Accommodation. $3,789 or $43.56/day or $1,307/month. This is always the first and most expensive item on the list and it did not disappoint. This included 74 nights in Airbnbs, 5 nights with a friend, and 8 nights in hotels, plus another 5 nights in hotels where I kept my monthly Airbnb and booked a second place somewhere else at the same time. The average accommodation per day ranged from $41 in the Andalusia region of Spain to $58 in Krakow.
Dining Out. $944 or $10.85/day or $119/month. This included meals that I paid for the entire thing in order to pay my friends back for letting me stay with them, as well as shared meals when people were visiting, but usually when I was on my own, my dining out is generally one lunch, one dinner and one coffee out per week. Most of the time, the average dinner was about $25, lunch was $20, coffee was $4 and pastries (of course!) were about $2 each.
Groceries. $396.33 or $4.56/day or $137/month. This included a lot of groceries believe it or not, but I am not really eating much meat or booze, so that keeps the costs down. However, fresh produce and eggs and things are pretty inexpensive overall. If you add this to the dining out cost, my average spent per day on food is $15.41.
Transportation. $629 or $7.22/day or $217/month. The bulk of this was two things - first was an 8 day car rental in Spain coupled with a 3 day rental in Germany, the second was the Netherlands/Belgium, where I traveled really fast, so had three different train/buses in one week. Other than that, this is mostly trains from one city to another or public transportation within a city, which are fairly inexpensive. Most train rides of a couple hours were around $35 (this included Germany, France, Belgium) from point to point.
Entertainment. $346 or $3.98/day or $119/month. The bulk of this was for walking tours (one, sometimes two per city), skiing (ticket, bus and gear for about $100) and various museums or attractions. Most of the time, I entertain myself pretty well by walking around, people watching or going to green spaces. I am fairly easily amused.
Miscellaneous. $31 or $0.36/day or $11/month. This is mostly post cards and shipping, but also includes tips and toilet fees.
Flights. $340 or $3.91/day or $117/month. This includes my flight from San Francisco to Germany, which I booked using points ($0), and three flights within Europe: Lyon-Krakow ($94), Krakow-Amsterdam ($102), Brussels-Seville ($144). I travel with a carry on only, but now many airlines are charging for that, and I had to pay 30 euro on the Seville flight just to carry on baggage.
So if you were on a long vacation, you may be able to stop here, as this is the end of the travel related items. But since I am traveling full time, life still has other things, so I am going to go over those too just for full disclosure. You can omit these when planning your next long vacation.
Health Insurance. $511 or $5.88/day or $176/month. I just changed carriers so my insurance will now be about $75 a month, but before, since I was still in the US more than a certain amount of days per year, I had to have coverage there, which was $235/month.
Utilities. $313 or $3.60/day or $108/month. This includes my phone, any yearly subscriptions like Trusted Housesittter, cloud services, apps, VPN service, and any credit card annual fees. I do not have any streaming services, but this would be included here if I did.
Shopping. $788 or $9.06/day or $271/month. Those of you who know me well will be wondering what the hockey I spent $788 on. Well, life happens and so does shit and my phone went to the great meadow in the sky, and I needed more HD storage, so I had to spend a lot of money on electronics in the first quarter. As you know, I also bought a new computer in November, so I don't even want to talk about how much money I have spent on electronics in the last twelve months. It burns, precious.
So, what was the total and did I stay within budget? Drumroll please. The grand total was $8,089, which comes out to about $2,789 per month, or $93 per day. My budget is $2,500 a month or roughly $80 per day, so I struck out this quarter big time. However, if you remove the electronics, it would be $84 per day, which is still not within budget but it is a lot closer.
So what is the verdict? The verdict is that if I have no more electronics mishaps, I may be okay next quarter, or maybe something else will come up. Also, I do plan on being in a less expensive place for the next three months, and I hope to do some hiking, which could mean I spend less due to camping, or a lot more due to ice cream consumption. The bottom line is, and I quote my friend G-money, who always tells it like it is, that my budget number really is arbitrary and if I go over, I go over. C'est la vie.
What do you normally budget for your travels on a per person or per day basis and do you stay within that budget? Or is it okay to fudge it a little?
