August 2009: Budget Recap

Went to Portugal, and that is on a separate budget.. kind of. Hard to say what we spent on food, when we ate most of it in Portugal, you know?

Income (Savings, Withdrawals, Refunds, Reimbursements..)

$750 taken out of my Savings (Living Expenses, Other)
$2000 taken out for Portugal trip
$541.37 finally got paid from cash on a side job
$400 cash found in my wallet again
$50.62 from the blog (I wasn’t really on Swagbucks this month or I would have had an extra $50 – $75 this month)

TOTAL: $3741.99

EXPENSES

Cost of Portugal Trip

I had originally wanted a budget of $2000, maximum.

If we spend about $1000 on travelling and food to domestic cities (I consider U.S. to be close enough to be domestic), then $2000 should be a good estimate for overseas.

Let’s see how I did:

$1205.79 —- Flight to Portugal
$251.55 —- 5 Star Tiara Hotel (was a deal)
$20.92 —- Coach bus to travel from Porto to Lisbon
$370.27 —- Food

Total: $1848.53

Sweet. I came under by $151.47.

I didn’t buy anything for myself except a light long-sleeved cover up to stop from tanning and burning in the sun (for health reasons..) for 5.50 EUR and a pair of flip flops for 1 EUR for the beach.

I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy, to be honest. The dresses were nice, but I could find the same style or type in the States or Canada, and for cheaper.

The switch to the Euro really screwed Portugal. From what I heard, it used to be cheap to visit Portugal, but now they’re putting a slice of pizza and a pop at 12 EUR in some stores.

12 EUR = $16 CAD

I mean, I know Europe is expensive in general, but this is PORTUGAL.

They aren’t a huge, uber developed superpower like Germany or England, and the prices were shocking to us, especially to BF who had traveled around Europe before the Euro.

Something like a slice of pizza and pop when converted in the old currency, would only be around 3 EUR.

The prices (to BF) seem to have jumped up 400%. People just don’t have that kind of cash there, to purchase cheap quality pizza for 12 EUR when they can get food for free from the fields or just by cooking at home.

I had a lovely time there, after getting over the sticker shock and will post pictures .. once I get motivated to do so.

Basic Living = $554.96

• $384.50 – Rent
• $65.41 – Food (Not including what we ate in Portugal)
• $15 – Internet
• $50.79 – Cellphone
• $4 – Laundry
• $23.69 – Vitamin Pills
• $11.57 – Travel stuff (very hard, durable plastic cutlery and some travel-sized tubes)

TOTAL SPEND THIS MONTH $2403.49

BALANCE: + $1338.50 (Saved)

Wow. This is the first month in a travel month that I’ve managed to come out on top in savings 😉

Thank goodness for our tiny, bare apartment 😛

BF and I are also planning a final trip for this year (OMG I know.. we’re nuts) .. to tour Asia.

We’re thinking of hitting the following places on our 1 month tour:

• Hong Kong
• Beijing
• Shanghai
• Macau (for a day)
• Thailand
• Singapore

We haven’t set a budget but BF is confident we can keep it to $3000 each.

I am a bit more skeptical, and am thinking $4000 is a bit more reasonable for travel, lodging and food.

Plus, I am adding a $500 – $1000 budget to let me buy whatever I may want in those countries. (Hello Kitty? :D)

We also have to travel to France and England for weddings next year, so we have to keep that future budget in mind.

FINANCIAL SNAPSHOT = Increased by $5068.35

• Stock markets really jumped this month to almost par to book value
• Managed to sock away some money into my savings
• My individual stocks are doing all right

ASSETS = $74,847.30

• Cash = $125.16
• Chequing = $10
• Emergency Fund for 2 years = $24,000
• General Savings = $2738.13
• Retirement = $32, 552.07 (BV = $32, 198 — Really jumped this month)
• Other = $25
• Business = $13,396.94
• Car = $2000

LIABILITIES = $0