I’ve been putting this one off, because I knew it wouldn’t look pretty…and yep, I was right about that.  This is what it looks like when you throw caution to the winds and “go on vacation.”  It’s also what it looks like when in the same month you travel from Oregon to Texas and do lots of home repairs. I know this sort of thing balances itself out over time usually, but I still don’t like to see a “spike” month. But it is what it is.  We spent $5916 this month and only received $3186 to off set those costs from our last paychecks.  Detailed information is listed below. I’ll try to keep brow beating to a minimum 🙂

Campground Fees – Most of this was staying at Circus Circus on the strip in Vegas (that place is not cheap) and the rest was the stays when we traveled from Vegas to Texas. Thankfully we have a free place to stay in Texas or this would look even worse.

Groceries – This included a $300+ dollar Costco run and lots of smaller grocery runs.  We are stuffed to the gills on items now, so hopefully we can eat our way through that while gate guarding and have some low months there.

Alcohol – This category includes several drinks in restaurants that we paid for, which is really unusual for us. Since Lee got most of his drinks for free while gambling wasn’t too bad at $20 over budget.

Dining Out – OK this was just insane by anyone’s standards, at $544 over budget.  We had a $140 dinner for my sister’s birthday, the Paris buffet, a couple of dinners with our friends, and tons of grabbing food while we were traveling or running around.

Entertainment – The bulk of this $384 overage was the $200+ tickets to Beatles Love, but Lee and I also went to see Piff the Magic Dragon and went to the rodeo along with other incidental purchases.

Truck Fuel – It cost over $1K in fuel to travel from Oregon to Texas.  This category is all about the annual total though, and we know when we are relocating we will take a cash flow hit.

Home Equipment – We went $538 over in these categories and the bulk of that was the $300+ dollars for the new entry door window, which also fell in October…although we didn’t receive the part until November.  Lee also bought a new outside chair since his fell apart and I took advantage of a clearance and bought a new outdoor rug.  The rest is numerous pieces parts Lee purchased to work on his rotating list of home projects. It’s been awhile since he has worked on the list, and these are things mostly had to be done.  At some point he is going to do another post on that and talk about those projects in more detail.

Tax Preparation – Our taxes were a little more complicated this year and we had to file Kentucky and Oregon state taxes.  We did get a couple of small refunds, which helped with the costs some but I went ahead and put the full amount of the tax prep here.  Still love Travel Tax, who does our taxes.  The cost is more than worth my piece of mind.

Miscellaneous –  I really love Lyft and Uber, but as cheap as the individual charges are it does add up when you are running around.  We spent about $100 on rides while we were in Vegas, but it was convenient.  Plus it’s nice when you are sharing a car or if you want to drink when you are out.  Adds up though.

Well October was our “off month” and we obviously enjoyed ourselves.  Time to get back to work and start socking away some money for our next break in April! Good thing we don’t have too many months like this or we would never be able to afford this lifestyle 🙂

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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 available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.