May 2023 Budget Report – Panama Edition
10 months of frugal slow travel are behind us. It seems like it was only yesterday when we were slow-travel newbies struggling to buy basic supplies, navigate local markets, and get data plans for our cell phones!
I guess you could say we are slow-travel “experts” now, although our May 2023 budget report numbers don’t exactly reflect this.
We knew Panama would be expensive, and the country didn’t disappoint!
Let’s take a closer look at our May 2023 budget report to see how everything shook out.
Accommodation: $728.42 USD
For accommodation, we had another “expensive” month, similar to April 2023.
Granted this was 100% expected due to the economic realities of living in Panama, but it makes you appreciate the less expensive Airbnb countries. Yes, I’m talking about you Ecuador.
This included 25 nights in Pedasi ($589.04 USD) and 6 nights in Boquete, Panama ($139.38 USD).
$23.50 USD/day for accommodation during the month of May is pretty good for Panama, actually. Play around with Airbnb website bookings for Panama, and you’ll see what I mean.
And we can already project that our accommodation for next month will be around this level as well, so there will be no surprises in June 2023.
Eating Out: $608.76 USD
Like last month, pretty darn expensive.
But this number was inflated by a swanky 26th wedding anniversary dinner at a French bistro in Pedasi ($66.07 USD with tip) and an equally decadent dinner for Rhonda’s birthday in Boquete ($74.42 USD with tip).
For the quality of food served, the meals had excellent value. But still expensive compared to our normal restaurant outings.
But hey, you have to celebrate special occasions!
Groceries: $507.56 USD
We had a much more expensive month than April 2023!
Simply put, Panama has pretty expensive groceries, especially for things that were dirt cheap in South America! Yogurt, cheese, and produce are much more expensive in Panama.
And since our diet leans heavily on these products, we are feeling the pinch.
Interestingly, pork, chicken, and ground beef prices are all quite reasonable.
And it is possible that we got addicted to ice cream in the hot weather of Pedasi, which didn’t help things. A 1/2 gallon of very good ice cream was only about $5.75 USD.
But when you buy 4 gallons of the stuff, the costs add up!
Hopefully, produce prices will prove to be more reasonable in Boquete over time, where temperatures are cool and the diversity and quality of produce are better.
We’ll see.
General Supplies: $44.36 USD
About the same compared to April 2023, which is mostly a testament to our Airbnbs being reasonably well-equipped.
So this expense is really for primarily consumable supplies like soap, shampoo, and toilet paper.
Transportation: $64.40 USD
Down by about 50% from last month, this is what we pretty much expected.
And the main reason for this is that public transportation and Uber are reasonably priced in Panama.
Considering how many miles we traveled within Panama, we think we did pretty well!
Activities: $70.83 USD
This went up a little bit from April 2023, but not enough to be a worry.
And really, we could have done much better. We bought beach chairs and an umbrella for shade ($60.83 USD), but they were so uncomfortable or ineffective at their jobs that we rarely used them.
But better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them, we told ourselves.
And the remaining $10 USD was the entrance fee for La Playita Resort in Playa Venao.
At least that was money well spent.
Alcohol: $131.23 USD
Decidedly less dry than in recent months.
And we have one reason for this.
The cafe/bar/expat hangout CouCou Crazy in Pedasi!
The reason for this was that CouCou Crazy was usually open when we were returning to Pedasi after completing one of our regular morning/evening beach death marches.
We always arrived at CouCou Crazy dehydrated and overheated, so pounding down homebrewed ciders and beers seemed like a great idea! And at $3.50 USD for a quality homebrew, we really didn’t feel like restraining ourselves.
Now separated from CouCou Crazy, we think this expense will go down in June 2023.
Utilities/Upkeep: $27.10 USD
Very low expenses for this category in May.
Aside from a $6 USD haircut (with tip), the remainder of this expense was due to the purchase of a MasMobil LTE SIM and recharge packs.
Medical: $233.13 USD
A little higher than April 2023, but nothing significant.
This expense is made up of our travel insurance ($171 USD), a visit to the chiropractor ($60 USD), and OTC medications.
Miscellaneous: $62.95 USD
This category includes a purchase of cheap sunglasses and a new annual membership to Workaway, a program that coordinates volunteers with hosts around the world in need.
Basically how Workaway works is that volunteers work a set number of hours per week for hosts, in exchange for lodging and (usually) food.
We are going to give Workaway a try during our Year 2 travel cycle (to be announced), which will really help reduce expenses in more expensive parts of the world.
We are hoping to explore some of Europe!
Total Expenses for May 2023 = $2,478.74 USD
So we just snuck under our $2500/month budget by about $25 USD!
Panama clearly isn’t cheap. And we clearly like to eat!
Weird, because everyone keeps telling us we are getting skinny.
Here is a summary of our May 2023 budget report:
Our current monthly spending average is now $2,319.28 USD, up just a little from last month.
But considering we only have two months left to go for our first year of travel, we are looking solid to stay within budget.
We’ll see!
We hope you found our May 2023 budget report useful.
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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