The Money Series

Whenever I have a trip planned, I always try to find some up-to-date information about the costs. Usually I am left scratching my head and still wondering how much I should expect to spend. Either the information I find is way out-dated, people are spending more in one month that I plan to in 3, or the information is something along the lines of.. “Asia is cheap, Europe isn’t.”.

Because of this, I have decided I am going to publish the costs of all the different areas of our trip, including:

• Pre-trip expenditure (don’t underestimate this!)
• 1 month interrailing around Europe
• 1 month Transsiberian adventure
• A country by country budget for Asia
• A month by month budget for Asia
• 3 weeks exploring the east coast of Australia
• New Zealand

From the day I left, I have kept a spreadsheet, where I note every penny we spend. Whilst some may consider this a little anal and a waste of time, without it there is no way I would be able to have kept a track on our spending and I have no doubt we would have spent so much more. Something about seeing the numbers written down makes it much more real when you splash out for the weekend. Plus, it takes no time at all – I break the sheet down into sections such as accommodation, food, transport… then tap in the numbers. I don’t write sandwich £2.00, water £0.50, tuk-tuk £1.20, instead one figure for the day is grouped into the relevant sections.

Leaving the UK with the intention of being away for at least a year, but with only enough funds for Europe, Asia and getting us to New Zealand, it is vital that we stick to our rather modest budgets. I am hoping that publishing detailed information will help other people have some sort of idea and ball park figure when planning their own travelling!