I’ve been on the go for a little over six months now and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the ol’ finances and see if I’m in good shape or in need of a financial planner.

I can’t remember a single time since I left where I haven’t done something because of the cost. I haven’t been watching my money at all, really. I’m the sort of traveller who tends to throw money around when I have it and can only realy tighten the belt when the funds start to dwindle. It’s not the best of habits but it did lead to me having a hell of a lot of fun in Australia for my first six months there and having to pick a hell of a lot of fruit my last six months. But earning online allows me a lot more freedom with my irresponsible spending ways and it doesn’t look like the belt-tightening phase of my trip will be due to start anytime soon.

So after six months travelling… dum dum dum… I’m in the red US$1265.

So the whole earning more than I spend goal isn’t working for me at the moment but I need to keep in mind that I’ve paid my rent up until the end of October and will be attempting to find someone to fill my room after August so might be able to recoup some of that cost. I’ve also just had to pay about $600 for a new Chinese visa and flights between Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) to Beijing.

Considering I’ve been steadily earning $1500-2000 per month since I left, I think I’ve been spending a lot. I’ve also bee having a lot of fun. August will be an insane month for me with the Olympics and my crazy Australian friends coming. If I can survive August with my liver and bank balance still intact then things will be looking good.

After Beijing I plan to do some slow, low key travels around SE Asia and will spend some time on some farms so I still expect to be able to say that after a year of travelling I will earned more than I’ve spent. Maybe.

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I’ve been kicking around the villages of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces in China for about a week now and I think I’ve spent about $10. Ok, I may have spent a bit more than that, but not much in the grand scheme of thing.

For example, I was just in a village called Langde about an hour outside a city called Kaili in Guizhou and am spending a grand total of 20 yuan per night including a very yummy, big dinner of mysterious things. I could have got that for less I think as I know accommodation here usually goes for 10 per night but I am just a lazy bargainer. Exchanged to US$, 20 yuan comes to less than $3. There’s no internet here, nothing really to do besides wander the hiking trails around the town or swim in the river, and life is simple and peaceful. But if you’re the type who is after some quiet time to write, think, work offline, paint or whatever, then the price is right and the setting is stunning.

A few nights ago I was in a village called Zhaoxing which is just as beautiful but more commercial. It has a bit more going on for the visitor in the way of restaurants and hiking trails to other villages and accommodation here only cost 20 yuan per night for a room with a fan, toilet, and even a TV. Noodles for breakfast cost only 3 yuan and dinner with a couple of beers cost only about 12 tuan.

Before that I was in Chengyang, a super small one bridge (the attraction is a large wooden wind and rain bridge) town and the hostel cost 20 yuan per night with free internet (but no wifi), a toilet, a fan and a balcony overlooking the river. There are lots of trails around this village, lots of day trippers, and a couple of hostels with food and bars and it’s only 20 minutes away from the larger city of Sanjiang.

Last week I was in Dazhai, a community set among the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces and my hotel cost a bit more at 30 per night but again, there was free internet, clean rooms, cheap meals, and it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

I just wanted to let everyone know how cheap you can live if you can do without certain things like Western food, wifi connections (although it is possible to set up a connection through a mobile phone… I think), and the hustle bustle of a big city. Living abroad really can cost as little as $5 per day in beautiful places if you know where to look.

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I thought it would be interesting to give a real world sort of approach to budgeting in a new city. I’ve been keeping track of every yuan spent in Beijing (more or less) since June 1st and I was going to announce my grand total at the end of the month. Problem is, I won’t be in Beijing at the end of the month. I’ve got to go down to Hong Kong tomorrow morning to get a new visa and I probably won’t be back until late July.

So instead of my 30 days worth of spending, I’ve only got 23 days. I was kind of getting sick of keeping track anyways but I still thing that’s enough time to give a good idea of costs. Rather than give a day by day account, I’ve broken my spending up into categories.

Costs for 23 days living in Beijing:

• Rent - 1664 yuan - 2200 per full month
• Internet - 91 - 120 per full month
• Gym - 378 - 500 per full month
• House Stuff - 249 - I had to buy a new mop and replace some seriously nasty looking cleaning supplies that seemed like they hadn’t been changed in ages. The cleaner costs 30 a time and my housemate and I alternate paying her. She comes twice a week but we’re not always in so the cost will vary month to month.
• Phone Cards - 100 - Cards seem to last ages for local calls, even to other mobile phones. But they go fast when you make international calls so hope on Skype instead.
• Transportation - 575 - This is for taxis 99% of the time. I took the subway three times at 2 RMB each trip and zipped around in cabs the rest of the time. Taking a taxi to the gym adds up and also defeats the purpose of going to the gym, but the walk is a bit too far and is along a dirty, smelly highway.
• Food - 591 - I stocked up on supplies for making stir fries and salads so was eating fresh veggies and meat. Groceries are really cheap and cooking for yourself is a great way to save money while experimenting with some funky looking foods.
• Takaway - 260 - When hangovers surface, my housemate and I tend to watch DVDs and order Italian takeaway from a place called Annie’s. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s tasty and, more importantly, it’s easy.
• Frappucinnos - 199 - I need to give these a category of their own because I get them so often. How can I resist the new dark mocha flavour? It’s not possible. I am weak.
• Eating/Drinking Out - 791 - I went out for dinner about four times to Western type places in Wudaukou, Lido and Sanlitun. I also went out drinking a few times at a German bar, a reggae place, and some places in Lido and Sanlitun.
• Entertainment - 150 - I had a shamefully quiet month in June and the only thing I did for entertainment was buy the boxed set of Arrested Development and watch all three seasons. That’s embarrassing.
• Visa Extension - 160 - This has to be done once a month. You can get a maximum of two extensions on a tourist (L) visa.

