July 2018 Budget Recap

July marked our third month of living abroad. If you want to see how we managed to run more than $1000 under our budget (~20% under our $5200 monthly budget), read on for this month’s summary.

July 2018 Monthly Stats

In the month of July we covered another five countries while going through four languages (not counting our quick stop-over at the Basel, Switzerland train station as a different language):

Although we booked a few hotel nights and rental cars using rewards points ($265 in used value), we also gained points due to credit card spending and rewards. We also added an account that we had previously not been tracking, so we now have the equivalent of about $10k still in travel rewards.

We walked considerably less this month, mostly because we had several house sits where we were relaxing at the house watching animals instead of being out-and-about touring cities like in previous months. As we’ll see, that leads to massive savings for the month!

July 2018 Expenses vs. Budget

In the month of July, we proved how the wonder of house sitting can allow us to save hundreds of dollars a month on housing. We came in more than $1000 under budget (20% under our monthly target) for the entire month – even including a massive wine tour splurge in southern France ($370!) on the final day of July 31.

The wine tour – in case you were wondering – was totally worth it. Three French wineries for generous tastings, gourmet lunch with a glass of wine, and a private tour for the two of us drinking a bottle of white wine while eating fresh, raw mussels and oysters outside of Montpellier, France.

Without further ado, here are our actual expenses vs. budget for July 2018:

Total Monthly B.A.Livin’ savings from travel points and travel hacks (not included in above budget): $579

1. $475 savings using the Copenhagen Card (48- and 72-hour passes)
2. $104 in lodging savings by booking on Airbnb using discounted gift cards from Raise

And showing our expenses over time for July 2018:

Click for an interactive version of the budget graph

Lessons Learned and Takeaways

• Travel from location to location
  • Although we were $600 over budget on ground transportation, we were $800 under on flights. We now look at these two line items grouped together as one $1200 “travel” allocation for getting from place to place, so we were still under the $1200 total travel budget for July.
  • It’s already relatively well-known, but the trains in Europe have been an excellent way to get from place to place in a relaxing environment, while also allowing us to take in the beautiful countryside, sometimes up to four countries in the same day!
• House Sitting is incredible –  it has provided unforgettable memories, while also being kind to our wallet!
  • We had a total of 13 nights of housesitting in Sweden and France in the month of July.
  • Due to spending nearly half the month house-sitting, we were able to come in under-budget from our $40/night average target for housing.
  • In addition, we met some awesome couples and families, had a great time watching two cute cats, and were able to live more like the locals, vs. being in the busy tourist areas.
  • Overall, housesitting has been a phenomenal experience, and we’ll definitely look to continue to get more housesit opportunities in the coming months (we already have several more confirmed)
• Discretionary expenses continues to be primarily alcohol (bottles of wine), small souvenirs, and toiletries. Brian also used Amazon in France to get a new HDMI to Mini-Displayport cable and some razors delivered, since it was much cheaper than anything we have found in local stores!
• Cell Phone: Google’s Project Fi has continued to exceed expectations. Furthermore, WiFi is ubiquitous in the places we have traveled thus far in Europe. We continue using less than 2GB total ($20 for data) each month, less than half of what we had planned for
  • If you’re interested in signing up for Google Fi, use our referral link to get $20 off!

Notes:

• All monthly expenses are totals for two people
• USD Exchange Rate monthly averages for July 2018:
  • 1 USD = 0.855 Euro
  • 1 USD = 8.830 SEK (Swedish Krona)
  • 1 USD = 6.374 DKK (Danish Krone)

After leaving the Scandanavian countries, and after starting to use housesitting, our predictions came true and we were able to live substantially under our budget, while not cutting out fun activities like an entire day of wine tasting and eating oysters, cheering at the 13th Stage of the Tour de France, seeing as much of Copenhagen as possible using the Copenhagen card, and much more.

We do expect to have several months this fall – such as October when we are in Disney with our family – where we anticipate being over-budget, so this is all contributing to building up some cumulative budget “buffer” for the year, to allow us to splurge a little more in the coming months when needed.

However, it is fantastic that we have demonstrated it is possible to travel long-term and experience the world for under $4000/month, and it could have even been much less than that! That is probably close to the cost of a one- to two-week vacation for many couples.