Let’s talk about money. Travelling for as long as I’ve done is a huge privilege. I had quite a chunk saved up from part-time jobs but I didn’t have enough to fund my whole trip. I’m so lucky to have family who were willing to loan me money when I ran out, enabling me to travel for as long as possible before starting my job. With that being said, the amount of money I spent might be less than you’d think…
So I spent around £1000 a month, which is equivalent to my rent in London to put it in perspective. I did travel in an extremely frugal way in general, but splashed out on activities here and there. Doing a lot of volunteering with free accommodation and food helped bring my average down.
When I set out on my trip I did a rough budget, estimating £790 a month and so £10,000 for 13 months. I spent more than this each month and travelled for 14.5 months. Again, without my family loaning me money I would’ve had to come home a lot sooner! I’m afraid I didn’t keep a proper record of all of my expenses until the last few months so I can’t give a proper breakdown of my spending on different things, but here’s a rough overview of the average cost of a hostel and of a meal. I was going to do an average monthly cost for each place but because I volunteered in some and not others it doesn’t really work - sorry!
I did travel on a budget to the extreme and at times it was exhausting to constantly be as cheap as possible. It’s definitely not for everyone! I stayed in some truly awful places, and continued to stay in them as I didn’t want to spend more money on somewhere nicer. I never went for a fancy meal or even ate western food (this one was fine with me, I loved the local places!). I chose the cheapest travel options and tried to do everything myself rather than through tours. I did actually enjoy this aspect of travelling, it was a challenge and helped me make decisions. It didn’t stop me from doing anything I wanted and I did still splash out on some activities. But I can see how having a bit more money might be helpful, in not having to stress so much and be able to do even more fun stuff in each place.
Some of my most asked questions are about my budget and the cost of travelling. I hope this sheds some light on the matter, but if you’re planning a trip and want more information feel free to reach out!