April 2024 Budget Report – Mexico City (Mexico)
One month in Mexico’s most expensive city has got to be tough on the budget, right?
Not as much as you might expect.
Take a look at our April 2024 budget report to see what we mean.
Accommodation: $951.80 USD
As expected, this was one of our priciest accommodation months in Mexico. This included 28 nights in Mexico City ($908 USD), one free night in an airplane, and 1 night in a Madrid, Spain Airbnb ($43.48 USD).
Although pricey by historical standards, we really can’t imagine doing any better without compromising severely on our accommodation.
Bottom line, we were quite happy with our spending overall.
Activities: $182.54 USD
Not too expensive for activities, considering all of the things we did.
Our biggest activity expenses were our eclipse kayaking tour ($36.68 USD), 2 free walking tour gratuities ($18.09 USD per tour), 2 round-trip bus tickets to Teotihuacan ($11.39 USD), and extra admission fees for the zoo ($17.24 USD).
The remainder is from various entrance fees, which were $5.60 USD or less per person.
Needless to say, it was easy to see and do things in Mexico City.
Alcohol: $24.59 USD
Possibly our driest month on record!
One beer, one bottle of wine, and two cheap bottles of vodka (for fruity drinks) were the extent of our debauchery.
Eating Out: $543.92 USD
Another expensive month at first glance, but there is more beneath the surface here.
A large fraction of this expense total is from 4 more expensive-than-normal meals due to circumstances beyond our control – each between $25 – $30 USD).
And our most expensive meal of all was after we touched down in Madrid, Spain. We got two fantastic burgers, with high-quality fries and a bottle of Spanish wine for $48.94 USD. Sounds steep, but it was heaven in our jet-lagged and sleep-deprived state!
The remainder of this expense category wasn’t any more expensive than normal for a city in Mexico really. We just enjoyed ourselves with friends and went out to cafes for fantastic coffee more often than usual.
But you only live once, right?
Groceries: $222.88 USD
Unlike our month in Puebla, Mexico, our grocery expenses finally decreased when our eating-out expenses went up!
Honesty, it wasn’t too hard to find reasonably priced groceries in the supermarkets or big local markets. If you are willing to shop around, there are bargains to be had.
That, and we did eat street food instead of at-home lunches more often than normal. So there was some swapping of costs between categories.
Medical: $145.13 USD
The majority of this expense category was for us to get our teeth cleaned at the dentist ($93.80 USD for both of us), plus the opportunistic purchase of OTC medications that wouldn’t be OTC back in the USA.
Miscellaneous: $14.99 USD
This was just for different gifts we purchased for friends while in Mexico City.
Supplies: $14.22 USD
Not much to buy in the way of supplies as we never moved into a new Airbnb during April!
Transportation: $314.18 USD
A pricier than normal month for transportation expenses, which was expected.
$289.20 USD of this was to pay for taxes/fees for 2 direct one-way flights from Mexico City, Mexico to Madrid, Spain on Iberia Airlines. The rest was paid for by credit card travel points!
The remainder was for Mexico City and Madrid Metro fares, as well as Ubers.
Utilities/Upkeep: $66.68 USD
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
$20.75 USD was to pay for our monthly MyRVmail subscription.
The next largest expense was $17.43 USD for suntan lotion.
The remainder was for 8-20L jugs of drinking water ($1.77 USD each), our LTE data recharge ($11.79 USD for both of us), and various public bathroom fees.
Total Expenses for April 2024 = $2,480.93 USD
Not bad for a month in the big city!
Honestly, we are pretty pleased with how our spending turned out for the month. $19 USD under budget is better than we had feared 6 months ago!
Here is a graph summarizing how our April 2024 spending played out:
So now our current monthly spending average is $2,531.91 USD, which is technically over budget but not enough to be concerned about.
And now that we are in the Galicia region of Spain at our new Workaway volunteer gig, accommodation expenses should be basically ZERO for the next two months. This doesn’t include any overnight stays we may take in the region, of course.
It will be interesting to see if our monthly spending goes down, or if we just spend more in some other way.
We’ll see.
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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