Money: The second 4 months

This post is a sequel to Money: The first 4 months. Please see the first post in order to understand the following information better.

Here’s what we spent for the second 4 months (120 days):

• Panama:
  • Pedasi: 2 weeks (the first 2 weeks in Pedasi are captured in the previous 4-month period)
  • Boquete: 1 month
• Nicaragua:
  • Granada: 6 weeks
  • Touring: 1 week
• Costa Rica: 1 week
• Vancouver, BC (incl. Washington): 2 weeks
• Calgary: 1 week (to the end of the period)

Show me the numbers

Though we were primarily spending in US dollars, our banks and record systems are Canadian. To make reporting easier for us, all numbers below are in Canadian dollars. Multiply by about 70% to calculate USD.

Average costs:

• Per month: $3,746 CDN
• Per day: $125 CDN

Notes on the numbers

Groceries, Restaurants – Higher in this period than the last for the following reasons:

• we enjoyed the company of family visitors in Nicaragua for 10 days
• we spent a week and a half in Vancouver, and enjoyed evenings out with friends

Air Travel & Visas – We chose to fly from Panama to Nicaragua for about $700 CDN for both of us. We could have reduced this cost significantly, possibly to less than $200, by taking a bus to San Jose and then on to Managua the next day.

Accommodation – Though we had some expensive periods (1 week in Costa Rica, 3 nights in a 3-bedroom house in Selva Negra, Nicaragua, with family), we also saved with an 8-day house sit, a wonderful deal on our family beach home in Masachapa, Nicaragua, and we stayed with family for the last couple of weeks of April.

Full disclosure: Expenses not included in the above

See Money: The first 4 months for expenses not included for the whole trip. In this period, we have also not included Ken’s dental work. He was able to complete most of a procedure in Nicaragua for about $1,300 CDN. The same work, if completed in Calgary,  would have cost $2,500 CDN.