Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Expense Report 2019

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Surfing into 2020

For another (more detailed and colorful) annual expense report of full-time van-dwellers, check out the 2019 “Cost of Being a Nomad” post of our friends Duwan and Greg here.

Do you keep track of your expenses? How did your budgeting go in 2019? Any categories you’d like to do better with in 2020?

43 Comments

  1. Hi, Liesbet – Your expense report for 2019 is impressive in so many ways. Your kindness and generosity to others shows throughout.
    To give you some additional feedback on impact — the gift that you gave to Richard last year has a prominent place in our dining room. He’d smack me if I ever tried to move it! 🙂

    • Hello Donna! Thanks for checking out our 2019 expense overview. It is always a good time for reflection for us. I’m so glad our little gift found a permanent place in your dining room! 🙂

  2. Nicely done, Liesbet! Your expense report is quite impressive…more fodder for that book. 🙂 I don’t follow a strict budget, but I’m diligent when it comes to putting a big portion of my paycheck toward my 401K first. So, lets see if you can get 2020 below 15K! 🙂

    • I think it’s extremely wise that you put a big portion of your income toward your 401K (which I assume – and I should know by now – is the retirement account). Mark is in charge of that. I remember him saying how it was some of the best advice he ever received from his late sister – to save as much as possible from a young age. I’m so glad he did and that he has an eye for finances as well. Other than being careful with money, I’m pretty clueless about all that. 🙂

  3. Liesbet, what amazes me is not only how disciplined you both are, not only in keeping these records, but in spending sparingly. I love your motto, that makes a whole lot of sense. That’s a pretty low total for groceries, and everything else, especially for the U.S. where prices are so high (compared with somewhere like Viet Nam!) Maya was quite an expensive addition to the family, but no doubt totally worth it.The photo of her going into the ocean is my favorite.

    Peta

    • Yes, Maya has been worth every penny so far, especially since she is just getting better and better when it comes to her behavior, health, and demeanor. And, it helps that we are all getting more attached to each other as well. She’s still totally infatuated and “hooked” to Mark, but I am also seeing improvement in her behavior towards me. That is so nice to see!

      I hear you about the US being expensive, especially compared to Viet Nam. Of course, there are more pricey countries as well. 🙂 That being said, we find that if we stick to what we need (healthy, plant-based diet), pick our stores based on value, and not splurge too much with “crappy” food or things like Trader Joe’s goat cheese for Mark, it’s feasible to live affordably. What we would love better, though, is living and traveling in a place were eating out is cheap, like SE Asia. 🙂

  4. With Maya, no surprise your expenses went up. Sounds like this will be a much more reasonable year.
    Considering you lived out of your van the whole year and traveled, that mileage really isn’t that bad.
    Congratulations on citizenship!

    • Hi Alex! I remember hearing from commuters how many miles they put on their cars, so actually being able to visit places and explore new areas certainly makes it worthwhile to put thousands of miles under our wheels. As far as 2020 becoming a cheaper year… we will have to see about that. Like Mark said: “Every year there are one or two unexpected, pricey occurrences.”

  5. Nicely done! I made too much in 2019, which sounds like a good thing, but I had no clue I would until the summer, when I found out my agent had sold the audio rights to one of my books. In December, I realized I might be in “trouble” and contacted my accountant.

    Yep, I have a nasty tax bill coming this spring. At least I found out while I could still do some damage control, but I wish I’d saved a lot more last year.

    So this year is a “low buy” year, which I’m planning will become a lifestyle. I have two major trips already booked that will be expensive, but I’ve never regretted money spent on travel. What I don’t need is STUFF. I’m not going to buy any clothes/jewelry/home decor/seasonal decorations/shoes, etc. this year, although I can buy a meaningful piece of jewelry on either trip if I see something I just have to have. Books will be severely limited too.

    So far I’ve done well on everything except books, but I can only buy five this year, which means I have two purchases left! :O

    • I hear you about making too much money not always being a good thing, JH! Mark and I had that “problem” one year as well, when our business was doing extremely well one year, while sailing. We discovered that almost all the extra money we made went to taxes! It’s an art to float in the lowest income bracket. 🙂

      You’re setting your spending bar at the perfect height. You know me well enough to believe that you have all my support and encouragement to keep the “stuff buying” as low as possible. Quality above quantity and the simpler one’s life, to more gratifying. That is my humble opinion. And, as you can imagine, I’d rather spend my money on travel than anything else! 🙂 Buying something meaningful as a souvenir, of course, belongs in an entire different category. 🙂

      I can’t believe that you’re almost at your book buying quota for the year and it’s only the middle of January. Ha! That will be the hardest promise to keep. I’ll be curious to see how you do with that!

      • The “problem” is having so many friends who write great books. I got hooked on Barbara Ross’ cozy series, so had to get the next two. And then took the Margaret Atwood Masterclass and she recommended a great one where authors share true tales of humiliation. Misery loves company…

        So I’m down to two. But honestly, even if I go a bit beyond that, it will still be far better than my usual. I’m going to try my best to stick with it, though.

