If you are a long time reader, you know that I enjoy spreadsheets, keeping lists, keeping tallies of stuff, and talking about finances. My favorite time of year is the end of the year (or the beginning of the new year, I suppose), when I get to do all of that in one post, the annual money pie post. I know that not everyone loves doing this as much as me, but I do think the number one step to financial freedom is tracking your expenses so that you know (a) where your money is going and (b) how much you would need when you retire or (c) what you would need in an emergency if you lost your job or something like that. Knowledge is power.
You may recall that in 2024 my pie was a little hard to bake because I sold my house in March and so I had a bunch of extra fees due to that and it was hard to extrapolate everything in an organized manner. I am pleased to report that this year was much cleaner and I even have some fun facts for you! Let's do it.
Accommodation: $11,925.14 (42%) As always, this is my highest expense. I generally rent a one bedroom apartment with a kitchen, air conditioning and a washing machine in or near the city center. For five months in 2025 (see below denoted with !!), I rented a place for an entire month; otherwise I typically stay 4 days to a week in one place, but sometimes when hiking or cycling, I am moving each day. In some places accommodation is more like 50% of my total spent for a month, but once you average it out, due to camping, staying with friends and family and housesitting, the cost comes down a little bit. Here is how the months stacked up depending on location.
Jan: $1,419.97 France!!
Feb: $1,067.49 Poland/Amsterdam/Belgium
Mar: $979.57 Spain!!
Apr: $1,377.07 Türkiye!!
May: $652.99* Türkiye
Jun: $ 810.34 Georgia!!
Jul: $1,127.05 Latvia/Lithuania/Poland
Aug: $1,238.71 Balkans
Sep: $905.96 Bulgaria!!
Oct: $862.39* Scotland
Nov: $1,156.60* England/Wales
Dec: $327.00* US
Dining Out: $3,333.61 (12%) I am not one to eat out a lot; I typically buy groceries and cook at home for the most part. However, on average, I ate out about twice a week, plus had some beers, wine, coffee, ice cream and pastries while out and about. Here are the average costs for a few of my typical meals: Lunch or dinner (sometimes with a beer or glass of wine included) averaged out to about $20, beers ranged from about $3 (Spain/Balkans) to about $10 (Wales/US), but averaged around $8 overall. A glass of wine was about $5 on average and a typical pastry was about $2.25.
Groceries: $1,646.99 (6%) As I mentioned, unless I am in a hotel with no kitchen, which is fairly rare, I mostly just buy groceries and cook at home. I don't cook very much meat when at home; that is something I am generally more likely to order when out, and so my main meals often consist of lots of salads, veggies, fruit, bread, beans, rice and yogurt, eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. When you are moving around a lot, it doesn't always make sense to buy a lot of complicated items, so I typically eat pretty simply. I also don't buy a lot of booze, although when in France...or Georgia...or Spain...I may have had a few bottles of wine. Coupled with dining out, my total food cost per day came out to about $13.50.
Shopping: $2,456.09 (9%) This consists of anything I have to buy like toiletries, travel gear, clothes, shoes, electronics, or in my case, camping gear. The bulk of it is electronics, as I had to buy a new phone, and an extra SSD hard drive. I also bought three new pairs of shoes over the year (one in the UK, which was about $170 - ouch!), and replaced a few ratty clothing items that were past their prime. Actually, you will be happy to hear that I found some semi-unicorn pants (remember this post?)! I also bought a new carry on backpack (the 42L version of this one) and ended up getting these packing cubes!
Transportation: $2,134.18 (7%) This consists of any overland transport from one place to another (trains, busses), public transit within a location, car rental, gas, maintenance, parking fees, ferries and one hourly bike rental. It does not include any flights. The bulk of this cost was in the fourth quarter, when I was in the UK and US, as that was almost $900 of the total. If you break that out since it is an outlier, the average per month would have been about $140. I feel like that is pretty reasonable, as I took a train 32 times ($734 total) and a bus 32 times ($617 total) last year!
Misc.: $1,780.58 (6%) This usually consists of any random costs for shipping, bathroom fees, haircuts ($11!), and generally is not that high. However, it does include random life stuff like my CFA dues ($300) and tax prep ($183). This year there were also a few outliers, such as when I sold my house when I was in Tbilisi and had to get documents notarized and sent ($300) or when I renewed my passport when I was in the UK ($180). These things add up!
