March 2024 Budget Report – Puebla (Mexico)
March went by so quickly, it seemed. Which is usually a sign that we really liked where we were staying! And in this case, we were in Puebla, Mexico for almost the entire month.
In our February 2024 budget report, we guessed that Puebla would end up being one of our cheaper stays in Mexico for a variety of reasons. But the most important one was cheap rent!
So how did our March 2024 budget work out in the end?
Well……
Accommodation: $731.80 USD
Our second cheapest accommodation month in Mexico! This included 29 nights in Puebla ($657.14 USD) and 2 nights in Mexico City ($64.88 USD).
A great start to the budget!
Sadly, it all goes downhill pretty quickly.
Activities: $126.22 USD
Our lightest activities expenses month in Mexico, believe it or not.
This was due to most of our outings being free or really cheap.
Our more pricy outings were to luchador wrestling ($23.93 USD for 2 tickets) and our tip for our “Free” Puebla Walking Tour ($17.79 USD).
Everything else was made up of various entrance fees or day trip bus tickets, which were $6 USD per person or less. Usually much less.
So you can get a sense of how much we did in Puebla!
Alcohol: $87.79 USD
We didn’t hold back on the booze, but we didn’t go crazy either.
This expense was mostly from purchasing regional specialties – namely two 1L bottles of Pasita ($23.72 USD each) and one bargain bin bottle of Rompope ($6.27 USD).
The remainder of this expense was from bottles of our favorite supermarket Cabernet Sauvignon, El Gato Negro, at less than $6 USD each.
Eating Out: $483.17 USD
This is where everything starts to go sideways in our budget.
Somehow, our eating-out expenses were nearly as much as last month, when we entertained guests for 4 weeks!
We went out for sit-down dinners more often than usual. And although we never dropped serious cash on any one meal, those $20 – $30 USD restaurant bills add up when you have them 3 times per week!
Surely our grocery expenses will be lower, right?
Groceries: $433.32 USD
Nope.
For no good reason, this was our most expensive grocery bill in Mexico!
And it wasn’t that Puebla groceries were more expensive than anywhere else. We simply bought more stuff!
Granted, we did have to stock two Airbnbs with food during March, but we’ve done that sort of thing before without much ill effect.
I guess we will have to start monitoring what we buy when grocery shopping a little more closely.
Medical: $298.09 USD
This is unusually high for us, but there is good reason.
We both got our yearly skin health and cancer screening at a local dermatologist ($119.39 USD total). We both agreed that it was the best screening experience we ever had!
Rhonda purchased TWO pairs of bifocal glasses, which included a free eye exam. And one of the pairs of glasses has a cool magnetic sunglasses attachment made for it! Total cost = $101.42 USD.
And we loaded up on various OTC medications that wouldn’t be OTC back in the USA.
So an expensive month, but we got some important things handled at a very reasonable cost.
Miscellaneous: $105.44 USD
Another unusual expense for us, this time for life event gifts for folks back home.
Supplies: $48.22 USD
Another light month for daily life apartment supplies. Our Airbnbs have been well equipped recently!
Transportation: $78.29 USD
This was our lightest transportation expense month in Mexico.
The biggest expense was our ADO Bus tickets to Mexico City from Puebla ($32.38 USD total). The remainder is taxi/Uber fares to/from bus stations when moving, and public transportation metro cards with fare recharges.
Utilities/Upkeep: $70.54 USD
Our U/U expenses were the lowest in Mexico to date as well.
The biggest expenses were our 6 GB LTE Telcel 30-day data plans ($23.93 USD for both of us), our monthly MyRVmail subscription ($20.75 USD), and my recent haircut ($11.93 USD).
The haircut was the most expensive I have ever received in Latin America, but it was the best haircut I’ve ever had. It even came with a neck, face, scalp, and shoulder massage!
The remainder was laundry expenses and 20L potable water carboy refills.
Total Expenses for March 2024 = $2,462.88 USD
Despite our big talk in February about getting under budget in March, we clearly dropped the budget ball.
Eating ALL the food does that! But to be fair, our unique medical and miscellaneous expenses didn’t help either.
At least we didn’t go over our $2,500 USD monthly budget!
Here is a pretty graph summarizing our March 2024 expenses:
So our current monthly spending average is now $2,538.28, which is still just a bit above our target.
Now that we are in Mexico City, the most expensive city in Mexico we’re told, it will be interesting to see what April will have in store financially.
We’ll see!
Until next time…
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2 thoughts on “March 2024 Budget Report – Puebla (Mexico)”
Fascinating.
Thanks! There are definitely some different budgetary patterns to living life here.