        Thanks for the support, and words of encouragement. So far I’m doing really well. I still have some things that need to be tweaked (like spending too much on groceries), but none of the other triggers I mentioned have led me astray. I even returned some things and got at least $600 back.

        The tax thing really sucks. It’s nice to be successful, but this almost makes it seem not worth it, unless one is successful enough every year not to have to worry about it too much. When it’s a one-time thing, the following year becomes a tightrope walk.

        • One of the things I adore and respect about you, JH, is that you commit to something (whether it’s a writing career, downsizing, or spending less) and stick with it. You don’t just say, you do. And you don’t give up (easily). It’s that passion, determination, and commitment that brings success, however small it might feel sometimes, and whether it’s personal success or in a broader way. It’s awesome!

          About groceries, could you shop in cheaper places? Here in the US, we have Aldi and Grocery Outlet (and Walmart, but some of their ethics are not ideal and their produce is often of poor quality) or even Trader Joe’s has affordable goods. Or, you could buy bulk? Or get generic brands instead of main ones…

          I enjoy reading books as well, but find that most of my five a year are read to help out others (proofreading, beta reading, leaving reviews after receiving a free copy or ARC). Yes, we all need more time in a day. 🙂

  6. Liesbet, I admire your values and saw first-hand yesterday what a rich life you have spending judiciously. (Yes, I noticed too the luxurious coat you are maintaining for Maya.)

    You are certainly leaving a very tiny carbon footprint and storing many memories!

    To answer one of your questions: I’m the one who manages finances online, but both of us make decisions on major purchases. Over the years, I’ve pulled Cliff into my frugal mentality. 🙂

    Kudos to both of you! 🙂

    • Hello Marian!

      I think it’s important we all live within our means and be careful with our resources. You and Cliff are good examples. I don’t think your carbon footprint is high either and I totally appreciate how you turn the lights off and on depending on which room you are in. 🙂

      Being good communicators and sharing the major decision making are two important factors in good relationships. In our situation, Mark takes care of the finances – he keeps track of everything on his computer – I’m just careful about spending anything, something I’ve done since childhood. We have always valued experiences above stuff and would rather not work too hard instead of becoming rich and feeling exhausted all the time. 🙂

      I’m glad you and Cliff are on the same page with your frugalness. I think it would be difficult in a relationship when both partners think differently about their expenses. As a matter of fact, I have met enough people where this kind of thing meant the end of the marriage.

    • Thanks, Hilary. I should probably put a little “disclosure” on these posts about how we don’t have a house with utilities or a mortgage to pay, since all that would throw any budget off and life in a house is very different from our kind of lifestyle.

  7. I think you did great! So much better than us – even in the van repairs category.

    That’s an awful lot of money to become a citizen! You should amortize this expense by day. I will do the first calculation for you – it’s cost you $8.95 a day so far to be an American!

    I’m curious if you use propane for anything besides cooking. Our propane bill is much lower. We usually fill up our tank every three months and it costs us $5 or less.

    I know every penny you spend on Maya is worth it but I do hope her vet and meds costs come down.

    And cheers for $0 on camping. You did great!

    • Hi Duwan! I’ll be curious to see your yearly expense report. I know for a fact that your grocery, propane, and pet costs are less. 🙂

      You had me laugh at the worth of my citizenship. That’s so funny. You guys are so amazing putting things in perspective and calculating costs per mile, per stay, per country, per whatever. I never think about it that way. You are both math people, though. I actually had to think about you more than once when putting this post together. For example, as I was rereading it, I realized that it might be nice to figure out how far we actually drove in 2019. “Duwan would know this by heart,” I thought. So, I looked it up in our little logbook and was flabbergasted at the amount of 14,000 miles! “How did that happen?”, I wondered…

      Yes, our propane use is much higher than yours! We made a little mistake in Kentucky… Because it was so cold, we decided to leave the pilot light of our water heater on to always have warm water to wash our hands and do the dishes (yes, I know, the luxury!). Mark thought it would not use much propane. He was wrong! We’d filled up before we arrived and didn’t make it throughout the seven weeks!!!

      But, to answer your question: we need propane for our water heater to take showers, we boil water every morning for tea and cook every day, and our generator runs on it as well, but we never use it. Only to start it up and test it once a month, for half an hour. Also, we bought propane twice in San Diego, which was very expensive (about twice compared to other states). Usually, our tank (which must be bigger than yours) lasts three months and costs around $10 to fill.

      The $0 for camping was a surprise, since we usually stay at a national park once or twice a year. I guess we didn’t visit enough of those in 2019. 🙂 I’m sure this year will cost us more on camping!

  8. After looking at your pics for more than a year, I sometimes wonder why they aren’t in travel magazines or tourism sites. You’ve got the eye.

    • Thanks, Anna! I wish I had time to pursue two hobbies: writing and photography. Some of my photos have been the cover page for sailing magazines in the past and they always accompany my sailing and destination articles. 🙂

  9. Victoria Marie Lees

    January 17, 2020 at 17:47

    Bravo, Liesbet! Welcome to the United States of America as a citizen. I love that scoured rock in Utah. We saw it when travelling from Bryce to Zion National parks. It’s sooooo cool, isn’t it? Here’s hoping 2020 will be a little less expensive for you. Your life truly is exciting!

