How to Budget for a Year of Travel?

Greg and I are not cheap travelers, but we are budget minded. We analyzed travel plans and expenses from other full-time nomadic travelers. We pulled aside the ideas that best aligned with our needs and flushed ideas we did not think would work for us. Over the course of our year in Europe, we will intermix quicker travel destinations of a few days or week between longer stays of 25-30 days. We hope this will give us a balance of faster and slower paces in different areas. Our research shows that faster travel costs more than slower travel with accommodations eating the biggest slice of the budget. For our travel adventure, we will use a combination of Air-BNB, VRBO, Hotels.com, and Bookings.com. By researching the areas in advance, we were able to estimate an accommodation value for each location on the journey. With all of our budgeting, we always estimate a little high and then enjoy the "savings" when actual costs come in under budget.

Longer stay locations require kitchen and laundry facilities for us. We value excellent food, but do not need Michelin Star restaurants. Home cooking is a joy and gives us a break from restaurant meals. With the combination of home cooking and meals out, we estimated $50-$60 daily on food costs. This estimate will be used for all locations even though cities in France or Spain will cost more than those in Albania. Again, we like the plan high and celebrate when the costs are lower.

Why travel if you don't indulge in some bucket list entertainment? We, however, will not be chasing all of the "must-do" entertainment in our locations. They are expensive and don't always tell the life of the people around them. Our stone pathway will include tours or experiences that enhance our learning and cultural understanding, with some fun activities thrown in too for a great life adventure. As we looked to estimate the costs in each location, we considered the current cost of some bucket-list activities in comparison to the amount of natural and historical sites that would be free. The bigger cities with "must-do" activities will cost more than the beach destinations.

The biggest transportation costs are always at the start and end of the journey. We chose to start the journey with a two-week cruise, but we do not have a plan for our return journey. These two costs are not included in the table below. We did, however, estimate costs for city buses, a few short-term car rentals to get out into the countryside, a ferry ride from Italy to Albania, and plenty of train travel between cities.

Miscellaneous costs are inevitable. One cannot truly measure all of the expenses that could arise. Though we can predict the cost of haircuts, postage, clothing, beauty products, and some gear turn-over between climates, we had to cushion this category. Some travelers experience cancellations, train strikes, family emergencies, or even gear replacement. This might be a category that gets over- used in reality.

We made a mistake on our original budgeting when we failed to include any medical expenses. Basic pharmaceuticals for colds or allergies are bound to arise. We both take a daily medication that will be paid for out of pocket. Any emergent care will also be paid out of pocket too. Our new calculations include an estimate of $100 per month and this is ON-TOP of monthly expense for International Health Care which covers emergent medical care ($2777/yr for two people).

Whether you are living life at home or on the road, creating a monthly budget and reviewing it at least quarterly is a successful way to manage your finances. In the olden days, we used to balance our checkbook monthly. Google can tell the youngsters why we used a checkbook.

We are not on a permanent vacation. We're living life in another country. Because of this, we won't visit every giant monument in every town. Instead, our stone path will stay close to the main trail as we share with you the things outside the popular boundaries (which might happen to cost less). Follow along as we recap our expenses in each location.