Four Months. The Budget.

“So how much do you think the trip would cost you?”

This was the question I was asked a lot before the trip, but I did not have an answer. All I knew was the cost of our one way tickets to Japan and then the AirBnB apartment rent in Tokyo. The rest was a mystery. While I researched details for the trip I failed to find exact information on how much other families spent on their RWT. The only detailed blog post with yearly travel costs for a family of four that I stumbled upon had a six digit budget figure! I was discouraged to say the least. It made me think that a year trip for a family of four is completely out of reach. We are not rich. We are not poor. I think we are middle class. The only reason we thought we could afford to travel is because we could rent our house and generate income while on the road. Also, we were very disciplined for a year before the trip and tried our best to live on Kuba’s salary only putting mine away in a savings account.

We figured that a trip like the one we had in mind can be very expensive but also it can be affordable with a few sacrifices. We were willing to rough it in. None of us cares for comforts and we are not picky eaters or high maintenance travelers. So we packed our backpacks, made arrangements for the house rental and got on the plane to Tokyo.

Judging by the way Kuba and I deal with money I knew that we won’t be keeping an exact spreadsheet of our daily expenditures. Our main goal was to stay under $100/day on average, all costs included, even the cost of the expensive airfare tickets spread over the duration of our trip. At the beginning of the trip we were spending way more than that. No matter how you slice it, $100/day for four travelers won’t take you far in expensive cities like San Francisco, Tokyo or Kyoto. Besides that, we were so thrilled to be on the road that we were jam packing our days with exciting activities that were costing us … a lot of money. In Japan we had very nice accommodations and we visited temples left and right.  Don’t get me wrong: if you are on vacation that is ok, but we were shooting to make it on the road for at least a year. We had to make adjustments.

The more we traveled the more skilled we became on living cheaply and doing less. We simplified our accommodations and became more selective about the activities we chose to do. We slowly realized that the journey is the destination and instead of packing our days with visits to great sightseeing spot we just walked, ate, connected with locals, explored and observed.

Slow travel won’t fit our travel style though. We are all too curious to stay in one location for weeks. Maybe the need to hunker down for a longer period of time will come later on our journey but for now we move every 5 – 7 days, which adds to our travel costs.

With our last country, Cambodia, I think we found the perfect balance of doing and experiencing. We are getting better travelers with time.

THE NUMBERS SO FAR:

Country	Days Traveled	Money Spent	Average per Day
Japan	20	$3,545	$177
Thailand	30	$3,090	$103
Laos	26	$1,823	$70
Vietnam	30	$1,730	$57
Cambodia	24	$1,238	$51
Total	130	$11,426	$88

On top of the daily expenses above we also spent:

$4,985 on airplane tickets:

(Asheville – San Francisco, San Francisco – Tokyo, Osaka – Phuket, Thailand, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Denpasar, Bali – Kathmandu, Nepal)

$1,291 on travel insurance for a year.

Now that we have a framework we would keep the budget log updated each month. After Indonesia and Nepal I expect our daily average to drop to $80/day. This will bring us to a total of $100 day average including our flights, visa and health insurance costs.

Here are a few money saving tips we learned during our first 4 months on the road.

Don’t skip on accommodations but don’t splurge either.

Accommodations are very important to us. We noticed that the quality and the location of the place we stay at affects greatly the overall impressions of our destination. If our room sucks we don’t enjoy our stay no matter how much fun we have during the day. That is a big change for Kuba and I from the days of solo traveling. Traveling with the kids makes us pay attention to details like sunlight, cleanliness, air circulation, safety, outdoor spaces to hang out and do homework…

We realized the importance of accomodations in Luang Prabang. There we scored on a $10/night room in a great location but the space was pretty unappealing, bordering on slightly dirty (I am being kind here). It was not gross enough to dismiss it though. It was livable so we stayed. But we didn’t anticipate that we would we would fall in love with Luang Prabang and would stay there for 6 nights. Well, I still shudder at the thoughts of that dingy room and Raina still repeats now and then: “We stayed too long in LP!”.

Lesson learned: Don’t skimp on accommodations, no matter how tempting. Find a balance between cost and quality and don’t compromise or you might burn out if you don’t nurture your homie spirit. It is totally essential and worth every penny.

Eat street food.

No, we haven’t gotten sick eating street food and drinking drinks with the ice only the locals can stomach. Yes, we have gotten our best travel experiences eating by the road and we have saved a lot of money doing that. A meal in a restaurant is 2 to 3 times more than street food and it is probably cooked under the same hygienic conditions. Another rule: try to eat local dishes. Eating pizza in Laos will cost you dearly. Eating rice dishes though costs peanuts.

