November 2022 Budget Report – Peru
Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. We haven’t been feeling great and have mainly been convalescing in our Cusco apartment until the combined effects of altitude sickness, the common cold, and a minor bout of food poisoning (me) wear off.
But thankfully we are on the mend!
Four months of continuous international travel are in the books, and November was the first month spent exclusively in Peru. Specifically, we stayed 24 nights in Lima, then relocated and stayed an additional 6 nights in Cusco.
So how did we do financially during the month of November? We stayed in more expensive Airbnbs, flew in airplanes, overate, and went to many museums, parks, and archaeological sites.
Let’s see how our November 2022 budget report broke down.
Accommodation: $744.36 USD
As stated above, this includes 24 nights at our not-cheap Lima Airbnb ($627.60 USD) and 6 nights at our not-pricey Airbnb in Cusco ($116.76 USD).
$24.81/day for accommodation during the month of November was definitely a bit expensive by our standards, but it was worth it. The location in Lima was absolutely killer and afforded us easy access to free or very inexpensive ways to pass the time.
We do expect this expense to go down in December. Our Cusco Airbnb is affordable, and our December/January Airbnb in Arequipa, Peru will be one of the cheapest during our Year 1 travel plan.
Eating Out: $339.41 USD
We were actually a little surprised that we didn’t spend more in this category. We ate a couple of pricey meals, and the average cost of eating out in Lima was definitely higher than in Guatemala. But that said, with some searching and a willingness to eat with locals, we found restaurants with lunch “platos del dia” at prices that rivaled Guatemala.
Groceries: $253.75 USD
This went up a little from October, which is no surprise as we shopped at mega-supermarkets much more than at local open-air markets. Still, we still expected this expense to be higher than it was. We suspect this was due to us aggressively taking advantage of sales and adapting our food choices to what was inexpensive in Peru.
And over time those choices add up to significant savings.
General Supplies: $155.20 USD
This expense went WAY up compared to October!
Primarily, this was due to placing online orders with Amazon and eBay for supplies you can only get back in the USA (~$100 USD). Friends will be hand-delivering them to us in the very near future!
The second biggest purchase was a replacement UV Lens Filter for Rhonda’s DSLR camera ($22.55 USD). Hers broke during transit, and we ate the cost to help ensure that the glass of her not-inexpensive travel lens didn’t get scratched. Locally they were quite expensive, but sometimes you just hold your nose and buy what you need.
The remainder of this expense was from basic supplies you need to live day-to-day life in an apartment.
Transportation: $163.49 USD
A little less than October, but not much.
This expense includes 6 Cabifys, a shuttle van to the airport, and 2 domestic flight tickets to Cusco from Lima ($67.87 USD each). All things considered, pretty reasonable!
Activities: $105.01 USD
I was very surprised at how low this expense was, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been.
In total, sightseeing activity expenses cover 11 paid entrances (per person) of varying amounts, maxing out at 30 Soles/$9.18 USD per ticket. In Lima, the majority of paid entrance museums and parks cost between 10 – 15 Soles (~$2.50 – $3.66 USD) to get in. And in our experience, the places that cost more are totally worth it!
Lima is loaded with inexpensive (or free) museums, parks, and other interesting places. So although it seemed like we were constantly throwing money at this category all month, the cost of each individual entrance was actually quite low.
Alcohol: $29.40 USD
As with October, we were fairly dry.
But we did indulge from time to time in the famous Peruvian cocktail, the Pisco Sour. We tried them with dinner out one night and really liked them! And when we figured out how to make them ourselves we just bought the ingredients and brought them back to our apartment to imbibe.
But after we drained a couple of bottles of Pisco over the course of the month, we abstained from any additional alcohol.
Utilities/Upkeep: $60.08 USD
This was quite a bit higher than October but still not bad in absolute terms.
This category included a haircut ($7.65 USD), 3 rounds of laundry (~$11.50 USD), sunscreen (~$26 USD), and recharging our 30-day 13.5 GB Claro LTE data plan ($10.33 USD). The remainder is made up of basic body maintenance items.
Medical: $224.67 USD
This includes our fixed travel insurance cost for the month ($171.01 USD) and OTC medicine purchases. Nothing really controversial here.
Miscellaneous: $3.62 USD
Although we are usually really good at resisting the local hawkers in main tourist plazas, we were off our game in Cusco. We submitted to a shoe cleaning/maintenance session and purchased some snacks we didn’t need.
Such is life.
Total Expenses for November 2022 = $2,047.63 USD
So we were UNDER our $2500/month budget by about $450 USD, and this includes domestic air travel.
We weren’t as frugal compared to recent months, mainly due to the elevated cost of our Lima Airbnb. But if you factor out that accommodation cost difference, we would be in line with September and October!
Here is a pretty graph that summarizes our November 2022 budget report.
And for those keeping score, our current monthly spending average is now $2,204.04 USD. So our average monthly expense continues to trend downward, which is a good thing.
However, we fully expect our December budget to be completely blown up while staying in Cusco. Machu Picchu is not cheap (we’re estimating a total cost of around $500 USD), nor are many of the other local sights we want to see.
But this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so we’ll bite the bullet and see how bad things get.
We hope you found our November 2022 budget report useful!
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
Leave a comment below and subscribe to get email notifications whenever we post!
Follow Two Travel Turtles on Facebook and Twitter!
2 thoughts on “November 2022 Budget Report – Peru”
I just looked Cusco up — 3400m? Yow! Altitude sickness is a hell of a thing. It’s not just your legs that’ll get a good workout with all the stairs and hills there.
From the street to our apartment is 5 flights of stairs. That’s the cherry on top of the 15 minutes uphill walk home!