November was the month of pets, and also I only had a few fun rides, but nothing big. I did start to run a little bit, and have been doing a ton of walking, and am still trying to get my steps each day! All of the below numbers are as of November 30, 2024.
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| My accountability buddy |
Mileage To Date:
Total Days on the Road: 252
Total Days Ridden: 154
Days Ridden in October: 1
Total Miles Ridden: 8,600
Miles Run: 43 (the most miles I have run in a month since March!)
Average Steps per Day: 10,200 (phew!)
Accommodation To Date:
Airbnb: 12
Established Camp: 35
Friend: 36
Housesitting: 47
Motel: 70
Warm Showers: 9
Wild Camp: 40
Train: 3
Total Days: 252
Total average cost per day: $32
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| As seen on my Thanksgiving day run |
Total Cost: November
*Please note that I eradicated my travel category since basically all my costs are what I would have categorized in travel before.
Accommodation: $75 (↓ from October) Includes any place where I rested my head for the night. In November this included housesitting (29) and a motel (1).
Dining Out: $174 (no change from October) Includes coffee, ice cream shops, snacks and meals at a restaurant, including bakeries and the train canteen. This was still down about 30% from the average for this trip. Once again, being in one place helped, but basically the majority of this amount was in one day spent at the Seahawks game. Those beers are pricey!
Groceries: $234 (↓ from October) Includes food and snacks from a grocery or convenience store. This is down 23% from the average for this trip. This is likely due to the fact that by housesitting especially for longer periods, I tend to be able to shop less often and cook more real food rather than eating grab and go type things.
Health: $234 (same - insurance premium) Includes my health insurance and any costs for health care (which I have luckily not had!!!). I am hoping that next year I will be able to lower the amount of the premium, but I do expect to pay out of pocket for some things (for example, I need to get my teeth cleaned and I am going to need new contacts) while I am abroad.
Misc.: $195 (↑ from October) Includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts, personal care. This month was higher due to gifts.
Shopping: $2,058 (↑↑↑↑ from October) Includes costs associated with cycling maintenance, cycling gear, running and camping gear and other clothing or toiletries. And electronics!! Sigh. I had been holding off on buying a new laptop because I cannot carry two on the bike and did not want to do any organizing while on the road, but now that I am more settled, I bit the bullet. And it hurt. Hopefully this laptop lasts me as long as my last one, which lasted about ten years. I calculate this as a cost per day of about $0.27, which is pretty darn good! To get that cost per day with the new one, it will need to last 15 years. Wish me luck. This is not all electronics though; I did finally buy some new undies (yay!), some TP (double yay!) and a couple of merino tops that I found on sale and could not pass up.
Transportation: $27 (↓ from October) Included an Amtrak ride and a few local bus rides.
Utilities: $273 (↑ from October) Includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN & McAfee).
Total Spent: $3,286 (↑ 20% from $2,750 average and ↑ 37% from October*)
Verdict: *If I had not bought the computer, this would be my lowest cost month for travel. However, these things happen, so I am keeping it in. Also, full disclosure here, I also still had some home related costs over the last months, so my total spend this year will be more than I have ever spent in one year.
I am looking forward to next year when it will be more of a "clean slate" and am still considering trying to have a budget of around $2,500, although I know that since my first destinations are in Europe this will not be as easy. However, 2026 will probably be in a lower cost area and so I feel that even if I am over in one year, I will be under in others. Also, I love me some croissants and am not going to skimp on things like that. Croissants are the new ice cream!
To end this number heavy post, here are a few recent stats!
Favorite Ice Cream: My little cousin (she is 13) made homemade ice cream for Thanksgiving. Yummy.
Favorite New Town: I really enjoyed Bellingham, but also Northeast Seattle is very pretty too. Towns near water really are the best. Seattle itself is not "new" but I really do like it too.
Favorite New Water Related Venue: See above, but I will say Lake Washington, even though there have been some good Puget Sound views too.
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| Lake Washington |
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| Lake Union |
Favorite Food Item: I had an excellent carnitas taco at Tacos Tecalitlan in Burlington, WA.
Favorite Book: The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Okay it's your turn!! Have you read The Mountains Sing? Are the Christmas decorations out in your neighborhood yet?
I read that "Wise Men Still Seek Him" as "Wise Men Still Seek Gin" and I thought, wait, that can't be right.
ReplyDeleteThat is funny. I think it is better than the way Lisa saw it, which was "GUN" instead of Gin. The handwriting and the camera angle are both bad!
DeleteNice numbers! The reality is that irregular expenses come around pretty regularly. This month a laptop, next month something else. The average works out.
ReplyDeleteHere's to 2025 being The Year of the Croissant!
Three cheers for that. I am really looking forward to that, as well as other things! I will probably gain like a million pounds next year as I will NOT be biking every day and I WILL be eating a lot of butter.
DeleteSome people's decor is just...wow. I swear there needs to be some kind of Taste Police.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would volunteer.
Oh, croissants. My cholesterol went up just typing the word. SO. GOOD.
Oh Nance, that photo is only a small corner of their yard! It is a huge decoration! I do like Christmas decorations though and am looking foward to seeing it lit up!
DeleteI read that sign as "wise men still seek gun". Sheesh. Then I was like - wait a minute... that can't be right.
