The atmosphere is literally shaking, the air is sizzling, 2️⃣ days to go until the big farewell! In order to really heat things up once again, the trousers are being pulled down today and all the figures, financial tips and opaque deals are being put on the table. Today it's all about:
Travel budget
Before we take a deep dive into our travel budget and expense planning, let's talk about paying abroad in general and how we control and share costs.
We have the widest possible range of cards, including everything from Mastercard, Visa, Debit, E(t)C. If a card is not accepted, we have enough alternative plastic. I also have most cards available directly on my mobile phone via Apple Pay, which is not only easier but also more secure, and can also help at short notice in an emergency after a wallet has been stolen.
In terms of cash, we take a few emergency euros US dollars with us, which is advisable if we are suddenly faced with costs such as visa-on-arrival. We always want to withdraw a little local currency locally, but pay the majority by card.
It is equally important that we have found a system to share all common costs without having to collect receipts or calculate any balances with advanced Excel skills. Our idea is as follows: As we have several cards, each of us has designated a credit card that we pull out whenever an expense is to be paid equally by both of us. For our own expenses, such as my after-work beers or Leah's sweet tooth, we then use another card to pay. This way, we can simply offset the final totals of the monthly credit card bills and pay the difference.
Nevertheless, Leah - and I have to admit, it's a useful idea - wants to track all our expenses to see how much we've spent on the road - and how much longer we could have travelled without my beer consumption. We've chosen the TravelSpend app for this, which we'll be trying out from August.
Now we finally come to the truth. How much does an eight-month round-the-world trip cost?
We answer this question with €10,500. Or rather, Leah's savings account answers that. Okay, we have resolved to stay under €12,000. Flights are just under €4,000, so that leaves €33 per day per person. This has to pay for food, accommodation, transport, entrance fees (e.g. to national parks), gifts, souvenirs etc. We know it sounds unrealistic. Nevertheless, we want to work with this budget for the time being. In Canada, we are making it a challenge to cross the continent with €0 (for transport and accommodation). If we can manage that, €33 for food and presents won't be so little again. Later in India and South America, the low prices there will allow us to spend a bit more.
Apart from the savings mania and the obvious coming months of abstinence and non-attachment, in the end we are not going to be our own judges. If we like something or simply fancy a spontaneous luxury, then we'll treat ourselves to it and go over budget with relish. At the end of the day, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And so we will win in any case.
📖 Book recommendation: “How to Spend a Trillion Dollars: The 10 Global Problems We Can Actually Fix” by Rowan Hooper. We won't be spending this much on our trip, but it's still an extremely positive book about all the problems humanity could solve with 1% of world GDP: no more poverty, for example, or malaria eradication, the transition to green energy, lunar colonisation... Several projects are presented that are already working towards these goals and give us hope that future generations will perhaps live in a better world after all.