May was rough on the budget and the figures clearly show it. We went way over budget after 7 straight months of doing so well, but of course it was to be expected when we landed in Europe. Starting in South America was a gentle way to slide into our long-term travel lifestyle and now we are experiencing the flip-side.
We spent over $3,800 for the month, and it hurts just typing that out. On the positive side, this total includes $1,140 in irregular expenses for our travel insurance (6 month policy = $595) and our annual life insurance premiums ($545). Plus another $300 in one time purchases of camping equipment and clothes. Without these items our “regular” monthly expenses would have been $2,360 and well below our daily average.
On the down-side these figures reflect the fact that we only paid for housing for 10 days for the entire month. Thanks to some wonderful friends who let us stay with them and our first Couch Surfing experience, we reduced our expenses. However, we have been slow to respond to the much higher prices here and will need to work to do in order to get back on track. Also, thanks to the wonderful discovery of real ales our alcohol category seems to be on the rise (though I also align this with happiness so not all bad).
let’s get to the numbers
- Total spending to date through May 2011: $15,353
- Total spending for May 2011: $3,805
- Daily average for May 2011: $122.75
- Overall daily average (to date): $63.44
expense breakdown:
lessons learned:
- Don’t plan a trip away at the last minute if the costs are too high. We booked 2 days in Stratford-upon-Avon at a room that was $100/night.
- Slower is cheaper - while we have been tremendous fans of slow travel, the fact is that in Europe it has become critical to the budget. By staying in one place for a month or more we can get much better rates on apartments. The additional benefit is you really get to know a place by staying longer and living more like a local.
- Buy transportation in advance - we always knew this about plane tickets, but the same applies to train tickets here in the UK.
- When you know you’ll be in a place for a while, sign up for Living Social or Groupon in the area and scout for deals. You can get your hair cut, enjoy good meals, and even indulge in a few activities at a much cheaper rate by doing this. We used this a lot back in Seattle for everything from dinners to trapeze lessons.
As we start June we are excited to spend the month “settled” here in Edinburgh and have made a long and growing list of free/cheap things we can do or see. In addition, thanks to the generosity of new friends (thanks Joan, Arthur, and Maria) we now have passes to enter most of the historical sights. We’ll start taking advantage of this weekend and are looking forward to a wonderful month in Scotland.
About Warren
This article reminded me of a question I had regarding one-way plane tickets. Did you guys book a one way to Ecuador when you started out? How did this work out with the airlines? I’ve heard that immigration officials don’t really care as long as you can support yourself but airlines won’t let you board unless you have a return ticket.
Enjoy Edinburgh!
Hi Lisa,
We actually booked a round-trip ticket from Seattle to Quito, Ecuador to kick off our trip. We purchased the initial ticket via miles so we had to book the return as well even though we did not use it. I have not heard of any problems at all with one-way tickets and we were never asked by any immigration official for any type of proof of ongoing tickets. Each border crossing was a simple affair (except Colombia into Ecuador but that had nothing to do with future travel docs).
In general we have never heard of any concerns from all the travelers we have met. Good luck!
I think that’s a very reasonable figure given the extraordinary expenses, plus being in Europe. It’s not even that much over your average, and you had so many months way below.
I would keep looking into the free accomodations game- if not house sitting, then try one of the home exchanges and look into “hospitality stays.” We are members of both Home Exchange and Homelink, and our friends love doing the swaps on Homelink so much they signed up for hospitality exchanges (not even an exchange really, they just host people from all over the world free and show them around L.A.!). They love to do it because they love to meet new people and the advantages for the other party are obvious. Check into Homelink for future Europe stays (popular in France, Germany, and Spain). Ireland too, I think.
So excited you’re in Edinburgh! Have a fabulous month.
Angela, thank you for the encouraging words and great advice. We have been exploring house-sitting sites but will start checking out HomeLink this weekend. We’d love to see what options exist for the winter to take care of someone’s property. Keep your fingers crossed.
Good advice! Slower travel and planning ahead although tedious at times are great ways to save some money on the road.
One thing we do is to plan meals a few days in advance so when we go the the market we can spend only what we have to and stops us from impulse buying. It also gives us a little more negotiating room for a better price at the farmers markets.
Excellent idea and one we will be implementing ASAP. Starting tomorrow Betsy and I will sit down on Sundays to outline meals for the week and then head out to the grocery to pick up what we need. This should help us avoid the “let’s just run out to the pub” discussions.
This will also help us stay more on track with our weight as we can more easily control what we are going to eat. Thank you for the great suggestion.
Think of it this way, if you were still working and travelling with only a certain amount of vacation time you’d be spending way more- our most recent three weeks to Europe were over $7,400 including plane fares ($2,200) and rental cars ($800) to get between places faster.
