Peru Budget

We decided the budget for Peru really deserves it's own post. Peru is much more on the "normal" tourist trail because of Machu Picchu. Combine this with some unexpected expenditures and we spent just about the same amount for a month in Peru as we did for a month and a half in Ecuador.

Including absolutely everything during out time in Peru, we spent $3,651.36 for 31 days. This comes to $117.79 per day. If you'll recall, our budget is $80/day, so we were well over that. I'll discuss some of the large expenditures that were out of the ordinary below, but first I wanted to point out our largest expenditure (assuming the hospital charges go away): Machu Picchu. We spent $450.33 on site tickets, rail tickets, a collectivo, taxi, bus to the site, lodging, and ridiculously priced ice cream and water just for Machu Pichu. However, how could you visit Peru and not see Machu Pichu? Thus, we never ever looked at what our budget would have been excluding this expensive remarkable site.

We had a number of unusual expenditures that we thought artificially increased the budget. I had to go to the hospital, that was $584. We assume we're going to be reimbursed for the full amount by our insurance, so we expect the daily expenditure will come down to $98.76. We also bought a Jambox in Lima for $280. This was a nice to have and will be discussed in further detail when we do our updated packing post, but without that we'd be at $89.73/day. Also, It was very cold in Cusco and we expect it to get colder, so Jordan and I both bought base layers and gloves. Total cost for the new gear was $192 and without that in the total, we'd be at $83.54 for all of Peru. Finally, I lost my prescription sunglasses in an unfortunate seafaring accident (aka swimming with my glasses on in the ocean) in Montañita. We bought replacements in Lima for $110.48, without this final cost, we'd be at $79.97.

In total that comes to $1,166.48 in weird expenditures. We're pretty happy with the total, Peru was more expensive than Ecuador, but we were able to keep within 25% of our budget even with the gear, Jambox, and glasses included. We're hoping to make up some ground in Boliva, we've heard it is quite cheap. However, it will cost us $270 just to enter the country and there are a number of activities that will require us to join tours to experience.

Our Approach for Purchases

"we needed to implement a spending freeze"

An interesting phrase to come from my lovely wife. She is right, just to be clear there was a spending freeze. We attempted not to buy anything extraneous. However, I take issue with 'we'. If I'm not mistaken we would imply that my wife and I made this decision together. However, this my friends, is not the case.

In early July I made the statement that we would not be spending further, to help pay down our lovely accumulated debt of the past month or so (actually it is more of a savings recovery, we don't carry month-to-month revolving debt). I just wanted to be sure to make that clear.

Once out of July it was a full on spending spree I'd like to add. Moderate to large purchases of supurfulous nature thus far in August:

1. Purse
2. Paint and Painting Supplies (a post will follow at a later date)
3. A website (orofino.me)

As we came into this month it was clear that there were a number of things that we wanted to buy, as such we needed to determine WHICH of those items to purchase. As such we listed out the items and threw them into a spreadsheet on google docs. This allowed us to see relative expense along with the priority for each item for eachother.

You can see that here, it is a very simple thing, but it allows us to track some of the 'extra' expenses.

As Jordan and I settle into this whole new marriage thing we continue to work out how best we want to handle the finance and spending stuff. I'll talk at some later point about our saving strategy and how we are saving for retirement, children, our travel ambitions, paying down school loans, etc etc.

On a side note, I find google docs to be a most wonderful resource for Jordan and I. We've got 3 laptops, a desktop, and two iPhones to our name. Having access to our docs regardless of which machine we are at or phone we are using makes things VERY easy. Not to mention I can add to the docs anywhere any time.