Don’t think you can’t do it, it’s totally possible, and this was well under my goal of $100 a day.
I’ve always been a saver, never really one for budgeting per se… but from Day 1 of my trip I tried to track my spending every day, everything from accommodation and transport to postcards and bottles of water. I started doing this in a Google Sheets document on my phone, and it was messy, but it worked. Then a fellow traveller introduced me to TripCoin (currently it’s only available for iOS unfortunately). It has a currency converter (but you can also set your own rate), and automatically produces the data to show you averages per country and category. It was just good to get a general idea of how I was tracking, and how long I could keep travelling for, when I could afford to splash out or when public transport was a better option (almost always). It also lets you split the cost of something over a number of days – for example I bought a flight from Prague to Bangkok two weeks in advance, so I split the cost of the flight over 14 days.
Most places I stayed were hostels that I found through the Booking.com and HostelWorld apps. I would always go either through the hostel’s website or contact them on Facebook to see if they had a cheaper rate. It’s not always possible, it’s definitely worth checking if you can book direct to save a dollar or two. I also took advantage of Booking.com rewards – using another Genius Traveller’s link (here’s mine) – for bookings over $50 you get a $25 reward directly debited onto your credit card.
One of the biggest ways to save was buying groceries and cooking my own food. Yes, I do completely agree that food is such an integral part of a cultural experience, but I don’t think that means you have to eat out for every single meal, every single day. Often, hostels provided a free breakfast which was great. Sometimes I’d take a croissant, a boiled egg and some fruit as my lunch, and then go out for dinner. Another benefit of hostels is the free food shelf – there’s almost always rice or pasta, and often some other leftovers you can take advantage of. It’s great to buy fresh produce from local markets and then cook yourself (or maybe some new friends) a feast. Cooking for myself really only worked if I knew I was staying somewhere for a couple of days or more, otherwise I’d have to cart around groceries from place to place.
I still ate local cuisine in most places anyway; amazing curries in Sri Lanka and India, langos in Budapest, Lake Bled’s famous cream cake, pierogi dumplings in Poland, moussaka in Greece, vegetarian currywurst in Germany, truffled pasta in Croatia… and I ate out all the time in cheaper countries like Sri Lanka, Albania and Vietnam.
So I mainly travelled Asia and eastern Europe, during off-peak season. I started at the end of March, hitting Sri Lanka and India before heading over to Hungary. My main motivation for travelling these places was that I’d never been there before, and not many people I know had. I knew very little about them, and had zero expectations. This really paid off, and countries like Albania (which turned out to be my favourite), Poland and Bosnia & Herzegovina were much less touristy and much more affordable than I expected. Even in Croatia, quite a popular destination, I saved money on hostels and entrance fees because I visited towards the end of May which is still not yet peak season.
Another way I stretched my budget is volunteering. I volunteered at a hostel in Albania, cleaning bathrooms and managed check ins and outs for four hours a day, five days a week over two months in exchange for a free bed and breakfast. Many people use Workaway or HelpXchange to find volunteer opportunities like this but I just asked the managers at the place I was staying. This was an awesome way to get to know a place, make really good friends, learn a bit of the language and become immersed in a culture, rather than stopping for two or three days then moving on. I was able to travel to other parts of the country on my days off, and even stay at other hostels for free because of the good relationships between management. I highly recommend this – it was actually the highlight of my entire trip.
In Europe, it was coming into summer so it was warming up but not yet HOT, so I was able to walk everywhere. Well, not everywhere… but a lot. It (kind of) kept me active, and you notice so much more when you walk! Little alleyways and backstreets, places not on the map, and local favourites. You come across some real gems this way, like pubs with pool tables, tiny supermarkets, cheap restaurants, free galleries, parks and street art. The best adventures are unexpected!
I valued these experiences much more than things, and I didn’t buy souvenirs. (I took a bazillion photos though, and sent postcards to my loved ones from almost every place I went to.) I have a few reasons for not buying souvenirs. One is that I just didn’t have room to carry them around. Another is I that don’t need them, definitely not plastic, or mass-produced …crap. Especially when too often trinkets I see that I think are sweet and unique, special to the place I’ve seen them, turn up in department stores or chain stores back home in Australia. That totally ruins it for me. Occasionally I’ll buy something, especially if it’s handmade and local, or if it’s something I need, like the laptop case I bought in Cambodia made from recycled hessian sacks (although sadly I did see them a couple of months later for sale in Sydney…). Seeing as I don’t have a house I don’t have anywhere to put much anyway!
This way of travel isn’t for everyone, and I completely understand that, but it worked for me. It didn’t stop me from having a good time by any means, and I have enough money left over to head off again this year – in fact I’ve just arrived in the UK, and once again with zero plans. Woohoo!
Note…I’m talking about Aussie dollars 🙂
CARMEN TOM 