We have completed an amazing year on the road and looking back we cannot believe what fun we had. What surprises us even more was how little we spent during our 365 days traveling around the world. As you know each month since we left we have been tracking our expenses and sharing them with you in a transparent effort to give you an idea of what it costs to live our dream. With the end of our first year we have compiled all the numbers and have just posted our Year 1 Summary over at RTW Expenses. Take a look for details on what we spent, how much we spent on each category, and our tips for saving money while on the road.

You know how we spent it, but if you are interested in how we saved the money for this adventure check out our soon to be released book, Dream Save Do.

August has come and gone and we have published the monthly totals of our expenses to date. As you most likely know, we have been tracking every penny we spend since leaving for our trip around the world. At the end of each month we publish the details of our expenses for the month and the trip to date. The information we share has become quite popular so we launched a new site a couple months ago, RTW Expenses, to provide more details and information.

As a result, we have decided to move ongoing monthly summaries over to this site as well. August will be the first month for the switch and for the next few months we will provide reminders here that a new summary is available. If you are interested in subscribing to these updates, click here and you can add them to your favorite news reader or have them delivered directly to your email.

July was a wonderful month of friends, good food, and saying a long goodbye to the United Kingdom. From a spending perspective we were helped tremendously by the kindness of great friends and people who trusted us to watch their homes while they were away. As a result, we did not spend anything on accomodations for the month. The biggest expenses we had were for intercity travel (rail travel is NOT cheap), food, and our beloved real ale.

While the UK was extremely expensive, we managed to do quite well over the 3 months we were there. July was the best so far as we finished the month at almost half our monthly budget. In addition to the opportunity to house-sit and stay with friends we stayed in smaller towns & villages which are considerably cheaper than London. For the 1 day we went to London we ended up spending almost $200 for the train to get there and a couple meals. It is easy to realize how that city could be hard on the budget long term.

Let’s Get to the Numbers

• Total spending to date through July 2011: $19,312
• Total spending for July 2011: $1,526
• Daily average for July 2011: $49.23
• Overall daily average (10 months on the road): $63.74

Expense Breakdown:

Lessons Learned:

• House sitting – this is an excellent opportunity to save a bit of money and see a place more like a “local”. Plus, since you are likely to have access to your own kitchen you can dust off your cooking skills and find a new passion.
• Buy groceries daily – In Lima we found that we saved money by shopping more frequently. In July we have started to buy food daily for our meals by walking to the local markets. The benefit is you avoid wasting food (and money) as you buy what you will need for that day.
• Eat out at lunch – we love to eat out in cities but this can be a huge drain on your pocketbook. Instead, of dining out for a meal at dinner we have started to explore a city’s restaurants during lunch. Typically you can find meals at half the price and still get the opportunity to enjoy some wonderful delicacies.

Given the popularity of this series of posts we have started a new website – RTW Expenses. This site is focused on providing more details on how much it costs to travel around the world.  We provide more detailed reports, charts, and information on our spending to date. In addition we continue to provide articles with tips and information to help anyone looking to save a bit of money or take a trip of their own.  We hope you enjoy and look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Big News:

June Summary:

For the first time since our initial stop in Otavalo, we spent an entire month in one city, Edinburgh.  From both an entertainment and budget perspective this was a great choice.  Like the rest of the UK, Edinburgh is hard on the traveler’s wallet, especially if you are dealing with poor currency exchange rates (1 GPB = 1.6 USD, yikes).  As a result we decided to reduce our daily accommodation rate by renting an apartment for 5 weeks.  This was a great opportunity to really get to know the area on a daily budget rate we could work with.

While the city can be expensive, there is a lot on offer that is free or cheap.  We walked everywhere we could within the city limits (and sometimes outside of it).  We ended up doing all of the hikes in Andrew Hayes’ wonderful book Historic Walking Guides Edinburgh.  While the walking is free, it will make you thirsty for a pint so be warned.

In addition to the walking in the city we explored several of the wonderful & free museums.  Plus, thanks to the kindness of great friends, we were given passes to several of the major attractions which was a huge savings.  Finally, in order to stay on budget we cooked the majority of our meals.  When we did go out we typically went to one of the wonderful CAMRA pubs to explore the real ales.  While the beer here is not cheap (as evidenced by our alcohol line item) the pubs here are such a wonderful way to meet new people and share stories.  After all, that is what we love the most about travel so it was worth a few extra dollars.

