Let’s talk about money! Something that is essential and extremely important when embarking on a long term trip like we have!
It requires a lot of planning, saving and sacrifice for most of us so in my opinion it’s something that is extremely important to think about early on.
Now that we have been on the road for over 6 Months we waned to share a couple of pointers and tips to help you budget for your trip. We’re also giving you a little bit of an insight into our own budgeting experience while we are away on our year long trip around the world.
What kind of Traveller are you?
The amount of money you need depends on the type of traveller you are, what you want to do and where you want to go. Think about this and complete a little research into those activities and the cost of living in the places you want to visit.
Once you have a rough idea of the time you would like to spend on your trip and have an idea of the cost of things, add up roughly what you might spend in a day and multiply it by the amount of days you will be away. For us we decided we would need around £25 per day each once we got to each country, so £50 per day altogether. We also wanted to splurge on a couple of experiences such as our diving qualifications and a cruise around Ha Long Bay so had to save extra for these.
Accounting for additional Costs
Don’t forget about additional costs, things like good travel insurance, visas, flights, vaccinations and other miscellaneous items you will need for your trip (for example, I had to buy a years supply of contact lenses!). These are all additional expenses we had to consider before even leaving for our trip.
Minimise your Spending in preparation
Start minimising as many outgoings as you can as soon as you start planning for your trip so that when you leave on your adventure you’re only paying for what is necessary.
Also consider paying off any debt/credit card bills (etc) you have before you leave, you won’t want this hanging over your head or gaining interest while you’re away.
While saving don’t spend money on buying things you won’t use while you’re away, it seems silly but it can be easily done. You don’t need a new wardrobe for your trip, just use what you have as chances are those items might get ruined anyway and you’ll be less upset if you have to chuck something out! We have bought items along the way and have found that we can find anything we need (toiletries, clothes, misc items) in most places. therefore if you need it and don’t have it, you can probably get it where you’re going!
Use Budgeting Tools
Put a good budgeting tool in place to track your spending once you are away. We’re using a free app called TravelSpend which has been brilliant for tracking what we have spent and tells us based on our daily average if we need to cut back. You can also do this with a spreadsheet, whatever works for you!
Emergency Funds
Have an emergency fund to get home of you need to, after the last couple of years (the dreaded C word) we felt this was important if we needed to get home and had to splurge on a flight!
Handling fluctuations in your spending
If you go over budget one day, consider cutting back on others to even our your spending. For example if we go on a tour and go over budget we try to cut back the rest of the week to even things out.
Accommodation, transport and food are your main outgoings. We try not to spend more than £20 per night on accommodation or £25 if breakfast is included. We also tend to hire a motorbike to travel around as Tom has a motorbike licence and it’s been the cheapest way for us to tour the places we want to see because we don’t have to pay tour companies! Motorbike rental has averaged £4-£7 for 24hrs on our trip so far.
Be prepared that you’re not always going to be on budget but it’s about working to reign it in as soon as you can. Some countries are naturally more expensive than others so sometimes you will be way over and then have to bring down you daily spend when you get to the next stop. Singapore was so expensive for us therefore we went way over budget and decided to spend less during our time in Indonesia by spending only £40 per day to make up for it!
As mentioned earlier in this post you also really need to be researching the cost of living in the countries you are visiting to ensure you are budgeting enough for each day. It would really suck if you end up in a country and realise you haven’t got enough to do the things you want to do and enjoy your time there.
Save extra for big Bucket-list activities or Events
If you have in mind some bigger, more costly activities you would like to get stuck into whilst on your trip, consider saving extra for them on top of your estimated daily budget.
Our bigger ‘bucket list’ activities did not fit into our original estimated daily budget which we were using as a guide to save for our trip. By saving additionally for these bigger experiences in advance we have had the funds in separate ‘pot’ to take out as necessary.
Don’t Settle for the first price
An oldie but goody. Do not settle for the first price you see when booking different aspects of your trip. The best way to stay on budget is to shop around. I have no doubt you do this at home when looking for items in the shop or online, therefore do not settle for the first price on your trip. This applies to almost every aspect from flights, accommodation and activities, to restaurants, supermarkets and souvenirs. There have been plenty of times on our trip where we have saved up to HUNDREDS of pounds by not settling for the first prices we have seen for things we have needed to buy & book. Yes, it sometimes takes more time to find a good price, however time is money at the end of the day!
Summary
In summary, the way to stay on budget for your trip is to make sure you do lots of planning in advance and allow yourself the time to save, research and prepare yourself for all of the adventures to come. It’s also about shopping around, accounting for unplanned costs along the way and knowing how to make up for them. Nothing can ever be planned to perfection but knowledge is your biggest asset and problem solving is a big part of long term travel.
With all of the above information, we hope this encourages and empowers you to start planning & saving for your dream trip no matter how big or small. Happy Travels!
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