On The Banana Pancake Trail

Budgets and Spending for Five Months of Travel

(Note: I know I have been neglecting the blog lately. Although I was hoping to write more about our experiences, since there is still so much we never shared, I think Tim and I’s life has officially moved back to boring/conventional mode. Therefore, all thoughts of beaches and exotic curries have been replaced with excel files and how to find a decent apartment to rent in Boston. We hope you’ve enjoyed the posts!)

People always want to know how much money we needed to save to quit our jobs and travel the world. It was the question we got from everyone before we left, so Tim and I decided to keep track of everything we spent. (okay I did, and I bugged Tim about everything he spent money on that day during dinner.)

Quitting our jobs was a far from reckless whim. We saved for years before we went and I kept spreadsheets. I researched each country and gave us daily budgets based on other backpackers’ experiences. The daily spending was only a fraction of the cost though. We had to budget for travel, pre-departure expenses, other home expenses (b/c some bills just don’t go away), emergency funds, and we needed money for when we came home unemployed.

Now, I’m opening up my budget notebook. I want everyone to know just how cheap you can travel in Asia. How much money did we need to travel for 5 months and spend 6 weeks unemployed in the States? More