The results are in for our first budget check, and we actually did pretty well!
Since we left on June 16th, we created a budget for the remainder of the month. This way we could do full month budgeting for the rest of the trip.
So where did we end up?
First of all, we budgeted to spend $1818 from June 16th - June 30th. This includes all expenses from our one-day layover in Miami en route to Quito.
Budgeted spend: $1,818
Actual spend: $1,728
So, we ended up $90 under budget!
What was cheaper than expected?
Ubers - We can’t believe how affordable these are here. A 10 minute Uber ride will usually cost around $1.50
Restaurant lunches - Across the city there are hundreds of restaurants that offer “almuerzos”, which are delicious fixed-menu meals. Usually you get a soup, an entree, a desert, and a fresh pressed juice. Average price…$3. Amazing.
What was more expensive than expected?
Groceries - We were surprised to see how similar grocery stores are here in Quito - from the way they look to how much they charge. Just in the first two weeks we spent $253, which ended up being our biggest single expense. Milk, for example, is $5/gallon. It will be interesting to see how much we spend for all of July.
Updated budget chart
You can see the little red line is just below the blue line. We are on track!