    • Yes, Victoria, the West is the best when it comes to scenery in my newly adopted country. What’s life worth when it isn’t exciting? 🙂 We will see what 2020 brings – no plans and not too many restraints. But I do hope we can get our yearly costs down a bit. As long as that means we have enough fun and rewarding experiences.

  10. I love that photo of you surfing into 2020, Liesbet. What an amazing rock formation!

    Jude

  11. You did very well, considering all your extra expenses this year! Pets are wonderful, but just as expensive as other family members. Here’s hoping Maya has a healthier year ahead of her. 🙂

    • Maya sure has become a (the?) focal point in our lives, just like previous dogs did. It’s nice to have a living creature be the force in decision making and at least you know where your money is going to. Saving an animal’s life and making it (and yours) better is so worth the expense. 🙂

  12. Liesbet as I have said many times, your lifestyle and budget living is inspiring. I was wondering if the day should come that you were to find yourselves suddenly with a large amount of money ( inheritance from a long lost relative) would your lifestyle change? Or would you want it to change? If you would prefer not to answer no worries.

    • Good question, Sue. And, if you know me well, you know that I have no inhibitions or taboos when it comes to answering questions. 🙂

      Mark and I have actually talked about this in a VERY hypothetical way and this is our conclusion: we could never be wasteful with anything, money or otherwise, so the frugal mindset would be retained as well as getting the best value or experience for our buck. So, we’d pretty much still live alternatively. Travel is our passion, so we’d stick with that. I won’t have to worry about work and income anymore, though.

      What we might prefer to do is travel in a more comfortable way. Not sure how that would result in a mode of transportation, because we don’t want anything bigger on the road… We would get a more durable camper, though, ideally with high clearance. Or, we would get a 26-40ft catamaran with more comforts than our 35ft sailboat had. 🙂

      Or, we’d do a plane trip around the world, but that wouldn’t work with Maya and we might do that regardless in the future. To better answer your question, we would still prefer to travel, but we would eat out more and maybe stay in real campgrounds (in nature, no RV Parks) more. More spoils!

  13. Wow, I’m blown away how you can stay at those numbers, despite your house sit stays. Good on you guys! 🙂 x

    • No more house sit stays now… but that means we only buy the necessities in the grocery stores, as we have no room for special ingredients or lots of different materials. 🙂

  14. Wow! So impressive. Thank you for sharing, Liesbet. I keep track of expenses, mainly because I’m a freelance writer and occasional editor and have to keep track for tax purposes.😀

    Belated congrats on your citizenship!

    • Yep – as freelancers, we have to deal with those tax implications as well. Mark just told me we owe $1,000 for my self-employment tax for 2019, as we didn’t pay installments for me last year. That’s a big amount to swallow, as it’s almost 20% of what I made!

  15. I could use a few lessons in frugality from you. Amazing you camped for free. All of your overruns were totally worth it. Wishing you an even less expensive 2020.

  16. I am still very impressed how you and Mark track your expenses. Sometimes people are in total denial or constantly putting out fires (emergencies) and not tracking where they spend money. Your amazing, smart research on campgrounds has saved you a great deal of money. Also great on how you and Mark seem to have similar dollar philosophies. Money spending differences can be a challenge in relationships. It sounds like you and Mark are also great communicating with each other. I love all of your photos, Liesbet! The surfing one makes me extra smile.🙂

    • Hello Erica!

      Thanks again for your lovely and kind comments. Mark and I have been a pretty good team since day one and have been through a lot together. We get this comment often about how our interests and life philosophies align and how “lucky” we are about that. I’m happy about that, but I often take it for granted as I don’t think we would be a couple if we’d think differently on these major decisions… I do hope that couples are good at communicating with each other and taking each other’s desires and interests into account. It’s key for a successful relationship.

      As far as campgrounds go, I feel that the only way we could afford a life on the road is because we boondock and almost always camp for free. It could get crazy expensive otherwise…

  17. You all are my heros. Thanks for posting the budget details. Sean and I are going to hopefully be retiring soon. I have never in my life ever put together a budget. I was just asking a friend about it the other day. I’m going to use a combo of yours and my friends! The photos from the wave are incredible – and happy you are officially a US citizen though sometimes I think its not a bonus these days.

    • Hi Pam! Thanks for swinging by again. How exciting that you are retiring soon!! That makes life on the road so much easier. We can’t wait for that to happen for us as well – if ever.

      Mark and I have never budgeted or created budgets. We’re just both really good at only buying the necessities for us to eat healthy and be comfortable. You don’t need much money to achieve that, especially when your house is only 19ft long. Not much room for extras either. 🙂

      I hear you about that US citizenship feeling these years, especially these last weeks!! I was going to take a photo of me holding my new passport with a smile, but I haven’t been able to actually do that yet… 🙁

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