January 2019 Budget Recap

After ringing in the new year in Brisbane, we spent another two weeks in beautiful Kilcoy, Australia, before flying to Singapore and spending the last two weeks in January on board a cruise ship.

If it hadn’t been for one single expenditure this month, we would have come in $1577 under our monthly budget. With that item, we were instead $1598 over budget for the month.

What was that single expense? Keep reading to find out more about how our budget fared during the first month of 2019.

January Travel Highlights

Before jumping into the monthly expenses, let’s recap the month of January to put the numbers in perspective.

On New Year’s Day, we moved from our first house-sit outside of Brisbane to a second house-sit in Kilcoy. Thus, our housing expenses were covered for the first half of January.

We then flew to Singapore and embarked on a 14-night cruise. The cruise was $133.48 a day for both of us, all-inclusive on taxes, fees, gratuities, meals, lodging, and transportation (not including excursions). That meant that, on average, every day we spent on the cruise ship we were running $22 under our daily budget!

More on how people could retire and live full-time on cruise ships in a future post…

Our cruise went along the Asian coast, leaving from Singapore and stopping in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue (Vietnam), Hong Kong, and finally ending in Shanghai.

Thus, our month of January was spent half on land in Australia and half at sea in Asia.

Key Savings

Except for the one $3175 expenditure, we were running very lean in terms of our daily budget in January 2019. This was thanks to:

• Two weeks house-sitting – we watched two dogs in a beautiful house overlooking some farmland in Kilcoy, Australia, so our housing was free. We also cooked most meals and ate in, so our food and entertainment expenditures were modest in the first two weeks.
• Long-term rental car – continuing from our first house-sit, we ended up paying $22/day for 36 days for a rental car, and that included collision and liability insurance.
• Last-minute cruise booking – we booked a last-minute deal that ended up costing us $133/day. That is $22 under our daily budget, so we were running under our daily budget on the cruise (if we didn’t do any excursions)

January 2019 Monthly Stats

I know that everyone is dying to hear what this massive $3175 expense is, so we’ll torture you just a little longer by reviewing our monthly stats.

For those that prefer a visual display of budget data (positive dollars correspond to under budget):

And no, that’s not an error in the chart where I just forgot to plot the blue bar (our cumulative delta against our budget). We are only $32 over our total budget after 9 months of travel – an amazing 0.069% off target.

How small is 0.069% you ask? If you hold a single piece of your hair up and compare the thickness of that hair with the width of your entire head – that’s how much we’re talking about.

Not too shabby.

(And for all of you who decided to check my math and call me out on the hair comparison, it’s close enough! Average human hair = .004”, average human head width = ~6”, 0.004/6 = .00067 = .067%).

Travel Rewards Points Usage

The primary reason for the drop in travel rewards point value this month wasn’t because we booked significant travel (just our upcoming New Zealand flights for our cruise), but because our Southwest Companion Pass finally expired.

We had two solid years of savings from the Southwest CP; and so even though I still had 100,000+ points, the “value” of those points is half what it was with our Southwest CP going away.

Side note on the Southwest CP: if you are reading this prior to February 11th, you still have the opportunity to open one of three Southwest cards (only one) and get a Southwest Companion Pass for the remainder of 2019 by meeting the minimum spend requirements. This is brand new and has not been offered in the past.

Typically, to qualify for the CP you need 110,000 points in a single year, which was most easily obtained in recent years by opening two Southwest credit cards with 50,000 sign-up bonuses, then just getting an additional 10,000 points.

While the current offer is easier to get, it is only for the remainder of 2019, whereas the typical CP is good for the remainder of the current year and the entire following year. That is why I have decided to hold off on getting it again – so we can wait until we are back in the US, and then can look at getting it for 2020-2021, assuming it’s still around.

January 2019 Expenses vs. Budget

At last, we’ve made it to the monthly expenses!

Let’s get right to it – here is our $3175 expense that brought us over budget for the month, but right on target in terms of our 9-month budget and was so worth it:

This is called “Opposites Attract” by Chris Derubeis. It’s mixed media, hand-ground aluminum and hand painted and signed by the artist. Alyssa will undoubtedly be posting more of the back story behind this piece of art with the cruise post, so stay tuned! For now, just know that we’d been looking for it for quite a while!

And yes, for those of you keeping track, that is now two fine pieces of art we have in our art collection (and zero walls as of the current moment to hang them on).

That’s one of the great things about having a budget that you track your progress against. If you had asked me at the beginning of this trip if I would consider purchasing a $3,000+ work of art, the answer would have been an immediate HELL no! But, it’s also important to reward yourself in life, and since we’d been doing a great job saving a lot and living under budget the past few months, we knew that we could afford it – and put us right back at our 9-month budget target.

Food and housing were both way under budget (again). Ground transport was primarily due to the rental car in Australia, which is fine considering that as our cost necessary to stay for free at the house-sits.

Discretionary was – you guessed it – the Derubeis artwork.

Our expenses over time for January 2019:

Lessons Learned and Takeaways

• Australia was great
  • Again, it helped the exchange rate was 1 Australian Dollar to 0.70 USD, so while the prices we paid in AUD are not far from normal, we essentially got a 30% discount on all our food and other purchases.
  • We enjoyed Kilcoy – it’s very different from the cities and definitely not a tourist destination, but that’s what made it appeal to us even more
• House-Sits save significant money on housing
  • If you haven’t noticed the pattern yet – we love house-sitting, and it’s a fantastic way to save money while seeing the world!
• Cruises are luxurious, but can also be affordable
  • For our $133/day cruise (everything except excursions), that meant we were $22/day under our daily budget. People can (and do) live on cruise ships full-time and have an affordable type of luxury retirement home.

Assumptions and Notes:

• All monthly expenses are totals for two people

For February, we already know that we will again be tipping the scales in the direction of going over-budget. Our 16-night cruise to New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia is aboard the Celebrity Solstice, a much larger ship than our most recent cruises. We will also be splurging for a Concierge Suite, meaning we get butler service, since that will push me over the rewards threshold to finally become a Celebrity “Elite” Captain’s Club member for our final cruise home from Tokyo in April.

Be sure to tune in next month to see how our stays on land in Asia went in terms of budget, and how the cruise turns out!