Where is our money going?
I haven’t been blogging as frequently as Adam because I’m keeping a paper journal and expense log. I record each cedi and pesewa spent in red ink, so I can keep track of where we need to work on our budget. I’ve entered all the data into a spreadsheet, so I can see how many USD we’re spending a day, what percent of our expenses went to taxis in Accra, and what it’s really costing us to eat at “fancy” restaurants. I’m sure this sounds a little obsessive and dull to some of you, but I think it’s interesting. (I get it from my mom. Hi Mom; I know you’re reading this one.) I thought I’d share some of the numbers from week one with you, in case you think it’s interesting too.
We spent $354 total in our first week in Ghana. Our biggest expense, at 28.5 percent of our spending, goes to lodging at guesthouses ($100.41 total, or $14.39 a night on average for the two of us).
The next big one is transportation. We averaged $18.21 a day on taxis for the four days we were in Accra, but fortunately only $2.29 a day for the days we’ve spent in Cape Coast. As Adam’s mentioned, our guesthouse was well out of Accra proper, so we spent a lot getting into the city, while in Cape Coast we primarily walk.
We brought some food with us in our luggage, so that’s been supplementing our diets while we find vegetarian dishes and the street carts that sell them. We spent $58.36 on food and clean water our first week, or about $4.17 per person, per day.
I grouped the remaining expenses into four categories: toiletries ($20.36), internet/phone ($52.50), maps ($14.07), and gifts/tips ($19.00). 
Overall, we came out a little higher than we’d expected, but we have to take into account our “getting settled” expenses (e.g. a $43 HSDPA USB stick for internet that should last us a month, the maps, all the taxis in Accra, and a couple nights at an $18.50-a-night guest house). We’re getting the hang of what’s reasonable for different things, and as we get more comfortable haggling and eating street food, I expect our costs will come down a bit.
Stay tuned for week two!