"You thought that I forgot that I was going to keep track of how much I have been spending, but I didn't!" - no, I absolutely did not! I knew you'd be keeping track. And wow, I have to say I am impressed! You can really travel inexpensively, Kyria *side eyes princess self* Yes, you're over budget but things happen - that's why we have budgets in the first place, to afford when we need a rainy day fund. Also, being over budget by $4/day doesn't really seem to egregious.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of our travel, it's not a per-day, it's more of a "we have x in the travel budget, let's go." I'll tell you what, our accommodations are much more expensive, that's for sure. $43/day! That's amazing.
When you stay for a month rather than a day or two, it really makes a difference! Most places that I am staying would be in the $100-$150 a night range if you are only getting one or two nights. However, I am currently evaluating if it makes sense to stay longer. I thought I would not want to be moving around a lot. but am trying to strike a balance between moving too much and not enough, so I may start to stay a little less time in each place, which will increase my accommodation cost. *side eye princess!* Well you like things how you like them and you worked for that, so go you. I ain't hatin'!
DeleteMy goal is to enjoy my trip while spending as little as possible (without stressing about it - the not stressing part is new...I used to feel so guilty about spending money). Inclusive of all costs - acknowledging we get dirt-cheap flights - our per day rate for trips works out around $130/person/day. Which seems like a happy medium in my world. We do awesome things, but we definitely don't drain our bank account to do it.
ReplyDeleteReading about your trips and reminiscing about Paris is making me SO antsy so get back on the road. I think we *might* aim for a trip to Finland later this year. It's not high on my "must-visit" list, but the kids really want to see where Dad goes to work so often, and we could get some of our expenses paid for via the company John subcontracts for...we shall see. Stay tuned!
You do so well tracking these things and I think your per day rate is amazing!
I agree with you completely! I like to enjoy my trip but not go overboard; in fact I am not sure that I am really the overboard type no matter what. I think $130 for a full on vacation makes sense to me! I am obviously staying longer in one place, and not going out to eat as much, and spreading out activities, which all definitely cut down the costs. Finland sounds great! I think you will like it. I haven't been there (hehe) but I did like Sweden, so why not Finland? I was hoping to get to Finland and Norway this year, but, you are going to laugh, but I am running out of time and there are too many places I want to go! I know, I know....
DeleteWow, so interesting! We do not budget per day for trips... and I'm sure if we did, we wouldn't stick to it. LOL. We just aren't that organized about that stuff. I laughed though at your dining out line, because I just tallied up our London expenses this weekend. According to my credit card statement, we spent $1,333.21 on food (basically all dining out) during our 8 night trip to London. My dad did the same, and he came up with $1385. So, this means for our group of 6, we spent $2,718.21 on food. Which is your budget for all your expenses for an entire month. 😅 I guess maybe though if you consider we ate out EVERY meal, and this includes beers (which were consumed fairly liberally by at least some members of our party), Starbucks (my mom/ Ivan), airport food, gelato, snacks, meals, etc, it's not so bad. Divided by 8 days that's $339/day, or divided by 6 people= $56/day. Again, not an exact average at all but you know what I mean. We are lucky in that when we travel with my parents, my dad is generous and we typically "split the bill" 50/50 at restaurants- but there are more of us than there are of them! So it can work in our favor. However, I also will argue that my dad and mom both often drink beer with dinner (and maybe even lunch, on vacation, depending on if it's a pub etc!). My mom usually just drinks 1, but still, beer is expensive!) and obviously the boys are not drinking beer. I drink so little, also, that I'm "cheaper" as well. ;) Anyway, when you factor in their beverage costs versus ours, I feel like it usually works out to be pretty fair in the end, but I guess as the boys are getting older and eating more expensive meals (they were historically pretty light eaters as kids), we are maybe getting the better end of the deal. ;) *Disclaimer- obviously if we were traveling like you are, we would not eat out and spend so freely on every single meal and all of that!
