We really thought we thought about everything we would need to have our budget cover all of our living/travel expenses, etc. for the 1st 3 months of 2018. The amount we came up with was $25,000 for our 2 one way tickets from San Francisco to Mexico City, we are flying the night flight in business because it works out better with the over baggage fees to pay a bit more for the ticket and less on luggage since 2 bags are allowed free and the third is $200, we had to purchase several suitcases and a couple of them had to be big ones (remember those 3 suitcases each are all we are bringing down), we needed visas and passport photos for the Mexican Consulate to get our Temporary Resident visas, travel insurance for at least 2 months until we can find some down there that would fit our needs and allowance, we have to take UBER (van) from Aunt Lorraine’s to SFO, and also a van from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, we had an AirBnb for 5 weeks initially before we moved to Aunt Lorraine’s for the remainder of the time till departure, tax prep for 2017 taxes, food and entertainment (which of course we way over spent), health insurance for the US for Glenn and medications for the both of us, the last of the mortgage payments, and other expenses related to the home insurances and interest from the home loans, all our utilities for the entire time till we sold even though we weren’t in the house, our phones, immunizations, dental and doctor appointments, Ria’s therapy, transportation expenses from either gas or Uber while we were here, etc.
We have done pretty well with keeping to the budget, as we have been able to stay at Aunt Lorraine’s since February 21st. and that has helped tremendously! And we are having so much fun with her. But it looks like we are still going to be about $4,000+ over from unexpected items we have had which we were unaware of when planning. We had to add in things like car repairs, some moving expenses, some things from Amazon like kindles, we also updated our iPhones and my MacBook Pro since they are expensive in Mexico and we needed way more space on them for all our writing and most important photos. And of course there are all the other little things that add up that you just plain don’t think about. Beware of those, they really creep up on you. We also lived in Albany for 5 weeks and there are too many nice restaurants to go to and make an excuse why we should. Those too really add up as we went a bit haywire. And we were at that time thinking we were going to get a bit more on the house sale. So, always give yourself a healthy contingency buffer. If you don’t use all of it, you are ahead of the game and have a bit more savings.
Come April 1st we have a whole other budget to consider. This is the first of our San Miguel months budgets. Because there were several things that did not get paid for in March since we are still up in the air with actual departure dates and where we were going to live when we first got down to San Miguel this is all now transferred to April. And once again it is an extensive list. So this month is a doozy.
Flights in Business class one way on the night flight from SFO to MEX are about $500 each, extra luggage 1 piece each is $200 x 2, 1/2 month rent in San Miguel de Allende US$600, entertainment/food $1400, 2 phones in Mexico $80, phones in US $170 for 2 months of service in SMA, travelers insurance 2 months $650, doctor appointment house call $30, Ria medications $250, dentist $30, therapy $45, utilities bottled water $50, all other utilities are included in the house, education $200, transportation $75, transport to and from airports $335, Glenn’s last insurance for April in US $583, mail box service $23, visa assistance when we are in SMA $300, Temp. Resident visa cards $675 for both of us and I am sure more will pop up. We know we are being conservative but we would once again error on budgeting too much than too little and have a nasty surprise.
We will keep you in the loop to let you know how this budget and our keeping to it fares.
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