Travel Is Expensive Myth: January 2018 Expense Report
There’s a silly myth that traveling is expensive. Travel is free, it’s the luxuries you expect accompanied by travel that make it expensive.
I’ve never done one before, but it’s the end of my first full month traveling around New Zealand and I’d like to break down my expenses this month. My entire costs for food, pleasure, and survival for January were $362.57 USD.
January 2018 Spendings – $362.57
Food – $142.27 – 39.2%
Weed – $84.12 – 23.2%
Ice Cream & Cafes – $55.49 – 15.3%
Miscellaneous – $60.69 – 22.3% (shopping, server fee, membership fees, accommodation, etc.)
January 1 – 5 at a music festival. My only expense was weed.
January 5 – 9 in Takaka sleeping at the River Tribe.
January 9 – 19 Traveling through lots of rain and beautiful sights along the West Coast to Dunedin. Travel expenses were food, ice cream, and cafe’s where I could recharge devices.
January 19 – 26 spent WWOOFing on a terrace in Dunedin learning about permaculture. Only expense was ice cream and other tasty unhealthy things.
January 26 – 31 Traveling south of Dunedin though the Catlins and towards Milford Sound. Same travel expenses, plus one night on a paid camping ground.
In the past month: I slept 24 nights in my tent, I ate bread & butter at least once a day, I accidentally volunteered at a music festival working in the kitchen, I walked close to 200 kilometers, I ate 10 ice creams, and I foraged several kilos of black berries over several hours. I spent no money on transportation hitchhiking, and I plan to cut my ice cream costs down even further.
The more I travel like this the more I realize, travel can be refined to a skill. This past month was difficult when I consider how much walking and waiting I had to do at times, yet it all depends on how stingy you want to be. I don’t know why I’m wired like this, but I hope it helps despell the myth that travel’s expensive.
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If I had to guess why I’m such a stingy traveler, it’s because there’s a survivalist mentality among those lived that lived under communism, that I admire. It’s an ability to forage, conserve, and rework. This past year that mentality has seeped into traveling lifestyle. I’ve learnt a lot about which plants and weeds are edible, a woman in Takaka taught me how to weave fibers from a native plant into strong string, and I’ve been havin fun finding black berries which are in season now.
Here’s my rice dinner on the dumpster dived frying pan.