Now and then we do have cravings for food that is familiar to us and we do splurge, but the bulk of our food is local.

Walk short distances. 

Try to avoid taking taxis. Ride costs add up.Being a tourist and a foreigners you will most probably be taken advantage of and overcharged. If you decide to take a taxi don’t just jump in. Agree on the price beforehand to avoid quarreling later.

People try to cheat us daily on the price of tuk-tuks and the distances we need to travel. Really?! Today at Phenom Penh a dude was trying to tell us that it is 4 km from central market to the river. Quick check on the phone: 950 meters. The good part was that he started laughing at himself when caught. It makes me not be angry with the Cambodians. They are just trying to make a living. Whatever. We walked.

Bargain. For everything. You are expected to.

That being said today I didn’t bargain for a pair of short pants and it felt very strange after months of perfecting my bargaining skills. The girl asked for $8 and I just paid the price. Maybe I was in shock that the size I fit in was XL. At the beginning of our trip we thought that everything is SO cheap, so why bother argue for a few bucks, but we slowly learned that tourists (barangs) are being overcharged triple or more for everything! Again, it adds up when you are on the road for a year so we had to learn to haggle. Don’t be shy but don’t bargain too low. The sellers will laugh at you.

If you can, make your own breakfast, coffee and tea.

Coffee can drain your budget. At $1-$1.50/cup it does not come cheap. This is the cost of an adult meal! Kuba can drink 5 coffees/day. Total budget killer. So we bought a Vietnamese coffee filter and started making our own. The problem is that we don’t always have access to hot water.

In Vietnam we also learnt that buying ingredient for sandwiches is not cheaper than buying a sandwich at the street stall. We were overcharged for every sandwich ingredient we bought, so at the end our sandwiches costed exactly as much as the ones on the street, but they were less delicious as we were missing all the yummy sauces.

Fly with Air Asia if travelling in Asia

Cheap cheap cheap. Just make sure you don’t get any supplements as you book as it adds up. Carry cash on board as if you get hungry you can’t use your credit card. We learnt this the hard way. Also, if you need to check in a bag do this as you book. The price is triple at check in. Ouch again.

Our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Yoguakarta was $36/ person. Brilliant. But when we ran into trouble we got terrible customer service and no help and sympathy from AirAsia. Know that if things go smoothly you will be ok. If something unexpected happens, well, you need extra patience and extra cash to resolve the issue. Would we fly with them again? Probably.

Get Charles Schwab bank account

This bank does not have foreign transaction fees. We didn’t get one before the trip and after seeing how much money went down the drain for ATM withdraw fees we applied for one. Hopefully it will meet us in Kathmandu, Nepal.

It doesn’t have to be Charles Schwab account. I am sure other banks offers the same service.

Travel light.

That is essential if you need to walk short distances with your luggage in tow, rent small rooms or fit in a tuk-tuk with your 2 children. Less packages you carry, less things to keep an eye on and worry when in transit. At this point we fit in 3 medium sized backpacks and use probably just 10% of the stuff we carry.

Buy your own fruits and veggies at the market, and make your own fruit or veggie salad.

This is a big money saving tip for us because we tend to consume huge amounts of fresh produce.

Don’t expect to pay reduced rates for kids.

Only in Japan we could take advantage of the kodomo (child) rate. Everywhere else kids were treated as adults. The biggest hurdle was hotel room reservations on line, especially in Thailand. All the rooms we tried to reserve were for 3 people max. The moment you have 4 they would want us to rent 2 rooms. This would double our accommodation budget immediately.

How did we go around this? We booked in place. People would see the four of us and either be fine with us in a double bed room or not. If they were not, we would keep looking. Yes, it is a little more effort, but we found it to be worth it.

Also our kids eat a lot! Boryan eats as much as I do… Don’t expect to pay less on kids meals as portions are not big, but normally sized. So really, a family with 2 kids older than ten costs as much as 4 adults. Or at least pretty close. Luckily in SEAsia food is not expensive, but transit costs can add up quickly. Again, we don’t buy expensive imported packaged snacks. We eat local fruits and veggies and street treats. They cost a fraction compared to a nutritious bar or crackers imported from USA or elsewhere.

I am sure we will be adding to the list of tips. Still the most important rule while on the road is to have fun! We do splurge now and then and we do appreciate the special moments more now as they are not an everyday staple. We also feel healthier as we eat less and better, we walk more and we take time to enjoy every moment. In a way, we are living in luxury.

– M