Planning the Benjamins

by Tasha in Pre-trip, Budgeting

For months I've been scouring all over the internet for the best ballpark budgets for our Round the World trip for two. I was shocked at just how hard I found it, and how little data there is. After much research I have deduced that the internet believes me to be either:

the Party Girl only concerned with sun-tanning and drinking, who couldn't possibly consider non-tour travel;

      The Independent Soul who uses their special creative skills to fund their way across the globe, freelancing, busking, and selling handcrafts to follow the moon off the beaten track; 

      or The Wealthy Retirees spending their children’s' inheritance on a fun and decadent trip that "they should have done years ago".

Now I, with Alex, don't particularly fall into any of those categories. We aren’t huge party people, we have pretty much NO creative skills and we don’t have the funds of the baby boomers. I was getting worried I would need to take a wild shot in the dark for our budget, as it’s much harder to estimate our costs when travelling together, joint expenses are much more intricate that simply multiplying a single traveller by two.

photo by: garryknight

Finally, somehow, I stumbled upon an awesome travel blog, To Uncertainty& Beyond, by Clark and Kim. Here was a couple, not retirees, who temporarily abandoned their solid careers under the assumption that perhaps there was something greater waiting. And to my great joy and delight, Kim is an organised soul who keeps tight financial records of their trip.

Hallelujah!

Thanks to Kim’s records and the awesome new version of Lonely Planet's "The Big Trip". I’ve been able to make an approximate budget of 25-35k for our 9 month trek. We would prefer to have doubled that for security, but need to be more practical with a saving goal of approx. 30k for our trip in 20 month’s time. Our travel plans will all be dependent on how much we can save. Also this amount doesn't take into account pre-trip purchases, which I will be documenting here as we buy them.

Lonely Planet's The Big Trip On Sale Now

 But first come's the saving, and saving and saving :)

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