Earth Vagabonds expense report for June 2020

Greetings, fellow vagabonds.

Happy weekend — and 4th of July to our American followers. Of course, we send our best wishes to everyone everywhere for a safe and healthy summer season.

Another month complete. Time to tally-up and share our total costs – as we always do.

Expense report for June 2020

As early retired budget travelers we try to keep our total monthly expenditures around $2,000. And as previous monthly expense reports show, since coming to Southeast Asia in late 2018 we’ve been pretty successful in our efforts.

Click to see our published expense reports.

But as you can see below, we are way over budget for June 2020. A little shocking; a little concerning; but also very fulfilling.

Due to the coronavirus, we’ve had to pause our global wandering in Malay, Aklan, Philippines – near the famous Boracay Island. While ‘stuck’ here, we are pitching in to assist the local folks whose jobs and livelihoods and finances have been disrupted by the pandemic shutdown.

Budget breakdown

$2189 – Donations / gifts / tips
$330   – Housing
$243 – Restaurant food/beer
$235   – Groceries
$226   – Visa renewals (4 months x 2 people)
$86 – Supplies
$82     – Excursions
$43     – Local travel (moto-taxis)
$41     – Health
——————————$3,475 total for 2 persons

Donations dwarf other categories

Obviously, the ‘donations’ category dwarfs the other expenses this month. In fact, we can safely say, we’ve never ‘given away’ so much money before. But as we all know, there’s never been a global situation like this before, either.

Thus, we are doing what we can to help those around us in a variety of ways: paying bills, supplementing food stocks, providing job opportunities, assisting with sustainability projects.

It seems to be the right thing to do – and the least we can do for the Filipino people who have been so welcoming and kind to us.

Besides, as you can see by the figures, the rest of our spending categories continue to total well under our $2,000 per month goal — as it has been for several months. So we are mostly just donating what we’ve been saving.

On top of that, it’s fun to help and share and make a difference at times like this. We’re very blessed to live the life that we do, and we truly hope that anyone who is able will help those who are struggling through this crisis, whether at home or abroad.

Finally, another huge thank you to the many friends, family and readers who have made donations to our ongoing efforts here in the Philippines. The donation amount shown above reflects only our portion of the larger total we are continuing to distribute.

As always, be thankful and generous, happy trails & more beer.

Life is NOW!

Thanks for reading, “Expense report for June 2020: Donations dwarf other categories.”

Earth Vagabonds (Tedly, his mom Diane, and Ellen) are helping an indigenous tribe to rebuild a chicken coop destroyed by a December 2019 typhoon, to secure drinking water more easily, and to get electricity to the upper village on a Malay mountainside.

If you would like to help the Ati people, here is how you can donate.