ReplyDeleteFor all 6 of us, including flights and lodging and attractions and food etc, our 8 nights came out to right around $14,000. (The apartment alone was almost $4k (we needed 3 bedrooms and multiple bathrooms...), and of course flights (we didn't use points or anything) came out to about $4300 for 6- which actually were pretty "cheap" flights for spring break season to Europe, I thought? Just over $700/ticket. We did cash in a bunch of credit card rewards towards the trip though to knock a couple thousand off the total. I don't know, I definitely don't feel like we are "budget" travelers, but at the same time, I always TRY to find decent prices and attempt to balance a good/ nice experience for all of us... and we don't want to skimp on doing things, activities, etc. But it's not like we eat at 5 star restaurants or do the highest level things, at all, either! I feel like travel is just really expensive these days in general. It always blows my mind, bc I feel like we spend .... a lot... on travel, and yet I NEVER am picking the "highest option" or even close, on anything. So what on earth are the other people spending who are staying at those fancy hotels or eating at those restaurants or doing all the special private tours or etc etc?!!?
Oh, our total also includes even the UK ETA visa, Harry Potter Studio tix, Football tickets, all the entries like Westminster, St Pauls, our Jack the Ripper tour, a Thames boat ride, Windsor Castle, and all of our tube tickets for the week (for our family of 4 we spent $444 on underground tickets). And some misc shopping/ souvenirs are in there too.
DeleteWoof! Well you cannot really compare an 8 day vacation to basically living abroad. You are in go-go mode, and of course are going to eat out, enjoy lots of beers, and go to the attractions while you are there! I also spread the attractions out over a month etc. and don't really eat out much! If I have people in town, obviously I end up spending more on dining out. Also airfare, especially to/from the US can be a lot. On my last two week vacation, my flight to Europe was $1,200! Basically being able to not have that too often helps a lot. However, if it makes you feel any better, on my last two week (17 days) vacation to Europe, my spend per day was about $162.
DeleteAlso, you are in an expensive place! $444 for a week of transportation for four is a lot! I think most places I have been in have been about $2 per ride or less, except for the Netherlands, which was about $8 on average for the places that I went, but luckily I normally walk a lot!! Even when I was in Lyon, I bought a ticket with 10 rides on it, and still had one left after a month. Also, I try to get apartments for less than $1,000 a month if possible, with a high end of $1,500, but I am just one person! When I was in Germany with the ladies (3 others) we paid about $1,000 for a week (rather than a month!) for a three bedroom. Of course, it only had one bathroom and was not in the city center (which would have been $2000 for the week instead), but was an easy walk to the train station. I think it can vary a lot!
I use the G-money budgeting system. I have an awareness and an idea of how much things cost, but if there's a reason to spend more then I go for it without regret. Recent examples are getting a new, souped up iphone last fall instead of a refurb, and this weekend I paid $250 for one night of lodging for somewhere that I really wanted to stay instead of $100 for a crappy hotel. Both of these purchases brought me a lot of satisfaction, so I'm not just dropping dollars to drop dollars.
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing about your lifestyle is that having to get a new computer and phone is just about "the worst" that can happen. You're not going to get hit with any unexpected home or car repairs.
Ha! I actually use the G-money system too, but I like trying to stay under budget while all the while knowing that if I really want to spend $250 on a hotel room, I can. I think I am pretty simple though; if it is clean, I will sleep there, and I am okay with a little noise or light (a lot of people complain about this, but I have earplugs and I can sleep in the day with no issues!) and I am happy to walk a bit, so a place a half a mile or even a mile from the city center or attractions works just fine. But yeah, I remember getting a Marriott in downtown Hong Kong at the end of one of my long trips and I was kind of done with constant travel and all I did was take a bath and relax!! It was great.
DeleteWe are phone sisters! I also got a refurbished one (duh) but it was a Pixel and it is still WAY better than my old one!
I love these kinds of posts so thanks for putting it together! Europe is a pretty pricey place so it would be hard to stay on budget!
ReplyDeleteWe travel so infrequently so do not really make a budget for those trips. We spend what we spend and move on. We prioritize flights with ideal departure times and want an excellent location for our Airbnb. So we pay more than if we were trying to make it a less expensive trip!
I completely agree. Last year before I left, my family went to Santa Barbara and I am pretty sure the place was like $300 a night, but that is kind of how it is and we wanted to get away as a family and so that is what we did. Right now I am basically living abroad and not moving from place to place, which really saves a lot. But I am not sure if this will continue to be my style or not, so we will see where it goes from here! I am kind of missing Bob, to be honest...
