I’ve been on the road for well over one year now! This post is coming out later than it normally would because I’ve been traveling without my computer since the end of March. More on that in Q2…
One of the questions I get most often is how can I afford to just travel all the time? And I try to explain that it’s not as expensive as you might think. The person I’m talking to then usually nods and smiles… and completely doesn’t believe me. So to be fully transparent, I’m sharing my quarterly spending for my nomad life. With words like “recession” and “inflation” making daily headlines its particularly relevant to show that travel and cost of living in other parts of the world is much more manageable (for those of us privileged to have or have had American incomes).
In 2022, my quarters were a month off because I did not leave until February 2022. So my Q1 started in February, my Q2 started in May, Q3 started in August, and Q4 started in November. Now that I have crossed the one-year mark, I’m switching back to a calendar year, so this quarterly report repeats the January numbers included in my Q4 spending report. Here are the numbers from my Year 2, Q1 (Y2Q1) of full time travel.
At the end of December I started moving more quickly than I have in the past, with shorter stays in each location, which continued for all of this quarter. During this quarter of travel I spent 8 days road tripping and camping along the Carretera Austral in Chile (the 12-day trip went over the New Year), 17 days in Puerto Natales, Chile, one night camping solo in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, 4 days in El Calafate, Argentina, nine days in El Chalten, Argentina, 19 days in Ushuaia, Argentina, three days in Punta Arenas, Chile, 11 days on a trip back to Torres del Paine, Chile to hike the O-Trek with JUMP Adventures, four days in Maryland, and 14 days on the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
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Caveats and Addendums
A couple of caveats for how I am categorizing my spending:
- For housing, the amount is included in the month the housing was for, not when it was paid for, because I am booking my accommodations ahead of time.
- If an expense covers more than one month (housing/rent) it will go into the month when the spending starts. However, this January, I was road tripping with two companions over New Years. Most of our expenses were merged and divided evenly at the end of our trip, so all of that spending appears in January.
- I switched to a T-Mobile phone plan before I left in February 2022 because I thought it would be better for international travel than the Verizon plan I had had for so long. But I have had nothing but issues with T-Mobile since I started with them, and in July I switched to MintMobile just so I’d have some coverage in the U.S. and to keep my U.S. phone number. I use Airalo eSIMs for data in each country or region I visit. I pay my MintMobile bill once a year and I bought a 6-month Global eSIM at the end of December so I had almost no phone expenses this quarter.
- During my time in Argentina and at the end of this quarter on the Camino, most of my spending was in cash, including paying for food and housing. So a lot of these costs are rolled into the ATM/Cash category and not reflected in their separate categories.
- Spending not related to travel will not go into total monthly travel spending (such as bar membership dues, charitable giving, and a few subscriptions like Adobe Creative Cloud and Smugmug).
Pretty Charts and Graphs
Y2Q1: January-March
Total Y2Q1 Spending: $14,858.56
Avg. Monthly Spend: $4,952.85
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $2,471.23 | 16.63% |
| Travel/Transportation | $6,759.70 | 45.49% |
| ATM/Cash | $1,782.37 | 12.00% |
| Insurance | $235.86 | 1.59% |
| Restaurants | $802.10 | 5.40% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $170.10 | 1.14% |
| Streaming Services | $67.27 | 0.45% |
| Entertainment | $662.83 | 4.46% |
| Telephone | $3.00 | 0.02% |
| General Merchandise | $522.63 | 3.52% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $956.98 | 6.44% |
| Personal Care | $147.94 | 1.00% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $276.55 | 1.86% |
If you don’t think quarterly, here is the breakdown month-to-month:
January – Chile: Carretera Austral to Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine National Park to Argentina: El Calafate to El Chalten
Total Spending: $3,744.13
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $1,325.96 | 36.20% |
| Travel/Transportation | $621.72 | 16.61% |
| ATM/Cash | $548.04 | 14.96% |
| Insurance | $78.62 | 2.15% |
| Restaurants | $444.03 | 12.12% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $71.92 | 1.96% |
| Streaming Services | $21.48 | 0.59% |
| Entertainment | $396.62 | 10.83% |
| Telephone | $3.00 | 0.08% |
| General Merchandise | $3.43 | 0.09% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $0 | 0% |
| Personal Care | $115.44 | 3.15% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $113.87 | 3.11% |
Notes:
- In January I spent over two weeks in Puerto Natales in two different accommodations. I also spent one night camping in Torres del Paine National Park. The night of camping was actually really expensive due to the limited space and high demand. I stayed at a B&B in Puerto Natales for a few days before camping and then at a hostel for two weeks after. The problem is that Puerto Natales is actually pretty expensive, so my accommodations there and in the park cost over $1,000! The rest of the Housing cost is from my hostel in El Chalten, where I was told to pay with credit card to avoid the tax. I got part of this cost refunded due to the way Mastercard has implemented the blue rate in Argentina, but it hit my credit card in February.
