In your case, the cost doesn't matter; as you say, mental health is important, and if the trip helped with that, then so be it. And it's true, here in Colombia, $600 is enough for a pretty big grocery shop. In fact, I currently earn the equivalent of $520 a month, and just yesterday I did my shopping for the next two weeks because I get paid bi-weekly. I only spent the equivalent of $90 out of the $260 I earn every two weeks, including everything I needed: cleaning supplies, food, personal hygiene items. Life here is actually quite cheap.
And speaking of gas, here I fill up my motorcycle with the equivalent of about $32 a month, so with $600, that would last me 18 months of fuel for my motorcycle, and my job is about 14 km from my house.
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Dang, that is quite the difference! We spend something like $150 per week on groceries and that is basically just the eseentials!