DeleteWe did not have a daily budget for our Italy trip. We enjoyed ourselves, and we're usually fairly frugal as a default mode. I'll probably cringe at my next credit card statement. We ate out every dinner, but breakfast was included in our accommodations and we grabbed the lunchmeat that they put out at the breakfast buffets and ate that later as a lunch on the go. There was also drinks. Sorry about your electronics, but from my perspective you do a great job keeping your costs low while traveling. I'll bet you save quite a bit while camping. *I did not enjoy having to pay at times to use the toilet, or drink still water, while abroad.
ReplyDeleteGah! I hate paying for water! In Spain it was fairly cheap, but still...PAYING for WATER! It really chaps my hide. And the bathrooms too...I have a tiny bladder and I hate to have to go into a restaurant, but the last time I was in Italy my partner at the time "took one for the team" and would have a 1 euro espresso at a cafe every time I had to pee, so...needless to say, he had a lot of espresso!
DeleteI did not camp at all in Europe but will be starting a hike soon and will be camping a lot then. Also I will be in slightly cheaper countries for the next couple of months. After that, I will probably be back in Western Europe for a bit, so we will see how it goes.
I loved that you used the lunchmeat for lunch! I loved my hotel in Stockholm, which had a HUGE breakfast spread and I would eat a late breakfast and then go up like 5 times and fill my plate and stuff myself silly and then skip lunch and eat out for dinner! It was great. The Turkish people have a nice breakfast spread too; you should Google it.
I wasn't expecting the lunch like food being available at breakfast. When I was in Italy while studying abroad, my brother and I stayed in a hostel and probably ate dry cereal or bread and jam for breakfast so I didn't eat out enough to know. I always travel with ziploc baggies and that breakfast spread was right up my 'how can I save money while traveling' alley. ;)
DeleteThis was fascinating! I feel like you aren't egregiously over-budget and sometimes, we just need to adjust our expectations. Maybe you THOUGHT you could stick to $80/day originally, but perhaps that idea needs to be adjusted based on how prices are shaking out in your locales. And as you said, you had some expensive purchases that you normally wouldn't have needed and were staying in a more expensive area, so it'll be interesting to see if you get closer to that $80/day number in the next post!
ReplyDeleteI have a VERY LOOSE budget for a trip. I should be better but I'm not. My mom and I are bougie travelers, lol. We're doing a London trip in the fall and I wanted to stay under $600 for the flight (we got them for $550!) and I'd like our hotel to be around $2,000ish total since we'll split the cost. I don't really stop and budget for experiences, gifts, and food when I'm traveling because I'm in YOLO mode. Please follow me for more great financial advice!
Following! New sub! LOL! I think that when you are on vacation is a little different, but $550 for flights is great, especially since it is London, which has high airport taxes. Pro tip: often Paris is the cheapest and then you can get to wherever other place using a budget airline, however this isn't always as great for a shorter trip. Also, it is so much "cheaper" when you can split the accommodation with someone! I would basically be spending not quite half but maybe in the $50 range if I could do that! I think that for London, you should do what you want to do. You can still have a lot of fun though doing free or cheap things, like wandering around Camden Market, or going to Hyde Park etc. or going to the Tate, which is free! However, if you want to get a pint, or five, by all means, I say do it. You do only live once.
DeleteWhat I used to do is have a loose goal of my max I wanted to spend on travel for the year and then I would go "wild" when on vacation and then later in the year I may tone it down, or do a camping trip, or split a room with someone etc. I like to have a goal but I am not really too worried about "sticking" to it, as I can cut somewhere else.
I do not budget when on vacation. I spend what I spend. Obviously, if I were in your shoes I would have a budget and a plan and all of that, but I’m me…so if we only take big trips every 3 - 5 years, I’m not coming home with regrets.
ReplyDeleteI’m pretty impressed that you were that close to your budget, and I suspect you will do well in less expensive areas, and now that you are on the cheaper health insurance, that will be helpful too. I would guess that when you do a longer term analysis, you will be under budget. Or not, you know, you might decide to spend time somewhere fancy!