Health: $1,411.52 (5%) This consists of my monthly health insurance premium and any visits I have to any doctors. My health insurance was about $235 a month for the first three months of the year and then I switched to a different carrier, and now it is around $85 a month. I also went to the dentist for a cleaning in Tbilisi, which was about $60. I did not have any other doctors visits, but in 2026 I plan to do an entire comprehensive exam, so my health costs for this year will be a lot higher.
Utilities: $1,295.28 (5%) This consists of any credit card fees, cloud storage, internet security (VPN), phone and subscriptions (Garmin, GoPro, Trusted Housesitter). This category is a little lumpy, because some of them like NordVPN and Trusted Housesitter, I only pay every couple of years. For phone, I bought a worldwide eSim which cost about $60, plus I pay $5 per month to keep my US number while abroad.
Entertainment: $1,226.02 (4%) The bulk of this ($570) is tours and walking tours, but it also includes bike rentals, kayak rentals, museums, caves, hiking permits, and strippers. Just kidding; I couldn't resist. This also includes a prorated amount from the repositioning cruise I did, as I broke that into accommodation, dining out, travel and entertainment.
Travel: $1,181.70 (4%) Like I said, I broke part of the cruise into the travel category, but the bulk of this category ($890) was the cost of flights. All in all, I took 10 flights over the year, but I only paid for five of them in full, and used points for the other five. I will discuss this a bit more in a minute.
Grand Total: $28,391.11 or about $2,400/month or $77/day. You may recall that my goal was to stay under $2,500 per month. However, there were definitely some months that I was over, but in the end I snuck under. To be honest, this goal is a bit arbitrary, and I don't skimp on comfort. However, I just don't need to go out to eat that much, or to go to all of the attractions in each city.
A quick note about points. I won't bore you by droning on about points, but the short of it is that I got 13 hotel nights and 5 flights for "free" or even if you net out the cost of all of my travel credit cards, this saved me anywhere from about $2,000 to $3,000 depending on which methodology you use. If I would have paid for these things, I would have been over budget. In all honesty, if I would have had to pay for them, I may have only spent half that much (for example, I got a business class flight that I probably would not have paid out of pocket for), which is why I said "depending on methodology."
Lastly, what are my financial goals for 2026? My goal for 2026 is to just keep experiencing life and if I need to raise my budget, I will do that. I am not stuck on it, but I do believe that it is good to have a target, and it is also good not to buy stuff just to have stuff. I am having experiences, and I am enjoying them, and I plan to keep doing that. I will close by saying that I stayed in the cutest little B&B in Snowdonia in Wales that cost $98 per night, was comfortable, was warm and had breakfast included. In the mornings I sat and shot the breeze with the proprietor about hiking and photography, during the day I hiked and took photos, in the evening I ate steak pie and drank beer and I had such a great time. I mean, really, what more could a girl want? I guess whatever makes you happy and sets you free...
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| Everything a girl could want |
As a money person, this was endlessly fascinating to read. Also, tell me you aren’t in the US without telling me you aren’t in the US = an average glass or wine is $5!! You’d need to about triple that for many places in the states, or at least double it.
ReplyDeleteI will do my money post this week, too. Our situation is quite different with young kids, one of which is in full time child care. We honestly come close to spending as much on child care as your total spending in a calendar year! But it’s worth every penny. We won’t both retire for quite some time and by then, our childcare line should go away. It accounts for the majority of our spending, followed by charitable giving, which is around 1/4 of our child care cost. Kids are expensive!
Some fun purchases this year were my Oura ring and my OTF membership, which I have since upgraded to unlimited. It is not cheap but I love it! And I have to book classes in advance and figure out how to fit them into my busy schedule so that Tetris experience forces me to find time to workout which can be hard to do with young kids and a demanding job.
Yeah, childcare is expensive! However, I think that it is worth it so that you and Phil can both have fulfilling jobs and have your own time sometimes. I know my Bay Area friends always celebrate a little when the kids move from daycare to real school, as even with the cost of aftercare, it is much less expensive! However, on the same note, if they get into any club sports, that can easily be $2000 a pop per sport, if not more if they have to travel! So you cut the fat in one area and it pops up in another.