Let’s Get to the Numbers

• Total spending to date through June 2011: $17,786
• Total spending for June 2011: $2,432
• Daily average for June 2011: $81.07
• Overall daily average (to date): $65.39

Expense Breakdown:

Lessons Learned:

• Negotiate – when you are on a budget this word is a dear friend. While in Edinburgh, we decided to stay another week.  We negotiated a reduced rate by agreeing to clean the place ourselves.  It was an easy trade off for the savings.
• Scrimp in some ways so you can splurge in others - eat lunch at home or take a sack lunch to the park.  We did this virtually every day in order to enjoy some time at a few local pubs with friends (new and old).
• Research all forms of transportation – in the UK there is a wonderful bus service called Megabus.  By choosing the bus over the train, we saved over $100 on just the trip from Edinburgh.  Sure it took a couple extra hours, but we were happy to make the trade off for another full day on the road.

Close your eyes and wish and you will become a writer...right?

Remember when I wrote about Resistance and how our lower selves work really hard to keep our higher selves from achieving big things? Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve mostly kicked my lower self into submission on this book writing project in Edinburgh.

I say “mostly” because there have been times she’s reared her ugly head and pushed me back a step or two. It is hard to keep up a 2-hour writing block first thing in the morning when you want to go out and walk the city in the fresh early-morning air or sleep in after a late night out with new friends.

There are always excuses, aren’t there? I’d find them whether I was alone on a tropical island or in the middle of a bustling city. Or on a trip of a lifetime or in my old life from before. Really, there is no “ideal” time to pursue a dream of any size because routine and daily living will always intrude. You have to make time, and continue making time, and continue making time. <sigh>

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

And the self-help section at the bookstore would be empty.

The Book Project

So far I’ve written 30,000 words, but since the first 10,000 were crap I am sitting at a total of 20,000 as of today. Thanks to a suggestion by both Tranque and Amber, I’m now using the Pomodoro Technique and loving the focus it provides (while also highlighting how easily I get distracted). This isn’t just a technique for writers, so check out the free pdf and see if it can help you gain focus at work or on your personal projects.

The book I’m writing is about how we saved the money for this trip and the changes we went through as we actively worked toward a dream. It is a primer for other people who want to save a lot of money in a relatively short period of time for a specific project. It is for people who aren’t afraid of change.

It is a book about using money as a means to an end, not an end itself, and how breaking free of the control of advertisers and peer pressure will give you the freedom to live in a way you never thought possible.

In short, it is the first part of our story, and I think it is the most powerful piece. It is the foundation upon which everything else rests.

If you have the time I’d love to hear your feedback on your biggest challenges to saving money (don’t worry – it is anonymous).

Click here to take a 6-question survey.

For those of you who committed to a writing project along with me this month, how are you doing? Even if Resistance has made an appearance – and I’m betting that little creep has – you can brush yourself off and start again.

What kind of Resistance Ass did you kick this past week?

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.

There’s no such thing as a free ride. Well, actually, there is, but it would be pretty bland without a bar tab and fairly flinty without tipping the staff.

For most of April we were on the M/S Expedition, a polar cruise ship owned by Gap Adventures, as the only passengers on a repositioning cruise to England. You just never know what is possible unless you ask, and this was something we never imagined before the trip to Antarctica.

We arrived in England on April 27 to a big case of sticker shock, since the dollar is weak in relation to the pound right now. We miss the $1 giant beers in Ecuador when a mere pint here costs the equivalent of $4. Everything else is inflated at the same proportion or higher.

We also chose this time to buy some new gear, as the selection was good, the size ranges were easier to fit than in South America, and we need some of it more now than we did before. One thing that works for us is getting a little bit needy before we buy something. For instance, Betsy has been using an old fleece jacket for a while as a total warmth/dryness solution, and it isn’t really working. Instead of of running out to buy just anything, she stayed in a somewhat “needy” situation for a while to better understand what would work best. Because of this, she got a great combo in a good color that will work for warmth and dryness and not take up too much room (and has enough pockets). Don’t shortcut on the items that will keep you warm and dry because cold and wet are not the way to enjoy any excursion.

This leg of our trip will see us investigate different modes of travel and accomodation to help offset the cost. After landing in Falmouth, we tried our first couch-surfing gig and it was fantastic. We spent the last 3 days of the month with our host Nick and had a fantastic time (more on that to come). Lodging cost was zero, but we did spend a bit on beers and eating out.

let’s get to the numbers

• Total spending to date through April 2011: $11,539
• Total spending for April 2011: $1,397
• Daily average for April 2011: $46.56
• Overall daily average (to date): $54.69

expense breakdown:

Lessons Learned:

How will our budget be impacted in May? Well, we are staying with some friends for part of the month, planning to hike some of the national paths – a free activity – for several days, sightseeing in a few English towns, and then ending up in Edinburgh with a possible apartment rental at the end of the month, just in time for Warren’s 40th birthday.

