BUDGET UPDATE - February, 2015

And so a new year begins!!  We showed that we could live within our means including private health insurance and all of our traveling, which was our goal.  We showed that you could live a very good life style for $25,000/year, if you weren't lavish and chose where you eat and drink out.  We took advantage of Cupocity discounts on meals, tours, massages, etc. We also determined where we get the best bang for our buck, which allows us to eat and drink out with our friends. We are social people and gathering with friends is very important to us. (See Year End Budget posted in mid December, 2014 located in Archives)

As we also knew would happen, our family and friends would start visiting us and the winter months would see us eating out and going on excursions more with them. My daughter and her family were here for 16 days in January, and several friends came to town to spend time with us. It definitely shows in our expenditures for these 2 month!

We also had the opportunity to meet up with friends from Nicaragua in Mexico City for a week in February and while we were already up in the "highlands" of Mexico, we decided to come back by bus and visit San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and Leon. A beautiful part of this wonderful country!

The month of January also brought us the expenditures of washing machine repair ($232), camera repairs ($10), more of Mike's dental woes (a new crown & a tooth pulled $742), and Mike needing to visit a chiropractor twice for adjustments that couldn't be dealt with in a massage ($73). We also took a 3 day side excursion to Yelapa with family and incurred hotel expenses and a more expensive water taxi ride plus all meals out.

But, we are extremely happy that everyone wants to come see us!!  This was part of our decision to live here. We knew it was easier and more alluring for them to come here to PV than any other location we considered. So it is what it is and we make no apologies for enjoying our family and friends.

Living Expenses:	January	February
Rent w/util	$    1,000	$      1,000
Electric	$          24	$               -
Cell Phone	$          42	$            40
Groceries	$       227	$          219
Meals Out	$       448	$          330
Drinks Only	$       161	$          168
Entertainment	$          60	$            57
Massages	$       101	$            20
Bus/Taxi	$          64	$            55
Dental Cleaning	$          33	$            80
Incidentals	$          25	$            18
TOTAL	$    2,185	$      1,987
TOTAL W/O RENT	$    1,185	$          987
Discr Spending:
Visas/Legal	$             -	$               -
Clothes/Shoes/Gifts	$          13	$            32
Medical/Life Ins.	$       211	$          211
Tours	$          87	$            60
Home Improve	$       420	$          171
Medical	$       237
Dental	$       742
Air Travel
Trips/Vacations	$       180	$      2,459
Car Rental/Gas
Spanish Lessons
TOTAL Discr.	$    1,890	$      2,933
TOTAL ALL	$    4,075	$      4,920