DeleteI think the OTF membership is a great purchase and I love that you call it "fun" which speaks to the fact that it is doing what it should do, making you happy! I think definitely having some commitment aka money in the game does help with keeping you honest when it comes to that kind of thing. I can't wait to see your money post!
I love me a slice of that sweet, sweet money pie!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest expense was travel, and I'm very happy about that. I lump pretty much all expenses incurred while traveling as "travel" including restaurants and such.
My financial goals for 2026 are similar to yours: have fun and enjoy life! I'm not going to do anything crazy, but I have a window right now: kids in college (which is already paid for) and parents are still in good health. It's time to play! I always assumed that I would be feverishly pinching pennies in retirement to keep under a 4% withdrawal in my portfolio, but frankly by waiting an extra two years to retire, 4% became a much larger number so everything is cool.
Haha! I guess by your definition, my biggest expense by far was travel. I used to keep all travel related dining out in the "travel" category too, but now I would just have one big lump! I agree re the 4% w/d; I am not withdrawing close to 4% at this point. I think my new goal needs to be to spend more money! Except it really does not take much to make me happy, as you can see!
DeleteYou're living very well on that budget, Kyria! Lodging isn't a cost for us, other than property tax and utilities, which isn't nothing - but my personal biggest cost is food. We also spend a lot on travel. I don't like to skimp on flights or accommodation.
ReplyDeleteI think that makes total sense. I definitely will pay more for a direct flight; no more 3 layover flights for me. I also got a business class flight this year, but will only do it if it is not insanely expensive. I do believe that travel is worth it! I also love food, but don't really eat out much. Fresh produce can be a lot less expensive in some destinations than it is in North America, so that helps a lot!
DeleteMy money pie post is scheduled for this Thursday!
ReplyDeleteI don't usually count "investment" as expenses, but I did the numbers two ways this year: with and without investments (retirement + kid's university fund). Without investments, our biggest expense was... wait a minute, I can't give away the punchline yet, can I??
Travel will definitely be a higher part of our spending in 2026 with all our time abroad (including two kids). But I want to lean into it. Of course, I'll be careful with money but I also view this as a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us (I doubt we'll ever travel like this as a whole family again), so my go-to mantra is supposed to be "It costs what it costs."
I think you can still have a lot of fun without always spending a lot, but I know I am preaching to the choir. I find wandering a lot of fun, but won't skimp on a museum or dinner, but you can get into some museums for free, or can have street food that is just as good as a three course meal! I also find that I get museumed out pretty quickly, so my not going is not due to finances, but more toward mental health. You can only do so much! I think no matter what you do on your upcoming journey, you will all remember it fondly, and probably the thing you will remember the most is the time spent together!
DeleteMoney pie! I love that title! Wow, you really made your budget work for you, and what a year to remember! My biggest expense in 2025 was medical stuff. Hopefully 2026 will be less expensive. My most fun expense is my Peloton bike and membership. At the moment, being home makes me happy. I love it when I don’t have to go anywhere except outside on the ranch.
ReplyDeleteUg, medical stuff is not the most "fun" thing to spend money on, but it sure is necessary, isn't it? I plan on doing a comprehensive exam this year which will be expensive but worth it. Peloton is fun, and I love that you are not the only person to list something that involves exercise as your FUN expense! I am with you in that camp. I think being home is priceless and of course sometimes I miss that; it is so nice to have your regular routine and to be able to be comfortable in your space.
DeleteI can understand why you break up your expenses when you're traveling for the whole year. I include all meals, transport, accommodation and entertainment when we travel in our travel budget and we do not scrimp so travel was our biggest expense (20%) then giving (14%) followed by groceries and then eating out. I also allocate our spending to groups so when I put together all the fun stuff (travel, eating out, recreation) that adds up to our biggest spend at 30%. Then it goes giving, housing then medical.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! If you don't mind me asking (and if you do, no worries) is your medical high due to premiums or is it something like appointments or prescriptions? I am curious if it is higher in Australia, or what, and of course I am also always trying to plan ahead so like hearing what other people are spending who are a little ahead of me in the game! :) I used to keep all my travel related dining out, etc. in the "travel" category, but now that would all be one category so I like to keep them separate!
