March 2019 Budget Recap

After wrapping up our New Zealand and Australian cruise, we flew back to New Zealand to spend the entire month of March touring the South island.

We rented a car for the month and stayed in Airbnbs the entire time. As such, we didn’t save as much money as we have in past months. We ended up coming in at $1,398 over budget for the month.

March Travel Highlights

Upon arriving back in New Zealand, we decided to spend four and a half weeks on the South Island before finishing up with one week on the North Island.

My friend, Mark, flew out to visit us in March. After spending a few days in Christchurch, we drove out to Lake Tekapo to do some hiking for a week, and returned back to Christchurch to drop Mark off to return home.

We then proceeded to drive north and begin a 3 week, counter-clockwise journey around the South Island.

Once the journey of the South Island was complete, we flew from Christchurch to Auckland for a week in April.

Key Savings

Since we rented cars and stayed in Airbnb’s each night, there weren’t too many opportunities for us to save during the month of March. The primary savings were from:

• Discounted Raise.com gift cards – we continue to purchase heavily discounted Raise gift cards (get a $5 credit), saving an average of ~7-12% on our nightly bookings on Airbnb.
• Booked flights using Chase Ultimate rewards points ($589 saved) – our flights from Perth (the end of our cruise) to Christchurch were booked using Chase UR points.

March 2019 Monthly Stats

Below are our updated stats from our travels.

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

We continued to run more over budget during the month of March. However, it was worth it! We definitely didn’t want to skimp during our time in New Zealand.

Travel Rewards Points Usage

As mentioned above, we booked our flights in March using Chase UR points. Besides that, the only other points we booked were for some future flights in a few months when we get back to the US.

March 2019 Expenses vs. Budget

While we cooked meals for the majority of the time in March, the housing and ground transportation (rental car) categories were much higher than usual, accounting for most of our budget overrun.

Our Google Fi cell phone charges were also twice our usual bill, due to us using the Fi while traveling on the cruise ship with limited access to WiFi for 16 nights.

There was no way around one of the Airbnbs in New Zealand being around $175/night, even when split three ways while Mark was visiting. So while the budget shot up pretty quickly at the beginning of the month, we did hold it pretty steady as the month progressed.

Lessons Learned and Takeaways

• Expect to drive around a lot in New Zealand and spend a lot on gas
  • Gas was around 2.09-2.30 NZD per liter (equivalent to ~$5.50 USD per gallon on average), so expect to spend a decent amount on fuel while traveling around the islands of New Zealand
  • The rental cars, however, only ran us about $20/day on average
• Airbnbs saved us money
  • The average Airbnb nightly cost for the month was $81.80 USD/night. While this is double our budget, it is still a lot cheaper than most of the hotels we looked at in New Zealand.
  • The most expensive place we stayed was $175/night, while the cheapest was $45/night.
  • If you’re renting a housing as a couple (2 people), sometimes you have no option but to get a 3 or a 4 bedroom due to availability!

Assumptions and Notes:

• All monthly expenses are totals for two people
• Average exchange rates for March 2019
  • 1 USD = 1.463 NZD
  • 1 USD = 1.412 AUD

Next month, we will finish our travels in New Zealand (North Island) before moving back to Southeast Asia. We’ll be visiting Vietnam and Japan, and embarking on our final cruise back across the Pacific to start our journey home.

We expect to be slightly under budget next month. Check back to see how we do with only two months remaining before the end of our trip.