Where'd all the money go?

By SammyK on Sat, Dec 20th 08 at 02:25PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The two guys who set out to travel the world under $10,000 USD are not looking like they are going to make it all around the world on their current funds... or are they?

You no doubt have noticed that our "In the Bank" amounts are getting lower than they ought to after only three months and some days after the start of our journey.

So they have.

Here's a few reasons why our shoestring budget just got more shoe stringy.

We had to buy all the rest of our plane tickets for the next 9 months of our journey all at once just to enter New Zealand.
We bought a car in New Zealand (so we'll get that money back when we sell it before leaving for Australia).
We went skydiving. Something people on $15/a day budgets shouldn't do.
Transportation in New Zealand is expensive. Between a ferry to the south island, a plane ticket back up to the north island and gas for our car, that's a crapload of money.

And we haven't even gotten to Europe yet.

Now, in defense of #3 - if you're going to travel to the biggest cookie in the world and it costs $2 to take a bite, but that's $2 out of your budget for that day so you don't eat you some, I think you've missed out big-time. William and I will occasionally splurge on adventures like these as long as it doesn't keep us from traveling for the whole year.

I think after three months it's safe to say, the original $10,000 plan is not going to work. BUT! There is still hope. We're still traveling the world more cheaply than most people ever imagined.

So what are we going to do to make it another 9 months? Simple. Work.

I've been doing some freelance web development work and William is applying for a work visa in Australia.

So we're still going to make it all around the world (heck, we've got all the plane tickets now anyways) and we're still going to do it on an impossible budget - just not as impossible as the original budget.

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Comments

Ryan wrote on December 20th 08 at 05:20PM

You could always steal a nuclear warhead from Kreplachistan and hold the world hostage for 1 million dollars...wait...one---hundred....BILLION DOLLARS

Shawn wrote on December 20th 08 at 09:25PM

One reason to avoid Western Countries, I have traveled the Middle East since November 2007 and a person can get by under 10,000 for the year. This one blogger spent $6,000 in two months traveling New Zealand and Australia.

They don't mess with everyone at the airport like they did with you guys, I would have told them to fly a kite or send me back under their expense.

I have been organic farming here in Israel for the month of December and have not spent any money. You should check out wwoof.org or helpexchange.net

Here are two Americans also in New Zealand at this time @ http://nomadbackpackers.com, it would be interesting if you would run into them, they also bought a car and are working at a hotel, they got work visas.

Patrick & Rachel Hugens wrote on December 21st 08 at 02:39PM

Sam & William,
What are you plans after NZ & Australia??
Head for Thailand & SE Asia(Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos) ...it's cheaper there & the $$ goes much further & the food is great.
Patrick & Rachel

SammyK wrote on December 23rd 08 at 10:26PM

@Ryan: haha! No - I will try to take over the local White Castle!

@Shawn: True! Yeah, we've heard quite a lot about Woofing. We'll probably be checking that out when we get to Australia. And thanks for the link to the other backpackers, I've contacted them and we're going to try and meet up somewhere.

@Patrick & Rachel Hugens: You called it! We're headed to Thailand after Australia. I'm so pumped about eating real Pad Thai! :)

Don wrote on June 27th 09 at 08:32AM

Hi Guys, great adventure. FYI - you should have made friends with an airline employee before you started out. There's nothing like flying for free. It's a good combo with CS.