Updates and excitement!

by Alex in Pre-trip, Budgeting, Gear

Merry Christmas everybody! ...Okay, so Christmas was a couple of days ago, but shut up, I've been busy! There's been a lot going on at Didi and Gogo HQ, and there are a few quick updates I'd like to share with you. Let's not waste time:


Firstly, we've been on a gear-buying frenzy!

For those planning on going on a big trip, there are few words sweeter than "Christmas sale". Our three favourite retailers of travelling gear, Anaconda, Kathmandu and Snowgum, have all had massive Christmas sales ranging from 20-70% off, and we've been quick to snap up as many bargains as we can. Amongst our purchases are a sleeping bag liner, a wind jacket and a second cable lock for our bags. While this sounds pretty boring, it is a lead-in to the more exciting point: We only have 8 things left to buy on our gear list! This just shows how much easier it is to plan ahead and spread out our purchases long-term - we've spent about $900 on gear purchases, but by spreading it out over the last year and waiting for things to go on sale, we've managed to save around $1000 from what they retail as normally. The Gear and Budget pages aren't quite up-to-date at the moment, but they'll be updated very shortly for all you lovely people to see.

Second, we've saved $10000 and are now debt-free!!

This is, to put it simply, awesome! Admittedly, yes, we're still well short of our total savings target, but still - we set ourselves the target of having our $13000 debt paid off and $10000 saved by the end of 2012, and we made it! As exciting as this is, however, now is when the hard work starts. Once the new year starts, we'll be going into deep savings mode, cutting our expenses as much as humanly possible, selling our stuff and working like dogs to drag in as much money as we possibly can in the time we have left. Which brings me to my last big update point - we now have a clear deadline for our buying and saving, because...

We've bought our plane tickets!!!

For me, this was the biggest "holy crap!" moment that we've had so far. At 1:30 in the morning of November 1st this coming year, Tash and I will be departing Melbourne Airport, stopping over in Kuala Lumpur and then arriving in Bangkok, Thailand to begin our epic adventure. No matter how much money we've saved by that point, no matter what gear we've bought or forgotten to buy, we're going. It's booked in, it's done. There's no turning back now. That's incredible, and exhilarating, and yes, a little bit scary, but above all else it's exciting. And therein, my friends, lies the entire point.

309 days and counting...  photo by: caribb

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