ReplyDeleteYour CFA membership renewal is so cheap compared to ours. Mine was about $450 between the CFA society and the MN local chapter! It has gotten so expensive. My company pays for it so it's not a big deal but still. I swear it was not always that expensive.
It's nice that you have these house sitting gigs in cool areas of the country!!
Haha! HIM! Definitely different than gun. However, you never know. Although since I am in a pretty blue city, I see a lot more Harris/Walz signs than I do see pro-gun signs!
DeleteMy CFA renewal is $300 because I did not pay for the local chapter as I saw no point. And now for sure, I will just pay the bare miniumum to skate by. Maybe my description was not clear, as that category includes CFA dues, but I paid them in June, so it was not included this month.
Oh now I understand about the CFA guns!
DeleteAnd yes, the area of the country you are in is not exactly pro-gun... It's probably very similar to my neighborhood in Mpls.
I'm totally in awe of people who can keep their monthly costs so low!
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, to answer the questions: I have never heard of the book but I will take a look now that I have a library card again! There has not been a lot of Christmas decorations in our neighborhood yet. Maybe now that Thanksgiving is over, we'll see more! We ourselves have not even put out tree up (decided to go with artificial starting last year because fresh have gotten so expensive!) because we didn't want it up before Thanksgiving...but have been busy/lazy the last few days.
My parents just put up their tree yesterday, and my Mom is a full on Christmas buff. Usually they go and get the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year it was late so they got it the week before that. We always chop ours down in the forest, so I wouldn't even know what a tree lot tree cost, but probably going artificial makes sense (plus, less needles!)
DeleteOh, I love the idea of cutting your own tree! We did that a couple of times when my son was younger and visited my in-laws in MO; they had tree farms where you can cut your own tree! So fun!! But here, yes -- the last fresh tree we bought was over $200! And since we got rid of my husband's truck, it's harder to bring trees home and it's more work and gotta time it well, etc.
DeleteWow! $200! I think that a permit to cut a tree is ~ $10! That is crazy, and I can see why you would get an artificial tree if that was the case.
DeleteOnly 9 warm showers. In the whole month? I don't think I could manage that. I haven't read that book. Loads of people in our neck of the woods have their decorations up. Outdoor lights is Coach's category. But his distinct way of hanging them has the kids hoping that he won't bother. I forget how Mini put it, but she made me laugh. Something like, It looks like he's being ironic because the decorating is no bad, like why bother? I can't remember, but yeah - it's a hodge podge without much of a coherent theme and it ends up looking like someone did it blindfolded on an extreme budget.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Every time I write that, someone makes the same comment. Warm Showers is a network of people who host cyclists on the road, so similar to Airbnb, but not really, as the people are home and take you in and let you stay with them. Some of them will even feed you! Also, if it really were a warm shower, this was for my entire trip, so it would only be 9 for the last 9 months basically! One a month. Hahah!
DeleteBlindfolded on an extreme budget! Haha! That reminds me of one of those stupid Christmas movies, maybe one with Chevy Chase in it, where the holiday light decorations go awry!
I love that area of Washington too. If I couldn't live where I do, I'd choose there. I actually love the overcast skies and rain and all the water.
ReplyDeleteMe too! I could see myself living in the PNW, no problem. I also enjoy Vancouver for the same reason, plus they have good seafood and it is never really too too cold.
DeleteOoh- that's a part of the country I've never been to. While I'm excited to hear about your upcoming Europe adventures, my dream trip right now is to travel around the US and see all the incredible places I'm missed.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your questions- no I haven't read that book, and yes, the Christmas decorations are up in our neighborhood- EXCEPT FOR OUR HOUSE. I really need to get that done!
Jenny! Really!? I know you are a holiday lover, but you don't have your decorations up? I am surprised. However, having said that, I never put up decorations at my house because it was a lot of work! Actually I did do it one year but just a few lights out front and just figuring out where to plug stuff in seemed like a pain that I did not want to endure. So I enjoy other people's decorations!
DeleteThank you for this breakdown! Very interesting to read about other people's expenses.
ReplyDeleteChristmas decorations... The kids broke me and set up a small tree the week before Thanksgiving. The rest of the decor was taken out and put up yesterday, December 2nd - our full size Christmas tree (artificial), white lights for the fireplace, and fake greenery foe the fence. Oh, and a wreath for the door. We have wreaths for windows, too, but that's this week.
Aw, that sounds great. I love the lights of Christmas, and am enjoying walking around and looking at all of them. Now that Thanksgiving is over, more and more are popping up every day! I love it.
DeleteThis is SO fascinating to read. And I am very impressed by the longevity of your laptop. I feel like so many electronics are not only built for obsolescence, but that they develop lots of quirks in their elderly years. I get super irritated with those Old Age quirks. Then again, maybe I'm not buying the correct laptop, or (more likely) not maintaining it well.
ReplyDeleteSo many decorations up in our neighborhood! I dislike driving at night, but it's been kind of fun lately because everything is so magical.
I am impressed by the longevity too! Actually, I guess I have been pretty lucky with this one, as I think my prior ones (Viao and Dell) maybe lasted 4 or 5 years each. And phones...I have had probably 5 or 6 since I got my first smart phone in 2009, so what is that, like 3 years each? Not that great. Of course if you calculate it as $ per hours used, it probably is a pretty good deal, but I do feel like they make them so that you need to replace them often.
Delete