I figured it’s time for an update on how well we’re managing our finances. We’re just over 3 months into our international journey (actually I'm writing this on our 3 month USA departure anniversary), but we’ve been traveling for almost 4 now. If you look back at what we have budgeted, when we average it over the whole trip (est. end date July 4ish, 2017) we could spend about $135 a day. We know that we have some expensive times coming in Africa with a safari and climbing Kilimanjaro, and the tour of India will likely be over the $135 a day average once we buy plane tickets and food, but we have mitigated that by our farm stay in Ireland and by staying with friends and family, as well as trying to make as many budget choices without feeling like we can’t have a decent meal once in awhile.
At 4 months on the road, 3 internationally, we are averaging $86.44 a day, putting us well below the budget. We know that we have some expensive times coming up, but hopefully we can get out of Europe still well under $100 a day average. Based on what we plan on spending in Greece, this shouldn't be an issue. We are currently $1600 under our budget, but we have spent a lot less on lodging than we planned on. Our initial plan was to travel for a year, but as our projected end date for our trip has shifted to allow meeting up with some friends next summer, we are actually looking at about 410 days of traveling (starting when we left Virginia).
Even though Africa and India will be expensive relative to our trip thus far, we hope to still be under budget when we head into Southeast Asia. Our current plan is to lay low in one place for a couple weeks when the India tour ends (likely Vietnam) as we'll probably be tired of bouncing from place to place. Then we are meeting our awesome friends Bri, Marie, and Chip (sorry Chip, we don't have the Rome post written yet to link to...) in Vietnam just after Christmas and Cara's brother in Thailand mid-January. We plan on doing lots during both of these visits, but the dollar goes a lot further in Asia so it should be a cheap time. After that we are planning on spending some time in Cambodia before going to Japan and then heading off to Australia and New Zealand!
We still need to plan our time in Australia and New Zealand, but with that exception we have at least some budget put together for the rest of our trip. We have been talking about adding Ecuador in the spring and trying to meet some other friends there, but we don't know if that will work out exactly. Since we want to WWOOF again (hopefully with a better overall experience) in New Zealand, we should be able to afford it and still have enough to get back to the USA without stowing away on a cruise ship.
-Jeff