Here's my March report! I was away for half the month.
I spent 12 days in the Philippines for a funeral. It was good to spend time with family in the Philippines celebrating my grandma-in-law's life. My father-in-law generously paid for his family's flights (including mine).
For my Ottawa trip, I managed to make $1,000. Thanks to the whole Boeing incident, my flight was way overbooked, and the airline gave me $800 cash to volunteer my seat. It was a work trip, so flights, hotel, and meals were all paid for. I brought my own food rather than spending my meal stipends, so I pocketed another $200. Whenever I wasn't in work meetings, I spent time visiting a friend. We played board games and my friend cooked delicious dishes from his home province in India. When I had a free afternoon, I visited the Ottawa Art Gallery, which has some really interesting installations, and unlike the more popular art gallery in Ottawa, it's free.
Back home in Alberta, I celebrated my 6-monthiversary with my wife by going for all-you-can-eat sushi and a movie. We used up most of our food in the pantry and the freezer, so our grocery bill is going to start looking a bit more normal now.
Here's my spending breakdown:
Philippines: $282.02 (mostly giving cash gifts to my wife's nieces and nephews, and a bit on food)
Restaurants: $23.51
Movie theatre: $3.60
Groceries: $114.8 (including $21 worth of pecans haha)
Social committee at work: $60 (for full year)
Subtotal of variable spending: $483.93
Subtotal of fixed expenses (rent, insurance, utilities, interwebs, phone, and Netflix): $485
Grand total of all March expenses: $483.93 + $485 = $968.93
That's a lot spendier than my previous two sub-$700 months, but at least I made $1,000 extra during my Ottawa trip to make up for it!