June 2023 Budget Report – Better Than Expected For Panama

11 months of slow travel are now behind us!

It is hard to believe we are in the last month of our Year 1 Travel Plan, which over a year ago didn’t seem real.

Back then, we only knew what was theoretically possible. We certainly had no direct experience in making all of this work!

But now we’ve become hardened long-term international travelers.

Our spending patterns are predictable.

We know how to get from point A to point B as cheaply as possible if time isn’t an issue.

And we know how to avoid the financial pitfalls that get so many other travelers into trouble.

That said, let’s take a look at our June 2023 budget report to see how everything turned out for our second full month in Panama!

Accommodation: $706.58 USD

A pretty normal month of accommodation expenses for Panama. It is a little lower than May 2023, but that is only because there are fewer days in June than May.

This includes 22 nights in Boquete, Panama ($511.05 USD) and 8 nights in Bocas del Toro province, Panama ($195.53 USD), for an average daily spend of $23.55 USD.

Aside from the higher average cost of Airbnbs in Panama, nothing really controversial to see here.

Eating Out: $301.14 USD

Pretty low compared to past recent months, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised.

Most of this expense is from our frequent “menu del dia” lunches in Boquete (at around $5 USD each), plus a handful of more expensive dinner outings. But during our time in Boquete, we rarely ate out more than one meal per day.

Sometimes less.

Here in Bocas del Toro province, there aren’t many opportunities to eat out. But the one time we did get lunch in Almirante while shopping for supplies we spent about $17 USD for average quality Chinese food.

At least the portions were huge!

And seeing that we will be living in relative solitude for most of July, we expect this expense to stay low.

Groceries: $441.88 USD

Significantly higher than our “eating out” expenses. But again, not entirely a surprise, considering we scaled back eating out a little.

Groceries are not exactly cheap in Panama. And this is especially true for produce!

But we like to eat healthy when we cook at home, so sometimes you have to spend a little more to eat the way you want.

Adding fuel to this fire was the fact that we went to the weekly Farmer’s Market in Boquete, which catered primarily to expats and their specific tastes. German pretzels, kefir, goat milk yogurt, and the like aren’t cheap at these events.

But when you haven’t seen some of these things in nearly a year, it is fun to splurge.

General Supplies: $46.18 USD

We didn’t have to buy many day-to-day supplies this past month.

Our Airbnbs were generally well-outfitted, and we were fortunate to have many bathroom and kitchen consumables covered in our rent.

So really this expense came from basic things like mosquito candles, aluminum foil, laundry detergent, and the like.

Transportation: $77.70 USD

We took collectivos and buses a TON in May!

But you wouldn’t know from how much we spent on transportation.

For local collectivos, <$1 USD per trip was the norm for most short trips. And trips ~1-hour long cost around $2 USD.

So at $77.70 USD for the month, you can get a sense of how many rides we took!

Our biggest transportation expense was our relocation to Bocas del Toro province, which cost a total of $23.80 USD for the 2-stage bus trip for 2 people.

Pretty good!

Activities: $112.00 USD

Not counting the Finca Casanga coffee tour we took ($70 USD for 2 people), the remainder of this expense was made of small admission fees. Our Pipeline Trail hike and Pozos Termales hot springs adventures were well worth it, as was the admission we paid to get into some local gardens.

All in all a pretty reasonable month for doing touristy things.

Alcohol: $29.77 USD

We were absolute saints during the month of June!

But when your favorite bottle of wine in Latin America (Gato Negro FTW!) is only $6, you can indulge and still look like a Puritan.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this expense goes down even more next month. We are in a jungle now, after all.

Utilities/Upkeep: $16.35 USD

Another low-expense category!

Aside from a haircut ($6 USD with tip), the rest was made up of public bathroom fees and recharging our +Movil LTE data plan when needed.

Since we were around Wifi much of the time, we really didn’t need to recharge our LTE plan often! Google Voice really is awesome at reducing the need for LTE data for basic communication.

Medical: $171 USD

This total is from our final month of travel/medical insurance coverage.

Not much to see here.

And this expense will likely go down to near zero as we plan on self-insuring from this point forward.

Miscellaneous: $104.50 USD

Most of this expense category is made up of souvenirs for our families when we visit the USA in September. But it also includes the purchase of 3 t-shirts ($30 USD total) to replace some that were getting a little long in the tooth, or were poorly suited for tropical weather.

Total Expenses for June 2023 = $2,007.10 USD

Here is a summary of our June 2023 Budget Report, for those who love pie charts:

Considering we are in the most expensive country of our Latin America travels, we are pretty happy!

And it is our hope that for July it will be much the same, seeing as we will be in the jungle for the majority of it.

But we do plan on blowing off some steam for a couple of days on the popular islands around here, as well as spending more time in Panama City.

So we’ll see.

Things are really looking good for us to come in below our $2,500 USD/month average budget for our first year of slow travel (or $30,000 USD per year). At 11 months in, our average monthly spend is now $2,280 USD.

Maybe we’ll live it up a little for the final month of our first year of slow travel!

But knowing us, probably not.

Although we do have something a little out of character planned. 🙂

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

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