DeleteThe figures I was looking at were for our last complete financial year so we had three hospital operations between the three of us (out of pocket expenses for the specialists) and also lots of physio and a couple of MRI because of my stress fracture and trips to the neurologist for my migraines. We went private, which allows you to choose your doctor and mostly skip waiting lists, but you need private health insurance, which is about $500 a month for a family (which we have always had), and there are still copays on the doctors fees. In total for the year it was about $13,000 including insurance and out of pocket expenses. It also includes our 4:1 gym sessions for the both of us because our bank includes gym memberships with medical when they request our financials. So that was a big year for us normally we would not go to hospital or even use the doctor much.
DeleteWow, that seems like a lot; does your insurance not have a deductible? Usually for us there is a deductible and often a max out of pocket, which is often a couple of thousand more than the deductible (for example, $6500 deductible with an $8500 max OOP).
DeleteI love posts like this! So fascinating to see what you spent and how you spent it. I am surprised that travel didn't eat up more of your budget!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Well really most of the other categories are travel too, but I have to separate them out somehow! I am glad that flights did not eat up more of my budget though!
DeleteI'm going to admit that I largely skimmed this post, but what grabbed my attention was your statement "Whatever makes you happy (and) sets you free." I first missed the And in this sentence, and I was stunned by this thought. Especially after two consecutive days of doctor appointments in which each doctor said there was nothing to be done for my condition (which I know, but hearing it from two medical professionals is really devastating).
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm trying to say is that this idea--stated either way, really--is going to become my touchstone. It's so simple, so truthful, and so What I Needed. Thank you.
Nance, I am glad that you got some inspiration from this post, despite it being boring for many! Haha. Seriously though, I feel that we need to try to focus on what makes us happy and do that. Sometimes we can get a little bogged down with what is NOT working, or what is NOT making us happy, so it is good to swap that over and focus on the positive! I hope you find your happy!
DeleteHi this is Daria from momofchildren
ReplyDeleteOur biggest expense? House, kitchen and our France trip. Can we say savings? We max out our retirement accounts and also saved rather aggressively in Acorns. Which we stopped in December, why? I want to dca into a variety of stocks instead, doing the work and learning. Which I have been doing, with mixed results because STOCK MARKET, but it’s important to me to be able to do that. We may go back to Acorns one day but for now, it’s Fidelity with dca-ING every Monday and Friday.
That sounds like a good plan. I feel like DIY investing is not for everyone, but if you are willing to give it a shot, it can actually be easier than you think, and very rewarding to control! Averaging in is a good way to get over some of the mental blocks around being afraid to time it wrong. I love that France and Savings were on the top of your list; you are a woman after my own heart! I think the future and present happiness are important!
DeleteYou know I am always here for the money pies! :) This was especially interesting because you had an unconventional year last year with selling your house and all the travel. I am amazed you have health insurance for $85 a month! That's a steal. Is that an international insurance?
ReplyDeleteOopsie! I actually had the unconventional year in 2024! "Last year" no more! So 2025 was more smooth and easier to track. The insurance is an international one, yes; it is Genki.
DeleteAhhh Kyria, this is my call to get nitty gritty with my finances. I have been neglecting them too much and I do t have a complete overview. which is terrible. I am pretty sure accommodations/ rent is highest. But my health insurance is almost the same rate and I have a few more insurance so I fear they are higher than my part of rent. This makes me angry.
ReplyDeleteBut enough about me. I am very much in awe how you manage to travel the world on this budget. Breaking it down like this and being so detailed really does show that it is possible if you want to. I find that inspiring.
I also want to know more about that cruise trip. Where do you find these relocation trips? I wouldn't even know where to look. Our plan is too get a bit deeper into the point system this year/in the future. We already do but we could benefit more if we are a bit more strategic about it. I need to look up your older blogposts where you talk about it more.
I am looking forward to following along your travels in 2026. Have you settled on a an area you will be exploring in 2026?
Let me know if you have questions! I could talk about points and travel and finances all day long! For the cruise, you can look on Vacations To Go, and they will actually book it for you as a travel advisor, or you can then go to the website for the cruise line. You can also look at Cruise Plum, which will add tips into the price, which is nice. I usually start with them, then check VTG and the cruise line website afterward.
DeleteFor 2026, I will be in Asia for the first four months, then in the US for the next four, then TBD, but maybe Mexico for the last four.