A selfie of two happy travelers (especially after looking at the expense reports for Spain and Croatia!) 

It’s been 10 months, 3 continents, 15 countries, 60 beds, 11 currencies and 4600+ photos since we sold our possessions, quit our jobs, and started traveling. 

It’s been pretty amazing so far! 

New to the blog?  Start here.

Touring can be expensive (and tiresome) so we sandwich short bursts of travel through more expensive locales with longer one month stays in less expensive locations. The cost of accommodations is usually a traveler’s greatest expense in addition to the to extra transportation expenses.

Yikes! I have 4 months of Travel Expense Reports to share.

I use the Trail Wallet app to track all expenses and prepare reports both for calendar months or by “trip” – which I find more enlightening. (Same data, different reports.) All dollar amounts are totals for both of us.

August 2015:  England and Spain

I don’t have any! 

In August I lost all the Trail Wallet data when my iPhone went for a swim. It was a huge disappointment. I was anxious to be able to brag how the month of August was coming in under $1500 thanks to a long housesit with a provided car and opportunity to cook at home. The only consolation I have is knowing there is an iCloud backup, and when I buy a new iPhone will be able to restore it. (I will update the data here at that time. Editor’s note:  We discovered that the data was not stored in the cloud. Bummer.)

September 2015:  Spain and Romania:  $2085.53 = $69.52 per day.  September includes an extended stay, a Spain road trip, and a flight and week in Romania.

Expenses for 48 days in Spain:  $1951.24 =  $40.65 per day. Whoo hoo!!!(The missing August data most likely will cause this amount to increase slightly.)

Accommodations (only paid for 6 nights or $53.24/night): $325.40

Food:  $553.76 =  $11.54 per day

Transportation:  $724.47 = $15.09 per day

Entertainment:  $213.59 = $4.45 per day (Tangier day trip, massages)

Miscellaneous:  $134.03 = $2.79 per day (includes an unfortunate dishwasher fiasco.)

Expenses for 22 days in Romania:  $1594.28 = $72.47 per day

Accommodations:  $728.22 = $33.10 per day

Food: $413.66 = $18.80 per day

Transportation: $307.08 = $13.96 per day (includes $150 flights)

Entertainment: $56.10 = $2.55 per day (includes massages)

Miscellaneous: $13.57 = $.62 per day

Offering:  $75.65 = $3.44 per day

October 2015:  Eastern Europe: $2895.01 = $93.39 per day. (This include Romania, Budapest, Vienna, Graz, and Prague and train travel.)

Accommodations:  $1272.55 = $41.05 per day

Food: $738.05 = $20.58 per day

Transportation: $630.03 = $20.32 per day (lots of train trips)

Entertainment: $188.12 = $6.07 per day

Miscellaneous: $115.83 = $3.74 per day (mobile, VPN, insurance)

Offering:  $50.43 = $1.63 per day

November 2015:  The Balkans:  $1573.67 = $52.46 per day. 

Accommodations:  $799.89= $26.66

Food:  $486.94 = $$16.23 per day

Transportation:  $155.66 = $5.19 per day

Entertainment:  $38.20 = $1.27 per day

Miscellaneous:  $92.99 = $3.10 per day (mobile, VPN, insurance)

Expenses for 35 days in Croatia: $1735.35 = $49.58 a day. Our Food Expense was a record-breaking low of $14.16 per day. 

Links to past Travel Expense Reports:  July 2015, June 2015, April and May 2015, February and March 2015 

*List 0f Accommodations:

Housesitting in Kelsale, England: 6 nights

Housesitting in Pinos del Valle, Spain: 41 nights

Ronda, Spain:  Hotel Ronda, 1 night, $38

Tarifa, Spain:  Hostal Tarifa, 2 nights, $48/night

Seville, Spain: Hostal Jentoft, 2 nights, $50.60/night includes parking

Santa Elena, Spain:  Mesón del Depeñaperras, 1 night, $41 includes breakfast

Bucharest, Romania:  Bucharest Boutique Accommodations, 4 nights, $37.60/night includes breakfast and airport transfers

Bucharest, Romania:  Hello Hotel Garda Nord, 2 nights, $32.70/night

Brasov, Romania: Casa Terezia, 2 nights, $27/night

Sighisoara, Romania: Casa Lia, 2 nights, $29/night

Sibiu, Romania: Style Residence, 1 night, $31

Arad, Romania:  Pensiunea Nimbus, 2 nights, $59/night includes breakfast

Timisoara, Romania:  Pensiunea Timisoara, 1 night, $27 includes breakfast

Timisoara, Romania:  AirBnB Apartment, 7 nights, $28/night

Budapest, Hungary:  DnD Apartments, 4 nights, $46.50/night

Vienna, Austria:  CheckVienna Apartment, 2 nights, $76.70/night

Prague, Czech Republic:  Zlata Vaha, 4 nights, $50/night includes breakfast

Graz, Austria:  A & O Hostel, 1 night, $92 (Pretty sure they took advantage of the fact that we were stranded due to the Syrian Refugees traveling on the railroad tracks.)

Zagreb, Croatia:  Apartments Henrik, 1 night, $56

Racovika, Croatia:  House Ivana, 2 nights, $22.60/night

Split, Croatia:  AirBnB, 30 nights for $805, $26.83/night

Mostar, Bosnia: Star City Guesthouse, 2 nights, $26.30/night

Kotor, Montenegro: Old City Hostel, 1 night, $28.65

Kotor, Montenegro:  J&P Apartment, 4 nights, $24.30/night

* Most short-stay accommodations are booked through Booking.com. Longer-stays are booked through AirBnB and VRBO.com. The housesitting assignments are arranged through TrustedHousitters.com.

10 months! No chiropractic, no haircuts nor hair color, no souvenirs. I haven’t even desired any Retail Therapy.  I spent months getting rid of possessions and have been content with what I have.  Recently with cooler whether I felt I needed a sweater so I bought a black sweater. I now am considering how and where to replace my worn out shoes.

Where are we? We arrived on December 4, 2015 for a month stay in Lecce, Italy! 

Next time on Meet You in the Morning:  Christmas in Italy.  Ciao!