June 2024 Budget Report (Galicia, Spain)

Our last month of our 2-month Galicia, Spain Workaway assignment is now behind us!

Now we can look back with a better perspective on how our non-traditional housing situation, as well as our relocation to Madrid, influenced our spending patterns.

Let’s review the damage together.

Accommodation: $138.62 USD

You may be surprised that we had any expenses in this category, but recall that we stayed in a hotel for one night in A Coruña ($60.92 USD) and spent the last two days of June in Madrid ($77.70 USD).

Still, this isn’t an expense amount we can exactly complain about.

Activities: $4.48 USD

This expense was only from the entrance tickets to Castillo de San Antón in A Coruña.

Every other activity we did was free.

Alcohol: $101.97 USD

A bit of a boozy month by our standards.

But we enjoyed experimenting with the different local wines and liquors on offer, as well as the occasional pub crawl with our Workaway hosts.

Still, not that bad all things considered.

Eating Out: $312.39 USD

Compared to other months, our June eating out expenses were pretty status quo. We spent quite a bit more in June compared to last month. But honestly, we were feeling under the weather for much of May so we often stayed home rather than eat out.

Our costs were mostly from menu del dias ($219.61 USD), with the occasional cafe treat, and ala carte dish thrown in for good measure.

Groceries: $414.27 USD

Our grocery costs were pretty status quo as well.

But the main reason our grocery expenses were ~$175 USD less than last month was that we ate out more! That, and we probably overstocked a bit in May.

Medical: $5.20 USD

Not much to see here except for some OTC medications.

Miscellaneous: $2.12 USD

We spent a little on treats for our Workaway host’s pet cats Larry & Jelly.

Supplies: $61.13 USD

Nothing unusual other than normal house upkeep items (like detergent, soaps, etc.), house slippers ($10.86 USD), and a few kitchen utensil upgrades ($35.15 USD).

Transportation: $328.69 USD

This was another beefy transportation expense month from all of the bus, train, and Metro card expenses we accumulated.

Our Madrid Personal Metro Transport Cards (w/ E2 Abono plans) were $121.40 USD. We spent $107.11 USD on high-speed train tickets back to Madrid. And the remainder was from taking public buses to/from Lugo, A Coruña, Ourense, and Chantada.

Still, pretty good considering the value we got out of all of this.

Utilities/Upkeep: $40.01 USD

This category included our monthly MyRVmail subscription fee ($20.75 USD), sunscreen ($14.54 USD), BNE, and luggage storage ($3.74 USD) so we could explore more of Ourense while we were waiting for our train back to Madrid.

The rest is from our 30-day 1 GB LTE/5G BNE eSIM data plans ($1.94 USD total) 

Total Expenses for June 2024 = $1,409.84 USD

Our lowest month of travel expenses on record! Well under our $2,500 USD monthly spend goal.

Here is a pretty graph that summarizes our June 2024 Budget Report expenses:

And it did wonders for our Year 2 average monthly spend, which is now $2,332.23 USD after 11 months.

Things are looking good for coming in on-budget for our second year of full-time travel. But we will still have to watch ourselves during the last month of our travel year, because Madrid, Spain isn’t exactly cheap!

We’ll see how everything plays out.

Until next time…