WOW, what an amazing second month on our trip. We finally left the protective bubble of our friends’ home in Otavalo and started exploring more of Ecuador. As we have mentioned, we are focused on slower travel and spent the rest of November in Baños, Ecuador.
As we expected, the expenses are creeping up this month as we added in the cost of accomodations and more meals out. We were not able to secure a place with a kitchen in Baños so we ate all our meals out. However, the price of food here is quite cheap so even with a couple of splurges (splurge = $20 dinner) we stayed under our $100 budget each day.
Expense breakdown
- Accommodation: $249.70
- Alcohol: $30.10
- Entertainment: $61.00
- Food: $416.82
- Intercity Transportation: $20.30
- Living Expenses: $101.00
- Local Transportation: $40.25
- Souvenirs: $50.25 (gifts)
- Tips and Handouts: $10.00
- Water: $4.00
Grand total: $983.42
Daily Average: $32.78
Antarctica (why don’t you include that?):
In addition to the daily expenses above, this month we had to pay the full balance of our trip to Antarctica. As you may recall, we chose to take advantage of Gap Adventure’s 35% off sale and bit the bullet and booked this dream vacation. The total cost of this adventure is $10,788.70 (it hurts to type that) which is obviously a HUGE piece of our budget. However, to pay for this trip we applied the money earned through our separate company, MWL Development. We had enough money in our business account to cover this trip separately from our primary trip fund. Betsy and I debated this for some time over beers last week and I encourage anyone that would like to continue the debate on how we dealt with this to join us for some $1.50 grande Pilseners here in Ecuador.
Additional lessons we have learned
- Dining out can quickly eat into your budget. Scoping out local markets where they serve food or finding restaurants that cater to the local population can greatly reduce the amount you must spend each day.
- Always double-check your bus tickets. We bought ours from Quito to Baños and were instructed to go to platform 28. Once we got on the road, however, that bus was from a different company than what was on our ticket. We had to pay for the entire trip again on the bus. Thankfully it was only a $7 mistake (I love Ecuadorian bus prices) but we learned to verify our ticket with the driver before getting on. One poor man was going the opposite way and had to be let out on the side of the road to catch another bus!
- Discussing our next day’s spending the night before helps keep us in check and helps us avoid crazy spending. We decide based on our planned activity level when/where we’ll be eating. A low-activity day usually just means a big breakfast and mid-afternoon meal, while a full activity day means 3 squares and probably an ice cream cone.
If you have any additional tips we would love to apply them and include them in future monthly updates. Please just drop us a comment below.
About Warren
WOW! I cannot believe how cheaply you are doing this? Under $35/day…maybe our RTW trip will simply consist of living in Ecuador for 4 years at those prices!!! Our budget is also going to be $100/day when we do leave, but I think we will actually have access to $150 as a buffer…looking at these numbers, as long as we travel low and slow we should be fine, I think.
Great blog, you two….we love it!
Thank you guys for the compliment. We certainly know that the overall average is going up, but with 7 weeks of free lodging it really helped keep the costs down the first 2 months. Next month will certainly see it increase as we travel more and head up into Colombia.
Of course, in Ecuador it would be easy to extend your trip MUCH longer and still eat wonderful food and see some of the most amazing scenery we have ever experienced. We hope you put it on your list of places to visit.
heh, yeah…it is on the list along with 193 other countries….have a great weekend!
I can’t believe you’re going to Antarctica!!! I’m sooo jealous!!!
It was a dream opportunity we could not pass up. Plus, we agreed (and focused on our savings plan) that we would do a few big experiences while on this adventure. Plus, Gap Adventures added this year for the first time the option to sleep on Antarctica one night. We have leapt at the chance and will be braving the elements and sleeping on the ice with the penguins! We are beside ourselves with excitement.
Sleeping on Antarctica one night? Yep, that’s worth leaping at. I’ve been rummaging through the Gap Adventures website, but can’t find that — what tour code are you on? (I’m thinking now about booking for 2012).
Cheers!
