Where am I?
June 1 - 30: Placencia, Belize
The borders are still closed and I have zero desire to leave. I'm also looking into a 12-month lease and applying for residency. Why not?!
Estimated Expenses & Goals I was hoping to keep my expenses around $2,500 to $2,750 in June but that didn't quite happen.
Here's the nitty-gritty for June:
Lodging includes rent and a monthly cleaning. My rent includes all utilities (electricity, gas, water, internet, and trash service).
Transport this month includes my golf cart rental, water taxi and car taxi rides for when I needed to handle my visa extension in another town. My broken toe has healed so I've decided to enjoy the freedom of having 4 wheels in July and return the golf cart before August. That will cut down quite a bit from my monthly expenses.
Eating Out and Drinks (alcoholic) continue to be two high categories. Since tourism is the main source of income for this town, I'm doing my best to be generous to all of the waitstaff and bartenders. However, keep in mind most everything is imported here so food and drinks are more expensive than other places around the world. Obviously if I cut back on the libations, I can save more.
My Entertainment category was healthy this month. I enjoyed two snorkel trips, bowling, Bingo, live music, trivia, and I have a monthly subscription to the local beach club which is a full service pool on the beach with a restaurant. It's where some of my friends and I enjoy to meet up a few times a week.
The Visa category is higher this month than the others because I was able to secure a 3-month extension. Woo hoo! This means I do not need to go back to the immigration office until the middle of September.
Savings Rate
This month I had a little trouble with payments from a client. They were changing their processes so that means my income that I expected for June was pushed back until July. Thus, my savings rate was -143%; yes, that's right NEGATIVE 143%. Had the payments hit my account by the end of June as anticipated, my savings rate would have been about 41%.
What have I learned?
I like the convenience of renting a golf cart but the monthly expense ($600 rental + gas) is a budget sucker. I've made enough friends at this point that if I need a ride to the grocery store for larger hauls, that I'd be able to easily get a ride. And buying a friend a drink for their hospitality would be significantly cheaper than me renting the cart. It's been fun, but it's gotta go.
I've made some really wonderful friends and we have enjoyed many local events and snorkel trips. There's always something entertaining going on each day and for me it's hard to say no. I want to do it all!
July Goals
I think July could be a tricky month for me. It's my birthday month so I could go nutty and indulge if I want too, or I could lay low. I am going to set a budget of $3,000 for July since the past two months have been closer to that range. And if I get rid of my golf cart before August, I should be able to get back to the $2,500 monthly budget. We shall see!
Questions? Suggestions?
Use the comment sections below, or send me a message.
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