.  We plan to continue using Airbnb for most of our lodging.  There are usually discounts for stays of seven days or longer, and even higher discounts for month-long stays, so traveling more slowly will help us on the budget front as well as help us to be more chill about touristing.  We had some really nice stays this month, particularly in Sevilla.  If you are looking for lodging and want to try Airbnb for the first time, you and I will both get a discount if you use my affiliate link. I’m happy to provide tips on how to find a good place and avoid a dud – just shoot me an e-mail.

Groceries

I have no idea how we hit almost the exact same total for groceries this month even though we stayed in hostals for the first week.  We tend to buy the same things over and over, as there is a limited number of things we can cook in a temporary kitchen.  We continue to enjoy the cheap, good vegetables that are so plentiful here, and wevhave developed a serious afternoon crudité habit.  (By “afternoon,” I mean 5 or 6 PM.  Spaniards really do keep late hours, and we’ve adapted somewhat out of necessity. Dinner is usually around 8 or 9 PM, so the veggies are a snack to tide us over until then.)  

Eating Out

Our dining expenses went up a lot this month.  We had to eat out during the crazy three-city week when we were staying in hostals and didn’t have access to a kitchen, but we’ve also gotten a little lax about going out for coffees and drinks even when we have a kitchen, because it’s a nice way to go “out” and experience the local culture without committing to a large meal.  We had the most amazing carrot cake ever in Sevilla, along with delicious cafes con leche, and we tried the traditional palmera (heart-shaped pastry coated in amazing chocolate) in Cordoba.  We also had a nice meal in Cordoba to try some of their local specialties, and my birthday happy hour ended up being a little fancier than usual (the Spanish cheese sampler was totally worth it).  It has been delicious.  We’ll be leaving Spain soon, though, and dining expenses will be a lot higher in France and Italy.  We’ll need to cut back a bit in this category.  It’s also possible that it defeats the point of not putting sugar in coffee if the coffee is accompanied by a plate-sized dessert.

 

Transportation

Traveling between eight cities definitely added up this month, especially since we were a bit constrained by having to be in certain cities on specific dates (due to visa appointments and Alhambra tickets) rather than just taking the cheapest route (usually the slowest).  We took a combination of buses and trains.  This has worked out really well, as the stations are usually close enough to where we’re going that we can walk, and it’s a pleasant way to travel.  We also have been carrying laundry detergent and olive oil rather than rebuying it in every city, and these are fine for buses and trains but would not fit our carryon-only strategy for planes.  We’ll have to fly in April and May due to coordinating with folks who are meeting up with us, but other than that we plan to avoid flying as much as we can. 

Cellular Service

While it’s not enough to offset our massive increases in other categories, it’s nice that at least one category went down a bit.  We used less data this month, so the Google Fi bill was a bit lower.  We are still happy with our combination of Google Fi and Vodafone, as there have been several times where one of us has service and the other doesn’t.  We’ve also been able to use WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, and FaceTime to chat with friends and family.  Hooray for technology and (mostly) good wi-fi connections!

Entertainment

We spend $145 more on admissions and audio guides this month.  Some of that is to be expected with eight cities, but we also went a little crazy the first few weeks trying to see all the things.  In Madrid, we didn’t feel so frantic because we had the whole month, plus many of the museums were free with our annual membership to the national museums.   One thing we learned this month is that the size of the admission fee does not necessarily correspond with how great the church or museum is, so we’ll be a little more discriminating going forward.  (Sometimes “bad” museums and churches are kind of great in their terribleness, though – it’s hard to say no!)  We have gotten a bit savvier about finding the free hours for some of the sites thanks to Craig’s research, and being in a city for a week really helps us to both strategize for minimizing costs and also be a bit pickier about what we see. 

Visa-Related Expenses

We spent $46 on copies and fees for our visas this month, and as of this writing are now officially card-carrying residents of Spain!  We hope that we’re done with visa-related expenses, so this category might go away in future budget posts. 

Health/Travel Insurance

This is an annual expense that I’ve divided across the months, so it should remain the same. 

Summary 

It was not unexpected that our expenses would be higher this month, both because of the exchange rate increase finally hitting us on the lodging category and also because of the shorter stays, but it’s still a bummer.  I had assumed that some of the smaller Spanish cities would be pretty cheap, but some of them have been more costly than Madrid!  I’ve also already booked our lodging for April in Paris, and even with the monthly discount, it’s 25% more than I had budgeted for our most expensive cities.  Next month’s report is probably going to be even more off-budget than this month, as there aren’t many categories in which we can cut back.  Fortunately, I built in a lot of extra buffers in our savings because I knew the budget estimates were really rough, so this isn’t a problem.  However, it is looking less likely that we will be able to make our savings stretch for a two-year sabbatical like I had been hoping. 

The purpose of these finance posts is to help others with planning trips like this, as I really wanted details when I was trying to come up with our budget.  Let me know if you have questions – I’m happy to share what we’ve learned.