The cost post is quite easy again this month, nothing too wild has happened to throw us off course.
We did have a vets bill of £415 ($588) following a minor surgery for our cat, after which my wallet has a few less notes in it and the cat has a few less teeth!
Our grocery, going out and utility costs were in the normal range for us, provided I discount that I paid for two months electricity, water and property tax in May - it's just how the billing dates panned out.
Car costs are higher as we're renting a car for a few months after we sold Sally's car in April ready for our move away from Dubai. The rental costs more, but we would have had to pay for new tyres, brake pads and a service on our car, so it probably balances out.
The weird looking number against insurance is because, having sold Sally's car, we got a refund on the car insurance. If weird means we get money back, then I figure I'm quite partial to weird.
We've paid ahead of time for flights to Zurich to see our daughter and also a rental car for when we visit the UK, both in July. We have just one week after we land in Europe to visit everyone before we head off on "our big trip". That week's going to be hectic, but we can rush around knowing that the following week we'll be relaxing in Bali.
Anyway, enough of words, so for those of you who like to see the numbers, here they are (by the way, there is a table in USD and another table in GBP, so just click left or right to get to the currency you prefer - I hope it works, but leave me a comment if it doesn't).
I know it looks like we're spending much more than our budget, but it doesn't worry me. The Round the World Trip costs are a big chunk of the reason for that because we've already paid for the airfares, but the first leg of the trip is only between July and November.
Hopefully it will even out over the full year, but we've set the budget below our income figure, so we have some wriggle room if not.
For next week's post (or the week after if it takes me too long), I'll give some more details of our travel plans, and will have a go at making a budget for the travels. The travel budget will involve quite a bit of guesswork, but it will be a start. In due course, it will be interesting to see how the actual trip costs compare to the budget.
Leaving Dubai
We've been in Dubai for 13 years now, so depending on who is asked, it's time to move on (my view) or it's a bit scary to move on (Sally's view). Either way, the departure time is rapidly approaching, just five weeks to go.
We have the shippers coming on 11 June to pack up the belongings that we are taking, which we've condensed down to 4 cubic metres (141 cubic feet). Our furniture is quite old, so it isn't worth shipping. Also, because our apartment in France is small/tiny, we'll need to buy furniture that properly fits and maximises the space, rather than try to squeeze our existing furniture into it.
It's going to be sad leaving some good friends, but there will be new adventures to be had and new friends to make wherever we end up next. And of course we are only saying goodbye for now, we'll be sure to keep in contact and catch up with everyone now and again.
And if you're bored
Well, this won't stop you being bored, but it may be a good job to get done. In preparing to leave Dubai, I've scanned our printed photos. 4,474 of them, which equates to 40 hours of continuous scanning! Now that's kept me out of mischief for the last two weeks. Thank goodness for YouTube and Netflix to keep me half sane as I scanned.
We never look at these photos, because they're stored away in a cupboard. It's actually been good fun seeing them as I've fed them into the scanner. The idea is that now they're scanned, we can have a slideshow for a screensaver, and perhaps also on a digital photo-frame i.e. we can now enjoy them on a regular basis.
I've previously mentioned that for the newly retired there are occasions when you're at a loss for what to do, in which case the best thing is to start to do something, no matter what it is. Now scanning photos is not exciting (I now know this for a fact), but it is an example of something that can occupy you for a while as you continue to find your early retirement feet. Remember that work wasn't always exciting, and therefore it's OK to realise that early retirement is allowed to have some chores in it as well.
Well, that wasn't exactly a thrilling way to end this post, but my scanning has made me run late, so that is where it's going to end. See you next week.