Stay tuned to see how the UK impacts our budget over the summer.

Has it really been six months already? Time seems to pass much more slowly when you are saving money than when you are spending it!

March was a good month for us financially because we paid for the Antarctica cruise out of a separate fund (we talked about this before). The first 8 days of the month were still on the boat. We also spent the last 11 days of the month on the boat as well, taking the M/S Expedition repositioning cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina over to Falmouth, England.

We had a little splurge in between there, though, and that was a week at a nice hotel called Terrazas del Beagle at $65/night. Nothing is cheap at the end of the world, and this was the most we have spent for lodging on our entire trip. We had some time between leaving our Antarctica cruise and waiting to board for the repositioning cruise, and we justified this expense because we had some website work that needed to be done. It is not always easy to work in a hostel dorm room with the noise, lack of privacy, and fluctuating Internet strength.

You all probably know about our Gap Adventures repositioning cruise by now. We are making our way across the ocean for a very minimal fee while the crew polishes up the ship in time for the Arctic tour season. This was an unexpected turn in our journey, but a good one both for the experience and the savings.

Let’s get to the numbers

Total spending through March 2011: $10,147.31

Total spending for March 2011: $1,622.00

Daily average for March: $52.33

Overall daily average: $55.75

Expense Breakdown:

Lessons Learned

• Look for unconventional ways to travel. It can both save you money and add to your adventure. Find out how this trip to England all came about here.
• When splurging, look for ways to economize. We stayed in the nice hotel for a week, but we bought sandwich food, fruit, and wine to make our own meals. In addition, we booked a hotel 4 km out of town so we would not be tempted to hang out in coffee shops all day or be tempted to buy unnecessary things (easy to do when you are in *wait* mode). When we did go to town we walked, which gave us some good exercise and saved on cab fare. Take advantage of beautiful surroundings to picnic, walk, and enjoy nature for free.
• Make plans with other travelers. When we got off the ship we stayed for a couple of nights at a hostel with friends from the trip. We went hiking and camping with them, and by pooling our money for food and transportation costs we were able to all have a good time for very little cash. This is a really fun way to see new things as well as save money. Don’t be shy about asking new travel friends and acquaintances to cook together or share cab fares and other expenses.

We are still far under our budget of $100/day and $36,500 per year, but we begin traveling in Europe next and that will be a big challenge to our budget. We have already looked at hostels in England and realize we won’t be getting the same great deals as we did in South America. Will we invest in a tent and camp more? Take on a house-sitting job? Go crazy and camp out at a 5-star hotel? Stay tuned to find out.

For more information on how we’ve spent our money so far, check out all of our monthly expense reports by clicking here.

February introduced our first country entry fees (thank you Argentina) as well as the start of our amazing Antarctica adventure (hence the delay in getting this post out).  For the month we spent $2,240 but since there are only 28 days in February our daily average was the highest to date at $80.  We actually expected to do much better this month since we had prepaid for our Antarctica trip which meant that 6 nights of accommodations and meals were already covered.  However, some unexpected expenses drove the total up: $280 in entry fees for Argentina, $150 in VERY well-earned tips for the Expedition staff ($300 split between February & March), and over $250 in clothing expenses (rental and new clothes) needed for Antarctica.  While we could not avoid these charges, it sure was a big hit to our monthly expenses.

Total Spending through Feb 2011:  $8516
Overall daily average:  $56.77

Expense Breakdown

Lessons learned

• Buy alcohol in grocery stores when possible – alcohol can quickly blow your daily budget, especially at bar prices.  For our cruise to Antarctica we carried 6 bottles with us onto the ship and saved over $75. We did buy wine on the ship, but it was nice to save a bit of money.  Of course we could have just not had any wine, but what that would just be silly.
• Learn the bus system – when we first got to Lima we took a cab home one evening.  The cost of that one cab was 10 times the cost of the bus/combi.  Once we figured out the system we used only local buses and combis to get all over town.
• Buy groceries more frequently, locally if possible – while in Lima we shopped almost daily in local shops and grocery stores.  By shopping frequently we only bought what we needed ensuring we did not waste any left over food.  Plus, since we only walked to shop we got great exercise…especially with all the wine.

March is sure to be interesting as we wrapped up our Antarctica trip and are gearing up to take a long boat trip…details coming soon.  As always, thanks to the team at BudgetYourTrip.com which we use to track all our expenses and help in the reporting process.

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

Total trip expenses to date

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.