Budget Requirements: Part 2

With the new itinerary adding more days to the trip as well as a new region of the world, I feel its appropriate to update my budget to reflect this change. For the most part the addition of visiting Central America would not affect the overall budget to terribly much on a daily basis, but rather just increasing the overall total. To be complete though, I wanted to do this quick update to have the most accurate reflection of what I am looking to spend.

Pre-Trip
Vaccinations: Hepatitis A & B, Yellow Fever, Typhoid: Up to $200
Visas: Up to $850 at current values, could be less
Plane Tickets: ~$3500 without Easter Island, +$500-600 with.
Health Insurance: $550 for a year, likely extended a few months to include the last few months
Trip Insurance: Up to $520
Pre-Trip Purchases: Clothes, Shoes, Supplies: Up to $400
Inflation: Estimated Price Increases, Emergencies: Up to $750
Netbook/Electronics: $400


During Trip
Hostel Nights: $15/night avg
Food: $10/day avg
Sight Seeing / Daily Transportation: $15/day avg
City to City Transportation: $5/day, travel 1 every 5 days
3 Week Japan Rail Pass: Current price, $575
Big Purchases: Scuba Diving, Day Tours, Shows, Cirque du Soleil in Tokyo/Macao. Up to $2000
Airport Transfers and Departure Taxes: Up to $500
Potential Tours with Companies: Everest Base Camp trekking up to $1000
Souvenirs: $1500 including shipping home occasionally. Likely purchases include shot glasses, shirts, and small display pieces from each country.
Bank Fees: 3% of CC/ATM transactions, about $500

This total for ~415 days would be approximately $30,000 or $72.29/day all included with $45/day going for daily expenses.

This number is very high, and will likely be a lot less. An expensive country like Japan will be offset by a cheaper country such as Laos and India. A preliminary comparison of costs estimated a savings of around $3000 for hostels and transportation being cheaper than budgeted. Not all hostels are $15/day, in fact most of them are a lot less. Nor will I probably spend $1500 on souvenirs or $2000 on big site seeing purchases. These savings could be used to offset other unexpected costs along the way - or on the extreme off chance, help out in case I cannot save that proposed amount. I will not go halfway when I travel just to be able to travel longer, instead my goal is to see it all and travel comfortably on a budget, so if I have to end earlier, so be it.

My savings plan is going well. There is still 9 1/2 months until I plan to leave, and as long as my savings goes steady I will be able to save enough to reach the goal, but I am only leaving myself a few thousand dollars to return on above the budget to get a job and start life up again. Here's to the next 9 months of savings!