They added this option after we had booked our tour and it is something we absolutely could not pass up. We are on the Quest for the Antarctic Circle - XVQCSX tour and this option was provided to us separately after we booked. I assume that they will offer this on this cruise in the future as well. For outstanding customer service and to answer any questions I suggest Erin Butler ([email protected]) at Gap. She is amazing.
Gran post, y me alegro de ver que estan en el presupuesto, incluso después de salir de Otavalo. No me sorprende que la presentación constituye gran parte de su presupuesto. Con la comida tan barata, no puede valer la pena pagar más por una cocina.
Además, estoy entusiasmado de que usted va a la Antarctica. Entiendo que es caro, pero será un gran viaje, y significará que usted ha ido a todos los continentes del mundo. Está bien!
De todos modos, contento de que los estan haciendo bien. Mantenga postando.
I am going to the GAP Antarctica trip as well (Jan 28 sailing). Are you on this sailing? It would be great to meet up with you!
Hey Tom,
Darn, it seems we are going to miss you by 3 weeks. We are sailing on Feb 23rd. Want to meet us in Argentina in March???
The cost of travel may not make for a glamourous travel post, but I applaud you guys for 1. being transparent and keeping it real and 2. keeping track of each and every expense. How are you keeping track? Do ice cream cones fall under entertainment or food? Cause really they’re both.
Kelly, thank you so much for the post and kind words. Keeping track has been easier than I expected and helps us to be mindful of our budget each day. Of course, the test will be after a year…
We have been using a combination of http://www.budgetyourtrip.com to track expenses and then I use Excel to create the pivot table and charts for each month.
As for ice cream, we considered putting a separate category for it but decided we did not want to know the total:) As such, we have let it merge with the big food expense item so it gets lost.
I love seeing what you guys are spending your money on. I think when you think of a trip like you are taking you (or I) always think it is going to cost millions which most people don’t have. But that is sooooo much less than what life in the states costs. Thanks for sharing. have fun!
This is a a great post, and very inspiring. Currently between trips, and saving for the next one, I have set up a site where I’ve posted my researched costs for travelling (a combination of my own expenses log / knowledge of what was available and a bit of research to fill the gaps). Interesting to compare with your findings. I’m aiming to provide a guide for the average holidaymaker / typical backpacker rather than provide absolute rock-bottom costs (like a lot of the guidebooks) but anyway: http://www.roam-the-world.com/
I really enjoy reading about other people that love to travel as much as I do. While costs in other countries sure have gone up because the dollar is so weak, it is still possible to travel to a foreign country for not much more than a trip inside the states costs. The airfare will be higher, but often lodging, food, and especially entertainment is often much less. I found this to especially be true in Asian countries and South America.
A wondferul job. Super helpful information.
Mitch, thank you for the comment. I am glad you have found the information useful. We put out a report every month of our expenses.
Well i am very happy i found this site, i have been working my way slowly toward my goal of a RTW traveler and Digital nomad of sorts to earn my keep. The budget breakdown is very good to look at and helps me stay positive about things. One thing i was thinking of as i am reading these is maybe to add a next month button at the bottom… hehe … enjoy the trips and keep on going thank you for sharing, hopefully in a year i can have a Tina & Fred site to show our travels
Hi Fred,
Thank you for reaching out and for the nice words. I’m delighted to know that you find the monthly reports useful. We have been pleasantly surprised the we have been able to stay on budget through the course of our trip. Now that we are in Europe things are quite a bit tighter, but we have found a few strategies that continue to work for us.
What a great idea on how to more easily browse through the past expense posts. One option to make it easier is we have created a dedicated category for all of these so you can see them all in one place here. However, I think something a bit easier is a great idea and I’m going to work on this now.
Hey Fred,
You comment and suggestion here really got us thinking. As a result we decided to build an entire site focused on the expenses we have made while on this trip. Check it out at http://www.rtwexpenses.com. Given that this was built to help your process I’d love your feedback and suggestions. Please drop me an email at wtalbot(at)marriedwithluggage(dot)com. Thank you for the motivation!