So my grand total for spending for 23 days in June is 5208 yuan or about 226 per day. That works out to be around US$32 per day. But June has been a bit of a hermit month for me. If you plan on heading out drinking several nights a week, doing lots of touristy stuff or eating out instead of cookng for yourself, your daily budget will probably be closer to $50. But you’ll have a hell of a fun time for that amount!

I’m amazed at how little I’ve spent considering I haven’t thought about money once since I got here. If I want to do something, I just do it (including copious amounts of taxi rides and frappuccinos). The budget is out the window but I’ve still managed to come in well below $50 a day which is around what I’ve earning these days and as long I’m earning more than I’m spending, I’ve got no complaints!

It’s probably worth noting that I could have done things a lot cheaper too. Sharing an apartment with more people, living further out or in a less modern building, not having a gym membership, taking the subway instead of taxis, not ordering takeaway, drinking less and cutting out my beloved frappuccinos could all have a substantial impact on the amount I spend.

Hope this helps! I will probably do summaries like these for each new city I live in. I find it pretty interesting and also a good way to cut back on spending if I need to save some money.

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After a relaxing boat trip I’m back in noisy, smelly Dhaka and have baracaded myself into my hotel room. My goal for today is to order lots of room service and get all those things done that I didn’t have time for when I was volunteering. First on my agenda, an update on how much I’ve spent versus how much I’ve earned since leaving Canada for The Philippines back on January 10th, 2008.

I’ve decided to do this by looking directly at my bank and Paypal balances rather than at what I’ve earned. Money earned can sometimes take up to a month to get deposited so it makes things easier and probably more accurate to report what I’ve actually got at the moment instead of including money that I might not see for a while.

So here it is… drum roll… I’m in the black by $755!

In the three months I’ve been away I’ve earned $755 more than I’ve spent which is pretty wicked. My goal when I left was to spend around the same as I was earning so coming out ahead is a real boost.

I went on a bit of a spending frenzy in The Philippines, flying everywhere, boozing every night and doing some shopping. The thing that has saved me is the time I’ve spent in Bangladesh. In two months here I’ve spent about $600. This included spending nearly $200 in my first two days on a mobile phone and a relatively expensive guesthouse in Dhaka. Plus I treated myself later on to a $210 trip through the Sunderbans National Park. Spending time volunteering in rural Bangladesh is very good for the budget, especially when food and accommodation are taken care of.

The true test will start when I hit Malaysia in a couple of days and get back on the backpacker trail. I wasn’t very good at setting a budget in The Phlippines but I’m going to attempt to stick to one from here on in. My earnings have fallen since January as well which is motivation to get to work and reel in my spending a bit.

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After seemingly endless months of stashing away money and attempting to top up my savings only to see it squandered at the pub, I’ve finally reached my savings goal! Even better, I’ve somehow managed to beat it.

My goal was to have $13,000 saved by the end of the year and it looks like I’ve beat that by a bit. In my mind, for better or worse, that means that Ive got a bit of money to burn. All of a sudden, buying annoying travel insurance and stocking up on dodgy malaria pills isn’t as annoying as it would have been had I not reached my goal. It looks like I’ll be able to make those irritating purchased without having to drop below my minimum savings.

I love the feeling of having ‘extra’ money. Who doesn’t! I know I could just whack more money into my savings account instead of buying little extras but it’s never as painful making these purchases when I’ve already reached my goals.

With that in mind, I’m thinking I might aim to set a spending budget for each month I’m away. If I can manage to come in under budget for the month then I’ll have money to splurge on something fun at the end of it and if I can’t stick to it then… well I don’t know but I’ll give myself a kick up the arse.

I anticipate that I’ll be able to earn $1200 a month at least so I might set that as my budget for the first month. I’ve already paid for my accommodation for the Ati-Atihan festival where room prices are steep for that weekend. I’ve also paid for an internal flight to get me there so I think $300 a week is a pretty generous backpacker budget for a month in The Philippines.

Sorry I’ve been so lazy with my posts lately. I’ve been working hard on all the things I want to get done before I leave on January 7th and it seems like there’s a lot more than I thought! Plus it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the laziness of the holiday season. Hope everyone had a nice Xmas!

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