Yikes, thank you for the perspective. It helps knowing that we are doing well, but it has been hard not to freak out a bit after May’s outlay of cash. We know we are well under our budget to date and that we could never have traveled this cheaply on our previous 1-week vacations. Even weekend trips away turned out to be far more expensive. The good thing about this style is you can spread the costs out by taking advantage of the more available commodity….time.
I still think you need to include the costs of antartica guys, otherwise figures are not a true reflection of how much you have spent.
Thank you for the input again.
While you are in Europe, have you thought about walking the Camino de Santiago? It might be a good, inexpensive way to get your budget back on track, while also walking 800km through some of the most amazing countryside in Northern Spain. Feel free to email if you want more info. If you look at my blog and go to April/May 2010, that’s where I walked the Camino last year.
We have thought about the walk but at this time have decided against it. Given that this is a holy pilgrimage, and we are FAR from holy, we have decided to explore other long walks and hikes instead. We are looking into some wonderful hikes through the Alps, Italian coast, and a couple ideas up in Germany.
We have some great friends who are doing the Camino next year and are supporting them 100%. It would be wonderful if you are willing to share the information on your experience and recommendations that we could share with our readers.
It’s wonderful to see you still being so aware of ways to have a full experience without breaking the bank - wondering what the ‘souvenir’ was given the ‘no stuff’ policy
Debb, thanks for the encouragement. We were more aware this last month about our budget than any previous time due to the high costs, but continue to enjoy each moment. As for the souvenir, this was a card for a friend. No fear - we are still packing light and not accumulating things.
Keep sending the good budget tips as we follow along in your footsteps!
Happy to help as we follow in your house-sitting footsteps. Love that we can help each other out. Now we just need to connect in person while we are in Europe together.
I am interested in seeing what stuff you bought. Sounds very reasonable for spending in Europe. When we were in Italy we spent so much on food. It was much more expensive than we planned for.
As for stuff, here is a list of the actual things we purchased in May:
- 1 two person tent
- 2 sleeping bags
- 2 sleeping mats
- 2 backpack rain covers
- backpack straps
- 2 pairs of rain pants
- 2 rain jackets (1 cover 1 proper jacket)
The total for all this was around $400.
Terrific month you two! The budget appears to be holding for now and let us remember it was the goal was for a daily average and not a daily limit. Europe will without a doubt be a challenge for you this summer but as long as you head to less expensive locales after that Im confident the overall budget will work. Our friends travelling North America for the past three years by truck and travel trailer are finding their $2000 monthly budget workable as well. Enjoy your time in Scotland.
Grant, after May we certainly needed a pick-me-up and your post is perfect. We got a bit down on ourselves for spending so much as we knew we could do better. However, I agree that overall it is not bad and we had some expenses that are really one-time.
It is encouraging to know that people can travel the US for such a low figure, especially as gas prices increase (though I realize no where near what they are here in the UK). Great inspiration that it is possible here as well.
Warren, one thing that helps Debra and I when we travel is to keep a running balance of what we spent, well sort of, but more what we have left from the amount we budgeted in the first place. e.g. Start with your annual $36K budget and subtract the daily (or weekly, or monthly) expenditures as you go. If you cross check that against how far through the year you are then you’ll know immediately whether to go into conservation mode or whether it’s possible to splurge on a night in a spa hotel. If you’re halfway through your annual budget but still have three quarters of the year to go than you know it’s time to re-assess your spending, or re-evaluate the amount you’ve allowed for the budget. We always journal our travels each evening and use the back several pages of the journal to record our daily expenditures and subtract them from the amount remaining in the pot.
As an aside, my daily journal entries usually revolve around the food and Debra’s around the day’s events and sights. Weird, huh?
Fantastic article and thanks for the tips on camping and traveling across Europe.
Great article. My wife and I are currently executing our 5 year plan to travel around the world. This article really helps, it actually makes me think that we may be able to get on the road sooner!
Need to start monetizing our blog so we can be self sustained!
Seriously, the timing of this article is perfect for us… thanks.
I really think the insurance items should not count for only May since they are for multiple months. If you average them out over the months they cover, then you would only assign one month portion to May, and then you would probably be under your budget for the month. This seems more realistic because after all, your insurance is a service you benefit from every single month, not simply in the month you pay for it.
What type of insurance did you get?
Gareth,
We started off the first year with a World Nomads policy to cover major accidents and emergency airlift if needed. It covered us in every country except the US, which is telling in and of itself. However, since we had no plan to go to the US it was no problem.
Our policy is expiring now and we’ll be switching to a new provider due to a major increase in costs for World Nomads. I expect we’ll be going to IMG, but are evaluating the options now. The key coverage we want is against big health issues that could be extremely expensive. Since healthcare is MUCH cheaper in the rest of the world (outside of the US) there is no need for us to have insurance to cover regular doctor or dentist visits. But we do want coverage in case of a major situation.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the info warren, I actually just included you in my latest post regarding my health insurance research (now live).