From a financial perspective it was a good month with $3227 in income and $3085 in expenses for a net profit of $142. As happy as I am that we broke even, I will say I don’t feel adequately compensated for the work we are doing.  The problem isn’t so much the hourly rate of $14.25 but rather the fact that we are limited to 35 hours a week each. In order to get the work done in a week that we need to we are working hard!  Physically we are both very tired and the weekend schedule (three back-to-back close/opens) is brutal.  Since most of our hours are during peak customer times, we have to work extra fast to squeeze in anything extra.  That additional 5 hours each would allow us to slow down our daily pace a bit.  I only mention it because it probably isn’t that clear from the other posts how hard this job is.  We don’t have much energy for seeing the local sites and I don’t even have much energy to blog.  I was hoping that we would be able to adapt to the workload and have more energy for personal stuff,  but the combination of hard work and crazy hours is definitely taking its toll.  At least we aren’t working this hard and losing money. The details are listed below.

Groceries – We went over by $116 in this category.  At the beginning of the month we did a Costco run and then another big grocery run later in the month.  The costs at the local store are much higher, but the drive to the Winco is around 40 minutes.  With our schedules those are hard to do on a regular basis so we end up buying locally.  We also can’t cook dinners on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday because of our schedule, so Lee and I are both relying on prepared foods to get us through the weekends, which generally cost more money.

Dining Out – We only went over by $20 which was not bad considering our crazy schedules and the trip to the coast earlier in the month.  Part of what helps here is the local food is really not that great and since we don’t have any fast food chains in Estacada the temptation of buying fast food is taken away.

Entertainment – We were under by $75, largely because we haven’t really done much of anything.  We could have blown the whole budget when we went to the ocean though, so it’s a good thing. 

Home Equipment – We were over by $90 which was mainly some last minute camping supplies and our new silverware.  That silverware makes me super happy.  Totally worth the overage!!

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Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.