- As I said, Puerto Natales was expensive and unfortunately, neither the B&B or hostel I stayed in had a kitchen. This means I was eating out almost every meal, so my Restaurant spending looks like it did before I started tracking my own spending back in DC years ago.
- As I mentioned above, I joined two other women in December for a two week road trip on the Carretera Austral, Chile’s main highway through Patagonia. We rented a car and camped the whole time, cooking a lot of our own meals. We kept a running total of shared expenses and divided it at the end of the trip. So that spending went into my Travel/Transportation category this month. Other expenses in this category were the flight from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, and the long distance busses I took from Puerto Natales to El Calafate and then to El Chalten.
- My Entertainment budget was much higher than usual in January and I’m not apologizing for it. In January I trekked on a glacier, white water rafted in one of the world’s best white water destinations, took a boat tour to see amazing Marble Caves, hiked and took a day tour to some of the main highlights in Torres del Paine National Park and relaxed at natural Patagonian hot springs. Unsurprisingly, all of these things cost money. I feel like it was money well spent to enjoy some truly unique experiences during my time in Patagonia.
- The only downside to my visit to Torres del Paine was that I lost my beloved Browncoats hat 🙁. It wasn’t even the strong winds that took it, I just dropped it getting into the bus and didn’t notice until we had driven away. I hope somewhere a Guanaco (llama-like animal) is enjoying its new hat. I was able to find another one online and ordered that, along with some shoes for another upcoming adventure. Instead of listing these in a later month when I’ll actually have them in my possession, I just included these clothing items in January’s spending.
February – El Chalten to Ushuaia, Argentina to Punta Arenas, Chile
Total Spending: $2,108.88
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $977.20 | 43.31% |
| Travel/Transportation | $77.53 | 3.44% |
| ATM/Cash | $500.00 | 22.16% |
| Insurance | $78.62 | 3.48% |
| Restaurants | $59.66 | 2.64% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $88.77 | 3.93% |
| Streaming Services | $24.31 | 1.08% |
| Entertainment | $177.99 | 7.89% |
| Telephone | $0 | 0% |
| General Merchandise | $101.94 | 4.83% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $22.58 | 1.01% |
| Personal Care | $0 | 0% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $0 | 0% |
Notes:
- This month was spent almost entirely on the Argentinian side of Patagonia. This is important for two reasons. First, Argentina is a less expensive place to travel than Chile. Second, as previously mentioned, I rely more heavily on cash in Argentina than in other countries. Both of these reasons are related to the unusual money situation in Argentina. Starting in December it became possible to use credit cards more in Argentina, however I still had large piles of pesos. Since I knew I would be leaving South America in March, I wanted to spend the cash I had.
- You may have noted my lack of Travel/Transportation spending this month. I did travel by bus from El Chalten to Ushuaia– a trip that took over 24 hours– and from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas. But busses are a relatively cheap, easy, and safe way to get around in Patagonia and also let you see the countryside. Since I wasn’t in a hurry I decided to take the slow way to get around, and I was able to save on travel spending accordingly.
- I splashed out a little on entertainment again this month, paying for a couple of organized tours in Ushuaia to Tierra del Fuego National Park. But, I also had a lot of free entertainment in the form of full and half day hikes in El Chalten. Again, I’m not apologizing for enjoying my time in Patagonia.
- Also included in the ATM/Cash number is most of my restaurant spending; while I have started using credit cards in Argentina I still mainly use cash. Same with groceries.
- Insurance includes my SafetyWing travel medical insurance, which renews monthly and covers my travel and health insurance needs abroad. I rely on my SafetyWing abroad and my ACA coverage in the U.S.
March – Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine, Chile to Galena, Maryland, to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, France to the Camino France, Spain
Total Spending: $9,005.55
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $168.07 | 1.87% |
| Travel/Transportation | $6,060.45 | 67.30% |
| ATM/Cash | $734.33 | 8.15% |
| Insurance | $78.62 | 0.87% |
| Restaurants | $298.41 | 3.31% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $9.41 | 0.10% |
| Streaming Services | $21.48 | 0.24% |
| Entertainment | $88.22 | 0% |
| Telephone | $0 | 0% |
| General Merchandise | $417.26 | 4.63% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $934.12 | 10.37% |
| Personal Care | $32.50 | 0.36% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $162.68 | 1.81% |
Notes:
- I knew at the end of 2022 that my spending this March would be way above average. Because this month I did an organized tour in Patagonia, flew from South America to the United States and then from the United States to Europe, had to buy some specialized clothing and equipment, and refill an expensive prescription.
- I was originally supposed to hike the O Circuit in Torres del Paine in January 2020, but I had to cancel due to an injury, and then the world shut down for a while. So I’ve been waiting to do this particular hike for quite a while. A podcaster I follow has led some trips to Patagonia, and had led a trip to do this hike in 2022. At the time it conflicted with my schedule, but at the end of 2022, I emailed her to ask if she would be leading the trip again. She told me the dates and I signed up as soon as she started taking reservations. I knew it would be a little more pricey than my usual budget. But it was one of the first things I had on my wish list of things to do once I retired.
- Another item on my retirement wish list was to walk the entire Camino Frances to Santiago. The most popular months to do the Camino are May-September, but I knew I wanted to walk earlier when it was cooler and less crowded. So my next destination after South America was Spain, but I decided to get there via a few days back at my mother’s house in Maryland. I was trying to reach the minimum spend to get the sign-up bonus on a new credit card, so I paid for my flights instead of using points. Between my O Circuit tour, two international flights, and the rental car while I was back in the United States, my Travel/Transportation spending was pretty high this month.
- My General Merchandise spending was higher than usual. Since I hadn’t been back to the United States since August 2022, I bought some souvenirs for my family before leaving South America. I also bought some supplies from REI for my upcoming Camino. I ended up returning some of the REI stuff in May, but that’ll be reflected in my Q2 spending report.
- The other anomaly is my Healthcare/Medical spending this month. Another reason to go to Spain via the United States was because I had to refill a prescription. This included a medical appointment to get a new prescription written and a visit to the pharmacy. I opted for the biggest supply of the prescription as possible so the cost reflected that. But hopefully I won’t have to refill the prescription again for the rest of the year.
Tracking Expenses Made Easy
If you are worried that I am spending too much time tracking every cent, don’t worry, I’m not doing anything! I use Personal Capital to track all my spending. Which is also why my cash spending may be slightly off. If you are serious (or even just curious) about financial independence, you need to know where your money is, and where it is going every month. If you want to give Personal Capital a try, clicking the link here, signing up, and linking an account will get you a free $20 (and I’ll get $20 too). There are other applications like Mint or your bank or brokerage firm’s portfolio tracker, but this has become my preferred tracker.
So What Does This Mean?
“Thanks for showing us all your spending Rachel, so, what does it all mean?” Fair question. And while some people may subscribe to the belief that FIRE means living on rice and beans and never spending money (I met someone a few months ago who mansplained to a group that that’s what I was doing when I said I had FIREd), I am not in that camp. I would not have quit my job to travel if it meant I could never enjoy the places I go. And sometimes, it costs a little more. My budget has some cushion, and I’ll make it up in the future.
Y2Q1 was definitely expensive for me, with an average monthly spend of just under $5,000, because of my hiking trip in Torres del Paine and Patagonia just generally being more expensive. But it just means I have to balance out the expensive months of travel with time in lower cost destinations, which I plan to do later in 2023.
This budget also only tracks my EXPENSES, it says nothing about income. Since February 2022, I also sold my possessions including my condo and my car, received income from investment dividends and sold some of my photography in a gallery. This quarter I also re-sold some of the camping gear I bought in December for Patagonia. I have yet to draw down anything from my FIRE nest egg.
So what it means is that despite worldwide concerns about inflation and recession, I am able to travel and enjoy my time exploring new countries without breaking the bank. In Y2Q1 I traveled to both Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia, and then to Spain via the United States. I’ve hiked, camped, and trekked; I’m not sitting at home trying to spend as little as possible. Full time travel is not as expensive as the nodders and smilers think it is, and here are my numbers to prove it!
This post contains affiliate links and referral codes. By clicking these links and signing up/ordering items I’ve linked to or recommended, I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you. If I have linked to a product/service, it is because I have used it, liked it, and would recommend it.
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