Please note that the following prices are in Australian Dollar and cover a family of 3.
One of the most common questions we get asked is “how do you afford to travel so much?”
The answer is simple. We saved some money before we left, we have a small income online, but mostly we budget. That’s right. Our instagram might look glamorous but the truth is we stick to a pretty tight budget of $180 AUD per day. How did we come up with this amount you might ask? Well honestly it’s all we could afford to spend in a year and we also love a good challenge. In some countries like Vietnam this budget is more than enough to not only survive but to thrive. However, in places like Europe, we will struggle to stay under budget so the idea is to live as cheaply as we can in SE Asian countries in order to build up a kitty that will help us when we need more money in other countries.
With that being said, here is our complete 30 day breakdown of exactly what we spent.
Accommodation: $486.47
Things to consider: when we are staying in nicer resorts we are typically collaborating with them and paying out of pocket. This is a great way for us to indulge in some luxury without busting the budget.
Food: $1472.36
Things to consider: food bills can vary a lot depending on whether you are eating at street vendors or restaurants. We found that street food was typically around $2 per meal whilst restaurants was closer to $10 per meal. Our food bill also includes alcohol but in Vietnam beer is less than $1 a can.
Experiences: $713.33
Things to consider: we are not big tour people, we much prefer to explore a place ourselves, however, we did splurge on a few tours/activities here in Vietnam.
Travel: $550.43
Things to consider: This price does not include our flights. It is motorbike rental and taxis.
Laundry: $25.85
Things to consider: We did laundry 4 times in 30 days and it was typically $7 each time. Laundry is based on weight so obviously it will depend on how much clothing you are washing.
Shopping: $438.71
Things to consider: We got custom outfits made whilst in Hoi An that totaled around $150 and we had to purchase a lot of new clothing for our daughter as she had a growth spurt.
Bank Fees: $10
Things to consider: We bank with ING so we do NOT incur any international fees for using our card and we receive 4 free ATM withdrawals per month and after that it is $5. In most small towns and street vendors you need to pay cash so we had to use the ATM a few too many times this month.
Flights: $563.02
Things to consider: We are a family of 3 and we always book the cheapest flight available.
Visa: $112.35
Things to consider: This amount covers 30 days in Vietnam for 3 people.
Medical: $21.60
Things to consider: We had a motorcycle accident so this total covers our Hospital trip and creams to treat the wounds. We are covered by Hey Mondo’s Multitrip insurance so if anything major happened we would be covered. This amount is things like medicine and bandaids etc.
That brings our grand total for 30 days of holidaying in Vietnam to $4394.12. This was our first month tracking our Budget so whilst we were $1005.88 under budget we were hoping to only spend around $4000. I think the main reason we over spent was that we started to tire of street food and restaurants were not very cheap. We also chose to do a few luxury tours but they were well worth the money.
For more travel tips and to follow our daily adventures as we make our way to as many countries as we can follow us on instagram @lifeofatravelfamily
Also if you like to track your spending and your planning on, or currently are road tripping download our budget tracker HERE
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