With January we are getting the hang of life on the road. Sure it took 3+ months, but when something so new is started it is inevitable you need to ease into it. We started the month and 2011 in Ecuador and ended in Peru. While Peru is slightly more expensive (specifically in terms of buses and accommodations) we actually spent $200 less than December. The majority of this is due to the challenges we faced in Colombia and additional money we had to spend trying to get out of Pasto. For January 2011 we spent just under $2,200 and our average was shy of $71. Overall we are happy with all we did this month and well under our $100/day budget.
Expense Breakdown
Lessons learned
- Snacks are good - When heading to a remote location, bring some snacks with you. When you get there you will be beholden to whatever pricing they may decide to charge.
- Sleep on the bus (if you can) - Overnight buses mean that you will not need to pay for a hotel room (at least not financially). The next morning you may be tired, but your bank account will be better off. Splurge for the “full cama” (fully reclining seat) if you are given the option. The price difference is typically quite small but the comfort difference is significant.
- Long-term rentals - Renting longer term provides cheaper per day rates. We ended January kicking off 3 weeks in Lima where we found an apartment for $240/week. The place is 2 bedrooms and includes a kitchen which means we can cook our own meals to save even more money. As an added bonus the apartment is in a residential neighborhood so we are living a bit more like the locals and loving the experience.
A few people have asked us how we are tracking all our expenses while on the road. We started off mainly with Excel spreadsheets, but have switched completely to Budget Your Trip. This online tool lets us plug in all our expenses and then provides a wealth of charts and tables that we use to track our expenditures over time. Now we can quickly get a sense of our overall daily expenses to see how we doing against our overall $100/day budget. In addition, they provide guidance on the daily expenses for each country which we can review before setting out.
About Warren
Thank you so much for sharing all of your information. I love seeing how everything breaks out. This is a silly question because I am sure I read this someplace already, but what do you do for internet connection? Do you always go to the nearest cafe or are you paying for connectivity?
Sorry if you mention this someplace else on your blog.
Thanks Paz
Hey Paz,
We enjoy knowing that others find value in the information as we attempt to be as transparent as possible about the costs of following our dreams. The hope is that by providing the details more people will see it can be affordable to follow suit.
As for Internet we have typically found places that offer free Internet. At times we have used Internet cafes when the hotel did not offer it, but generally this has been an exception. Of course, some areas either don’t have Internet at all or the connectivity in the city overall is poor. Either way when we find a place with great connectivity, like the apartment here in Lima, we embrace the opportunity to call as many people as we can to catch up on Skype.
Warren-
Again thanks for being so transparent.
I find it very interesting that there is so much free internet…. We live in a “city” and it is amazing how many places just recently started offering free wifi. I have to admit I was extremely happy when Starbucks started offering it, but was very disappointed that it took them so long to figure it out. Atleast in our area. We had an iphone and then my LCD screen broke and we just bought an itouch for the skype app and many other translation apps. I was trying to see where I could use it (wifi) near my home…just testing it out and was sad to find out not that many places offer it. So I guess I am saying way to go South America! I hope that many more places in the US offer free wifi coming up here soon. Thanks for sharing your information.
Wow, we so did not keep track of any of this. We probably should have. Good to know about that budget your trip site…
Hi Dalene,
We spend <5 minutes a night on it to ensure we stay on top of it to avoid it accumulating into a big task. It has become a good routine for us to track where we spend to ensure we can stay under budget now as it is sure to become more difficult when we leave South America.
Nice charts! And I should know given I just inserted approximately 40 Excel generated charts into my report! Thanks for the heads up on Budget Your Trip by the way, looks handy! Cam.