10 things I wish I knew before budgeting a 1-year trip across multiple countries

Posted by Left_Half_1293@reddit | Shoestring | View on Reddit | 24 comments

so my gf and I just got back from 12 months across 7 countries in SE Asia. spent about €15k each which sounds like a lot but honestly for a full year it's pretty reasonable

our daily target was €30/day. actual average €41/day. that €11 difference doesn't sound like much until you realize that's €4,000+ over a year lol

anyway here's what I learned the hard way:

on budgeting :

your total trip budget and your daily budget are two different things. sounds obvious but we didn't really get that until month 3
set a rough daily target per country, even if it's a guess. having no number at all is way worse than having a wrong one
small stuff adds up insanely fast. we kept telling ourselves "it's just a coffee" yeah well that coffee cost us hundreds
atm fees and exchange rates will silently eat your budget if you're not paying attention. get a good travel card before you leave

on splitting costs as a couple/group

write down shared expenses RIGHT AWAY. "we'll figure it out later" is a lie. we almost had actual arguments about this lol
decide early who pays what and how you split. saves so much friction

on planning

check visa stuff EARLY. like way earlier than you think. we almost got stuck in vietnam because we assumed we could extend on arrival (nope)
have a rough route planned (which countries, rough order, how long) but don't overplan. some of our best weeks were places we didn't plan to stay

on staying sane

keep all your important docs in one place. finding a booking confirmation buried in 3000 sunset photos at 6am when you need to catch a bus is not fun
you don't need to see everything. FOMO is real but the best memories we have are from weeks where we slowed down and just... lived somewhere for a bit

after struggling with all of this for months (especially the expense splitting and keeping docs organized) I ended up building a small app to handle it, basically does trip planning + shared expenses + doc storage in one place. nothing crazy but it saved our trip honestly

happy to answer any questions if you're planning something similar

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morning_spark_79@reddit

That €11/day difference creeping up to €4k over a year is exactly why i keep second-guessing whether i can actually pull off something like this. The kitty system someone mentioned is smart w/ a partner but im wondering how that works when one person wants to splurge on stuff the other doesnt care about

also the visa thing is real, friend of mine got stuck in thailand for an extra week bc she didnt check extension rules. What travel card did you end up using? im lowkey collecting recommendations for whenever i finally take the plunge

Present-Carob-7366@reddit

Lots of apps do this - I've travelled with tripit for over a decade for tracking my reservations. Travelspend is my current goto for budgeting

SpinneyWitch@reddit

Exactly what I use as well.

CalifMtnGrl@reddit

Free apps already exist for these issues. TripIt keeps your reservations organization and Splitwise tracks your mutual expenses. Seems you reinvented the wheel??

ctarman@reddit

Honestly this is the kind of post I wish I read before my first long trip.

Soukchai2012@reddit

Tony Wheeler wrote a book about this type of thing in 1973.

FHOCJD@reddit

Thanks for the blast from the past. My dad traveled extensively for nickels in the 60's and then read every travel guidebook in the library. I used the Lonely Planet guidebooks traveling through Mexico, Central America and South America solo in the 80s and 90s. No internet, smart phones or GPS.

Ha - me too… LP guides and maps from 85 till about 2000. Travel is very facilitated now

Yes. And had to hope the photos came out ok once we were back home and paid to get them developed.

Any suggestions for social media postings about the old school traveling ways? It would be nice to swap stories about where others have been when it was more adventurous?

OutsideWishbone7@reddit

We did the same in 2000. It was the earlish days of online travel blogging. We had a geocities site (for those that remember Yahoo! Geocities). We would go into an internet cafe every couple of days and write a blog with full budget costs. It was quite popular. We used Lonely Planer Thorntree for advice and to meet up with people. Thorntree was amazing. The amount of knowledge thrown away when they shut it down was criminal.

Nice! When Google Earth with Street view appeared I "re-traveled" via desktop computer to all the old places. Those were the days.

whoknowswherewe@reddit

It’s an ad for the app they wrote. Sigh

Oh that pisses me off

onwardtraveller@reddit

for shared expenses your better off doing a kitty purse , agreeing what expenses it should be used for and refilling it when needed.

lesllle@reddit

on your 'staying sane' point #2 it reminds me of the saying 'you can be a traveler or you can be a tourist'. no shade to either or, but somehow it helped me understand my travel style.

gargar070402@reddit

Good for you; €15k each for the ENTIRE year sounds insanely cheap, congrats

ThrowDeepALWAYS@reddit

We spent €18,000over 3 months for a family of 3. You did great €30,000 for 2 and for a full year. Well done!

TheNiceAppuppa@reddit

Is the app available to download ?

No-Shift-3862@reddit

Just about to go on a year long trip with my wife! (USA couple). We are not spending any time in Europe, but we’ll hit up Australia and NZ before we get to SE asia, trying to do a slow travel and our first flight is booked at the end of August

Questions I have: -how far in advanced did you plan? Specifically lodging and flights. My wife and i have a general order of countries, but we don’t know how to determine how long to be in various parts of that country vs other parts. Want flexibility because we might like some places more than others once we get there, but also dont want to pay high last minute prices -what did you guys do for phone plans? Hopefully affordable -what about health insurance? - besides skipping the coffee here and there, whats a big thing you learned that saves more money than people may think