February 2024 Budget Report – Oaxaca (Mexico)
Another month gone, another budget report! And our February 2024 budget report is one of our more interesting ones.
You may remember from our January 2024 budget report that we expected to get hammered with expenses this month since we would be long-term hosts for the first time in our travels. But you also may have noticed in our post describing our slow-travel month in Oaxaca, that we were surprised about how affordable things were.
So what actually happened? Let’s find out.
Accommodation: $1109.00 USD
As we suggested in our Oaxaca Airbnb post, our accommodation expense was supposed to be one of the main drivers of our February budgetary downfall. $1086.96 USD for 28 nights in Oaxaca and $22.04 for our last night in San Cristobal de las Casas is our most expensive accomodation month in Mexico, and will likely remain so for the rest of our time here.
So since rent was ~$300 USD higher than we normally feel comfortable budgeting for, we assumed that bad financial tidings were in our future.
Activities: $270.59 USD
Our activities expense was lower than in January 2024, which was surprising.
We think this is from the low number of tours that we took (only 2 – each at around $800 MEX/$47 USD), and the fact that entrance fees for paid events and attractions were so inexpensive.
And the number of free cool things to do in Oaxaca was a big help too!
Bottom line, we didn’t have to spend much to entertain ourselves on a daily basis.
Alcohol: $136.90 USD
Oaxaca is the land of mezcal, so of course we indulged.
This included 4 big bottles of mezcal and miscellaneous supermarket booze purchases, all of which were shared with guests for medicinal purposes.
Interestingly, ~$40 USD of this expense category was for cocktails in Puerto Escondido. Although reasonable drink specials could be found in the area around our hotel, the beach pubs on Playa Carrizalillo were expensive.
But in the grand scheme of things, we didn’t go that crazy with alcohol.
Eating Out: $492.94 USD
In a normal month, for our two meals per day, we usually eat at least one at home. But during February, the norm was to eat out 90% of the time!
It comes as no surprise that our eating-out expenses doubled from their usual level. But still, because we enjoyed local restaurants the most, the overall cost wasn’t so bad when compared to what we might spend in the USA, or most Western European countries.
So if our eating-out expenses doubled, how did that affect our grocery expenses?
Groceries: $234.48 USD
Our grocery expenses dropped by about 1/3 from previous months in Mexico.
Pretty good! This helped balance out our eating-out expenses, but not entirely.
Medical: $59.82 USD
This expense category is made up of a bunch of OTC medicine purchases, as well as antibiotics ($6.93 USD) for when Rhonda got hit with serious food poisoning on our way out of San Cristobal de las Casas.
But still, our medical expenses were pretty low.
Miscellaneous: $5.86 USD
This time, I was the one who bought a souvenir!
When a (former) salamander biologist is in a country where axolotls are celebrated, you buy the t-shirt. 🙂
Supplies: $36.42 USD
Not much to buy for our Airbnb during February, so our supply expenses were quite low. Our apartment was well stocked and the things we needed to buy for day-to-day needs were cheap.
Transportation: $142.24 USD
The bulk of this expense was two ADO first-class bus tickets to Oaxaca from San Cristobal de las Casas ($122.42 USD total). The remainder was from local taxi fares.
Utilities/Upkeep: $86.55 USD
Higher than some months but lower than most, our U/U expenses were reasonable. The main culprits were laundry, monthly LTE data, drinking water, and public bathroom fees.
Total Expenses for February 2024 = $2574.80 USD
Wait, what?
Against all odds, we somehow ended up pretty much on budget!
Here is a pretty graph summarizing our February 2024 budget report:
Somehow, we were over our $2,500 USD average monthly budget by only ~$75 USD.
Despite our high activity level and elevated accommodation expenses in February, we absorbed this without really trying.
Amazing.
This brings our current monthly spending average to $2,549.05, which is still just a bit above our target.
But now that the (supposed) budget-busting month of February has passed, we hope to make up lost financial ground over the next 4 months. Our first two months in Spain, in particular, should be pretty cheap. Free accommodation will do that.
We’ll see!
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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