September Budget

September was the first month where we spent the entire month traveling and camping.  We've traveled well over 3500 miles this month.  So those envelopes are losing some of the cash!  We planned on eating out bunches while at Yellowstone and we did!  I might end up transferring some money from one envelope to another in October so that we can eat out some.  This is what campgrounds cost us for the month.  Nearly every night was a paid site somewhere. I'm hoping the organization is a bit better so that you can tell what we spent in each envelope a bit easier.

		September Starting Envelope		Sept Expenses		Amt. in Envelope before payday		Add Payday Sept. 30		October Starting Amounts Envelope
Admission Turnpike Fees/Other		290		45		245		60		305
Fuel		3872		1270		2602		333		2935
Car Maintenance		76		0		76		76		152
Campgrounds		3296		524		2772		245		3017
Clothing		174		85		89		11		100
Entertainment/Movies Books		374		0		374		31		405
Entertainment/Dish		0		54		-54		60		6
Entertainment/Internet		0		70		-70		70		0
Food/Groceries		760		749		11		745		756
food/alcohol		365		210		155		170		325
Food/Restaurant		118		218		-100		90		-10
Cell Phone		83		37		46		37		83
Katz		-12		7		-19		19		0
Large expenditures		250		0		250		1		251
Marco		32		46		-14		90		76
Medical (drugs, doctors, glasses)		917		30		887		185		1072

August Budget

August was an exciting month for the budget.  Starting August 31 and for the rest of my life, I will get a pension check on the last business day of the month.  I got sick (surprise) which led to boredom and that led to adding a dish traveller to our budget so that we now have cheap (after purchasing the equipment) entertainment.   It is also why our large expenditures this month are, well large.  After ordering the dish our internet router quit, thus the change in our Internet provider and more expenditures. I cashed in our discovercard funny money (over two years worth) to help purchase the equipment.  Here are the new figures which include a satellite Dish TV setup and a new wireless Internet device.   Also this month, I visited museums and went to the dentist and doctors repeatedly along with purchasing drugs and more drugs. Now we're sitting in Montana (note the change in fuel) writing this and life is fine!  I'm still trying to figure out how and what to include in a budget that would make sense to other people thinking of living this lifestyle.

Budget Envelope       8/1 August Expenses   Envelope         9/1 Admission Turnpike Fees/Other 60 270 40 290 Fuel 333 4279 740 3872 Car Maintenance 96 60 80 76 Campgrounds 245 3441 390 3296 Clothing 40 140 35 174 Entertainment/Movies Books 27 354 7 374 Entertainment/Dish 60 0 60 0 Entertainment/Internet 70 0 70 0 Food/Groceries 745 -11 719 760 Food/Restaurant 90 277 249 118 Cell Phone 37 83 37 83 Katz 19 25 56 -12 Large expenditures 505 420 675 250 Marco  65 12 45 32 Medical (drugs, doctors, glasses) 241 1142 466 917 Total 2633 3669

Jan

2012 July's Budget Figures

I am changing how we post our budget.  While we still are not including items that are stick house expenses but only what we spend living on the road I thought it would be useful to include our starting envelope points.  This starting point is the money we managed to save for our first year of travel  since we knew we would not have enough in our "standard future" budget.  I've included the amount we had July 1 as our "start of retirement budgeting date."  We will also be putting money in the envelopes but not enough to pay for our adventures over the next year.  We cover envelope budgeting in the tabs above this post.

      In July we traveled from Vermont to Bethel Park in order to make several improvements that would cost nothing there.  For instance, we improved my bed by cutting up an extra mattress (sorry company) and using it to make my new bed. Cost was 0.  We had also decided to purchase a new TV for the trailer so we could use hdmi from the computers to watch hulu or any other internet item.  Lew has more tools and widgets at Stix&Brix so we went there.
     Our 'large expenditures' were the new TV for Marco and a tracfone.  That is, we purchased minutes for a two year old Tracfone we had lying around.  We have on several occasions wanted to contact each other and been unable to with one Cellphone between us.  It was starting to make me uncomfortable to be unable to call for help if Lew had gone biking and I did not have a phone.  So as a compromise expenditure we purchased 2000 minutes for the tracfone.
     Campground fees were items we purchased to camp on Amy's land (hoses, etc) as well as the Passport America membership discussed on this page.  We also prepaid for another trip to be made in August to Darien Lake.
     Once at Bethel Park, I got sick for a couple of weeks, thus the doctor, dentist and drug bills.  You will note that this item will continue to climb because this is me. We will be paying to see the doctors in the hinterlands of the USA! 
    The food bill was a bit high due to the pop and ice cream.


Jan