November Expenses – $738.60

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

My November Expenses were very low due mainly to having very little rent and no other large expenses.

The main household expenses were $52.21 for utilities at my Chiang Mai apartment and $53.17 for five weeks rent on a storage locker in Kansas City.  I was responsible for paying electric and water for my apartment in Chiang Mai. The first month they screwed up my bill and I was only charged about $6 for utilities. As I expected, they rectified their error the following month so the $52.21 bill is really for almost two months of utilities. Considering I ran the aircon all night long and took long, hot showers every day that is a bargain.

Upon my return from Thailand I was going to move in with my ex-girlfriend as a roommate.  That didn’t work out so I needed somewhere to store my stuff while figuring out where I was going to live.  Thus, the $53.17 charge for a storage locker. I have figured out where I’m going to live. More on that in a later post.

The rent was for 9 days in a hotel in Uttaradit, Thailand. When my monthly rental in Chiang Mai ended I moved to Uttaradit for a few days so I could be closer to my girlfriend.  The room was a great deal at a little over $13 a night. I actually could have gotten a monthly rental for almost the same price. Since Uttaradit is a smaller city rent is even cheaper than the already cheap Chiang Mai prices. I’m considering living here when I return to Thailand next year.

Entertainment was mostly for movies and dinners with my girlfriend. This category was down because my girlfriend often didn’t feel like going out and just wanted to stay in the room. That was fine by me since staying in the room was usually more fun for me anyway.

Transportation was for gas for my car. I drove from KC to southern Missouri, back to KC, and then back to southern Missouri again. The cost of all that driving wasn’t too bad due to cheap gas, a discounted gas card, and fuel rewards.

My food expense was slightly lower than the previous month. Since all of my other expenses were so low I didn’t worry about trying to keep my food expense low. I consider this to be a slightly high amount for food for a month, but I think a lot of people would consider it a low amount. My food bill doesn’t get too high even when I’m not trying to keep it low since many of my favorite foods are really cheap. I also spent a few days at my mom’s for the Thanksgiving holiday and had a Thanksgiving feast and lots of leftovers which kept my food expenses minimal during that time.

I’m not going to worry about my food expense this month either. I plan on eating at home a lot more this month so I think my food expense will go down anyway.

Travel was for Uber/Lyft rides, airport parking, taxi, gas money for my GF, a bus ride from Chiang Mai to Uttaradit, and some other small incidentals. I don’t think I’ll have any travel expense this month unless a super bargain airfare to Thailand for next year or something like that comes up.

Phone was for 1 week of phone service in Thailand. I switched my phone back to Google Fi during the month, but I wasn’t billed during the month. The new Fi bill will be due this month so this expense will be higher although it will still be quite low.

Health was for my fitness club membership and some medicine.  That expense will be going up a lot this month.  I had to enroll in new health insurance for next year and my premium has gone up substantially. The cost has gone from $0 a month to $123 a month.  That is after subsidies.  The real cost is a lot more. Since my new plan has a low deductible and a low out-of-pocket max I intend to have a couple of medical procedures done next year that I’ve been putting off due to the cost.

My November expenses were very low and I expect my December expenses will also be very low.  How was your month?