How We Spent $5,875.49 on Travel in June

Our June travel expenses were much closer to budget than we’ve been before – mostly due to a hefty medical bill. Read on for details.

For those of you interested in a complete breakdown for our entire trip, you can access our budget tracking spreadsheet here. We spent a few hours redoing it late last year and it’s made seeing our expenses at a glance super easy. Give us a shoutout in the comments if you like it!

Trip Budget(s) vs. Budget Overview

A quick refresher on the budgets we cover in our monthly review. Our trip budgets show what we spent on a trip that lasts anywhere from 3-10 days. If you’re planning a trip to this same location, it should give you an idea of expected travel expenses.

June 2018 Trip Budgets

We hit one of the most expensive locations of our travels in June and then headed to Eastern Europe. Here’s a recap of each trip/location.

Switzerland: Wengen, Lucerne, Bern

We came out $474.55 behind compared to our budget.

• Where we splurged: Everything was expensive in Switzerland. Everything. We actually are over in the accommodations category and booked some of the most modest accommodations of our trip. We truly loved our time in the country and do want to go back, but be warned – you’re going to pay a lot for a trip to Switzerland. We also had a follow-up doctor’s appointment for my wrist (with x-rays) that totaled over $600. Because of this, we really tried to cut costs for the rest of the month.
• Where we saved: We skipped eating out or attractions that cost money. Although now I’m thinking we could have spent a little more money at that Swiss chocolate store… We also seriously contemplated some Swiss souvenirs – like a watch or Swiss army knife – but after the bill from the doctor, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to spend the money.

Prague, Czech Republic

We came out $23.97 ahead compared to our budget.

• Where we splurged: We stayed pretty close to our budget in the Czech Republic. The conversion rate was very favorable to the dollar, so I think that helped us feel better about spending money. We did go out to eat a couple of times and took a great food tour here. Our one night of entertainment was the Opera, so we did have to buy Scott some dress clothes again.
• Where we saved: We tried to walk quite a bit in Prague instead of taking public transportation, which saved us a little money. Of course, we stuck to more free entertainment options per usual.

Croatia: Split & Dubrovnik

We came out $401.08 ahead compared to our budget.

• Where we splurged: We really didn’t. Croatia ended up being more expensive than we anticipated and in order to make up for the medical bill from Switzerland we were very cautious spenders.
• Where we saved: Our accommodations were a little bit of a walk from the city centers, which saved us a little money. We also didn’t go out to eat for a sit-down meal at all – the food didn’t sound appealing enough to justify the prices we saw. There were also a couple excursions we had planned that we didn’t end up doing (a day trip to a nearby island and walking on top of the city walls in Dubrovnik (expensive!)).

Total June Budget Numbers for 2018

Trip + One Way Flights/Trains = $5,955.00
Actual Spend = $5,879.54

June was another expensive month because of two expensive locations and the fact that we were in each location for more than a week. This month, we spent 99% of our allocated budget and the variance between budgeted and actual spend is +$75.55.

10 months into our trip we’re at +10,069.01 compared to our budget. Now that we know we’re coming back to the United States with some money in our pockets, we’re starting to think about our next big financial goals. Stay tuned!

Post your travel budget questions in the comments! We’d love to help you budget for an upcoming trip in Europe or anywhere else in the world.