I am curious if you budget in real life? Like for bills and stuff? Because in my opinion, most/many people do not, and so if they don't have a plan/budget in regular life, they probably don't have one for vacation. I don't have a set "budget" but I always track my spending so I can see where I am, if I am still saving enough (more so before than now) and if I need to adjust anything next year. Usually I am fine, so haven't really had to adjust too much.
DeleteI may decide to go to a more expensive country, that is for sure. However, if I go somewhere fancy, I can use hotel points, so I don't see myself spending too much more there! Also, I have running shoes, and flip flops, so the fancy cannot be more fancy than that!
You’re right, I don’t budget much in real life. I put money aside for savings/401(k), and if there is money left at the end of the month I put it in savings. I track our bills, but not beyond that. I think it’s because I spent so many years barely making it, and while one would think that would encourage a budget, in reality it just made me depressed and I felt like a giant loser who couldn’t stick to a budget because something generally went wrong. Older me, who now has more money, understands that what I needed to do was adjust my budget to plan for things to go wrong (new tire, vet bill, whatever) rather than beating myself up, but there we are. I’m relatively frugal, I don’t spend a ton, but no…no real budget.
DeleteI think you're doing amazing to be so close to your budget! I think it would be difficult to plan for how much things cost in different countries. Plus you never know when you'll need to pay for a toilet. Arg! Electronics are so expensive. I feel for you. I'm sure your new phone is wonderful though!
ReplyDeleteThanks MG! It is difficult, but it is kind of fun to check them out anyway! I am so happy with my new phone; it was totally worth it, but woof, it does hurt a little when you are paying the CC bill!
DeleteThis is so fascinating! I think you did a great job, budget wise, especially considering the electronics mishaps.
ReplyDeleteThe last trip my husband and I took where we had a super strict budget was exactly twenty years ago this summer. We spent 21 days in Europe, and visited five countries (I think? am I forgetting one?). Our budget was $100 per day, all in, and we felt pretty amazing about how inexpensive it was. Of course, we didn't have to pay any of your non-vacation expenses, and this was TWENTY years ago. Which is all to say, I think you are kicking budget butt.
It is so much more economical with more than one person! The accommodation portion of it really gets me! However, I still find it totally worth it, and if I go over "budget" a little, I am okay with that!
DeleteI love reading this budget! It's also amazing to me that even cheap traveling (which yours seems to be) is still not... cheap. But also, money is for happiness making and travel is happiness making and therefore I am so excited to read about both your travels and the money that funds your travels!
ReplyDeleteWell, you will find it interesting that I was looking into yearly salaries for some places and they are surprisingly low and I can see why some countries are having issues with Airbnb and housing etc. The regular people cannot afford to live there! So yes, my number is "low" but it is not low for many people!
DeleteDefinitely okay to fudge a little! I mean- you really can't know what's going to come up on an adventure like this. Overall you're frugal, and if you have to buy a new phone, then you have to.
ReplyDeleteI don't budget while on vacation- but it's been a long time since I've taken a real vacation (other than just a few days away for some specific reason, like to take my son to school.) Eventually when my husband and I start traveling again, we'll have to think about a budget.
Jenny, if I want ice cream, I will have it! And I definitely cannot live (sadly) without a working phone! You kind of live in a vacation spot, so you don't need to spend a lot of extra money just to go to a different beach town!
DeleteOh these posts are so great. I am amazed by the low food budget to be honest. On the other hand have never really tracked it and therefore not sure where I would land. I am crying over your health insurance. Mine is currently somewhere around 890€. A month! the joys of self-employment.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are really a genius when it comes down to finding good plane tickets. so cool.
I have finally figured out my schedule for July and I will have a closer look if Riga is in the books. Fingers crossed. If the offer still stands of course. I know plans can change.
Wow, that is a lot for insurance! Is there not a "marketplace" option in Germany? I know nothing about the way that it works. However, in the US now (for the time being) there is a marketplace where you can get insurance and the price is based on how much you make, so for instance, if you make $60k, you may only pay around $250 a month, or if you make less, it could be $0, but if you make $100k, you would pay $600, or something like that.
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