November was a really good month from an expense perspective with only $3,216.43 in expenses.  It’s hard to spend money when you are working 10-12 hours a day.  It actually would have been one of our best months ever, $2875.63, if we did not have to double pay our health insurance.  We signed up for ACA for 2017 and had to pay the first month premium to get on the program.  Details for all other items are listed below.

Campground Fees – We spent $105 traveling from Montana to Texas in the first few days of the month.

Groceries – We were under budget by $97. This was due to a concerted effort on our part to use what we already had in the pantry and the significantly lower cost of food in Texas.

Dining Out – We were over between the two categories by about $100. A chunk of this was our one big splurge meal at the Big Texan, but also we tend to spend more on food when we are traveling.  It has been tough not to completely blow this budget though.  As hard as we are working it is tempting to order pizza or get fast food and more of that may happen in December, but in November we did pretty well. 

Entertainment – This was almost exclusively books as there is a Half-Priced Bookstore two minutes from the warehouse where we went for training on two occasions. Books are definitely our weakness, and we adore the Half-Priced Bookstore chain, so it’s not surprising we went a little crazy.  At this point we are running out of room for more books and not reading them very fast since we are so busy, so this should be it in the book department for a while. (Challenge accepted. I always say, there’s ALWAYS room, and especially for books. – Lee)

Truck Fuel – This was great at $172 under budget.  The bulk of our spend was traveling to get here and we have used very little while here.  We get reimbursed for one tankfull at the end so we will get some of this back. 

Truck Registration – I showed this as being due in November, but it’s actually in December.

Home – The big purchase in this category was $50 in couplings and clamps so we could attach our sewer hose to the large portable tank they provided us for waste here. Not sure if we will ever use them again, but they were necessary.

So it was a good month from an expense stand point at least.  We will see if the trend continues.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Thank you.   Search Amazon.com here