How to travel cheaply and personal cost statistics after 587 days on the road
Jan 6, 2017, 1:34 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
How to travel cheaply and personal cost statistics after 962 days on the road
Hey there! I am traveling full time since 2014 and would like to share my experiences on how to travel cheaply, hope this is the right place to put this and some might find it interesting 
The most common question I get while traveling full time is: “How are you able to afford this?” This post will hopefully provide you with some answers �� You will also find out which region in the world has been the cheapest so far in terms of Food costs after 587 days of traveling and spending roughly 30€ per day on average.
How to travel on a Budget and current cost statistics
If you are interested to check it out, just click on the link
UPDATE
Travel Costs #02 incl. Country Statistics!
Cheers,
Chris
The most common question I get while traveling full time is: “How are you able to afford this?” This post will hopefully provide you with some answers �� You will also find out which region in the world has been the cheapest so far in terms of Food costs after 587 days of traveling and spending roughly 30€ per day on average.
How to travel on a Budget and current cost statistics
If you are interested to check it out, just click on the link
UPDATE
Travel Costs #02 incl. Country Statistics!
Cheers,
Chris
Last edited by Chris1984; Jun 12, 2018 at 2:59 pm
Jan 9, 2017, 10:55 am
#5
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 661
lmfao! I have a spreadsheet too where I document all my costs etc. Some people thought I was nuts, good to know there are others that do the same 
Your budget is fantastic, I did some long term travel as well to Middle East, SE Asia and South America although I ended up spending about $27K USD over 330 days (total duration of my trip) or roughly 82 USD/day. However, I stayed in a private room with a private bathroom 95% of the time, although in a hostel, which is why my costs were higher. I ate and drank as I pleased and I also splurged in a few instances and took a Galapagos cruise (~$800) which was expensive and a liveaboard in Thailand (~$600) which added to costs as well.
Your budget is fantastic, I did some long term travel as well to Middle East, SE Asia and South America although I ended up spending about $27K USD over 330 days (total duration of my trip) or roughly 82 USD/day. However, I stayed in a private room with a private bathroom 95% of the time, although in a hostel, which is why my costs were higher. I ate and drank as I pleased and I also splurged in a few instances and took a Galapagos cruise (~$800) which was expensive and a liveaboard in Thailand (~$600) which added to costs as well.
Last edited by k374; Jan 9, 2017 at 11:02 am
Jan 9, 2017, 11:05 am
#6
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 661
Probably not, most of who visit this site are "posh" travelers who fly business class and brag about their Diamond or Plutonium or whatever elite status with the hotels and airlines... i.e. mostly business travel folks who don't spend a dime from their pocket with everything paid by their employer. Wish all of us had that kind of luxury but some of us have to front our own money and travel in coach and stay in budget hotels and watch what we spend.
Jan 9, 2017, 12:26 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
They dont know what they are missing by not using Couchsurfing! Without that i wouldnt travel at all I think.. meeting the local people is so important for me, i would get bored by just sitting in planes and loungees haha.
But everyone has its own style and as long as everyone is happy with it, its all good
But everyone has its own style and as long as everyone is happy with it, its all good
Jan 10, 2017, 10:02 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: ORD
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 16,900
A question.
Are you primarily doing this to "document" your costs, or to "control" them. If the former, I'm very much in "don't collect data if you don't intend to do anything with it" mode. So much time is wasted at work collecting data for the sake of collecting it...
If controlling, the first thing I'd do is add a column to average the cost for the trip to date at the end of each day. So, if you set a budget at $45 per day for a 100 day trip, it's easy enough to do a formula to calculate what your average to date has been.
That having been said, when I go on a trip I know in advance what I'll be expecting to pay for major expenses and decide then things like "there will be four cheap days in a row, I'm springing for a nice hotel in London the next two nights." But, never worry about ordinary daily expenses. Travel time is too previous to spend it filling out a spread sheet. Just my view.
Are you primarily doing this to "document" your costs, or to "control" them. If the former, I'm very much in "don't collect data if you don't intend to do anything with it" mode. So much time is wasted at work collecting data for the sake of collecting it...
If controlling, the first thing I'd do is add a column to average the cost for the trip to date at the end of each day. So, if you set a budget at $45 per day for a 100 day trip, it's easy enough to do a formula to calculate what your average to date has been.
That having been said, when I go on a trip I know in advance what I'll be expecting to pay for major expenses and decide then things like "there will be four cheap days in a row, I'm springing for a nice hotel in London the next two nights." But, never worry about ordinary daily expenses. Travel time is too previous to spend it filling out a spread sheet. Just my view.
Last edited by milepig; Jan 11, 2017 at 9:31 pm
Jan 12, 2017, 8:35 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 762
@Milepig:
I do this to document as I am not traveling with a limit, I have enough money saved up to travel 10+ years but still try to keep costs as low as possible as I would rather have my own house a bit earlier haha.
This screenshot is just a tiny portion and I had to remove a lot of data to make it fit. The complete sheet is full of formulas calculating averages per country etc. When im done traveling in 2018 I will have a good database and present all of the data
Cheers
Chris
I do this to document as I am not traveling with a limit, I have enough money saved up to travel 10+ years but still try to keep costs as low as possible as I would rather have my own house a bit earlier haha.
This screenshot is just a tiny portion and I had to remove a lot of data to make it fit. The complete sheet is full of formulas calculating averages per country etc. When im done traveling in 2018 I will have a good database and present all of the data
Cheers
Chris
Jan 12, 2017, 10:25 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,906
Probably not, most of who visit this site are "posh" travelers who fly business class and brag about their Diamond or Plutonium or whatever elite status with the hotels and airlines... i.e. mostly business travel folks who don't spend a dime from their pocket with everything paid by their employer. Wish all of us had that kind of luxury but some of us have to front our own money and travel in coach and stay in budget hotels and watch what we spend.
I dont think so - for many if not most here the true luxury is time. Its hard to find enough vacation time and its impossible to take kids out of school. There is very little glamour in business travel - it is mostly an inconvenience not a perk...
OP seems to be based in germany where healthcare education and basic retirement all guaranteed and paid for by government. For those based here in north america, not working means not saving for all those things and not having basic coverage with very serious long term implications...
Last edited by azepine00; Jan 12, 2017 at 10:31 am
Jan 12, 2017, 3:23 pm
#15
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: SJC/SFO
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Posts: 6,284
I dont think so - for many if not most here the true luxury is time. Its hard to find enough vacation time and its impossible to take kids out of school. There is very little glamour in business travel - it is mostly an inconvenience not a perk...
OP seems to be based in germany where healthcare education and basic retirement all guaranteed and paid for by government. For those based here in north america, not working means not saving for all those things and not having basic coverage with very serious long term implications...
OP seems to be based in germany where healthcare education and basic retirement all guaranteed and paid for by government. For those based here in north america, not working means not saving for all those things and not having basic coverage with very serious long term implications...
