While planning this trip, we constantly kept asking ourselves – how much are we going to bloody spend? Guide books have general spending estimates, and others who’ve chronicled similar treks give rough numbers. With this regularly occurring feature that we’re calling “The Count” we’ll give you a peek at some of the numbers that we’re keeping track of on a daily basis, including spending habits broken down by food, lodging, travel and a couple offbeat metrics. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get some insight about how much or little things cost around the world if you plan on trekking to any of the destinations we’ve visited.
After seven days on the road, we’re pretty happy with how little we’ve spent, with total expenses averaging just over $20 a day. One of our goals is to keep costs low – but not at the expense of having some great experiences to show you. Costs are naturally lower in most of the places we’re going, with the average meal in Mexico costing us about $3. We’ve also kept lodging costs to a minimum, having only paid for a bed twice, and surfed on couches for the rest of the time. If you don’t want to couch surf in Mexico, expect hostels to cost about $15 a night, and a cheap hotel - at least double that.
| THE COUNT (1/1 - 1/7/2008 converted to dollars) |
|
| Food | $122 |
| Lodging | $60 |
| Travel | $24.60 |
| Activities | $46 |
| Communications | $33.50 |
| Miscellaneous | $0 |
| Total | $286.10 |
| Per traveler | $143.05 |
| Daily spending average per person (2) | $20.43 |
| – | |
| Miles traveled | ~2600 |
| Photos taken | 6980 |
| Photos uploaded | 239 |
| Cameras on hand | 4 |
| Laptops | 2 |
| Beds slept on | 3 |
| Wireless networks used | 4 |
| Wireless networks seen in Mexico | at least 25 |
| Awesome cowboy belts bought | 1 |
| Days straight of wearing the same clothes | 5 |
| Most prized possestion | Our harmonica and guitar |
Think there’s something else we should keep track of? Email us at trip@longjaunt.com or post a comment below.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 and is filed under the count. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:51 am
I can’t wait to hear/see what you’ve been eating in Mexico City. What can you get for 122 dollars?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:17 am
We have a strong affinity for street food. At about $3 for a set of tacos and a drink, or another tasty corn meal and cheese based product, that deal is tough to beat. Dinner has usually meant going to the equivalent of a diner, where we tend to get a spicy chocolate chicken dish called Mole. Yum.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Can we get a spontaneous pickup game of ultimate frisbee going somewhere along the jaunt?
And “Bruce,” you crack me up.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:20 am
From what I remember from my frisbee playing days, Colombia and Venezuela had the most going on in terms of Ultimate, but maybe in Costa Rica, or Argentina, we can look for a game.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Oh, when you get to South America, please count the number of empanadas you eat. Two of us did 22 in seven days. With your affinity for street food, you should easily beat that.
Other suggestions for The Count (Argentina only):
- Mullet sightings
- Madonna sightings (pop icon)
- Madonna sightings (religious icon)
- Maradona sightings (cultural icon)
- McDonald’s sightings
- Matés consumed
January 11th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I’m impressed with your spending habits and I can well believe that you can eat sumptuously for very little in Mexico, but 5 days in the same clothes in a warm climate — that’s dedication to the cause!
March 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Óla meu amigo
sou da beach de salvador da barra quer você tirou as fotos os garotos quer estavam no farol da barra
espero pelas fotos abracos…!