September budget and some travel budget tips

Hello everyone!  Deena here, and it’s time again for a budget update for the month of September.  I am happy  to report we came in around $133 for an average daily spend, and this includes lodging, meals, transportation, and entertainment for all four of us.  I am extremely pleased with this number as we were in some expensive countries this past month.  We covered France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic—we went way over budget in the Netherlands but only spent 2 days there.  The Czech Republic was very inexpensive and helped lower the number toward the end of the month.  

As I write this post, we are currently on our way to Poland where we will stay for 9 days.  After Poland, we will be in Budapest, Hungary, for another 7 days.   Both of these countries have similar economies and are known for a lower cost of living.  The rest of the month will be spent in Italy.   I’m still not sure how Italy will shake out as far as cost, but I have been proactive and lowered our lodging significantly.   Remember the Barclay Arrival card that Michael opened to lower our AirBnB costs in London?   Well, I opened one as well before we left for the trip, and we had another $500 to use toward travel expenses.  We are in Italy for 23 days, and our original lodging prices were between $30 and $72.  A total for 23 days came to $1,328, and I was able to lower that cost by applying the $500 from the Barclay Arrival card, and our daily lodging average will drop to $36 per night.  This lodging number puts us in a good position to stay at or under budget again for October.  Fingers crossed.

We hopped around a good bit this month, and I wanted to review the prices of the flights we took during September.  We are using low budget airlines that can be found on Skyscanner.  This is the flight search I use for EVERY flight.  They are awesome and list all the budget airlines not always found on Kayak, another popular travel search site.

France to Barcelona on RyanAir:  $20 per person

Barcelona to Amsterdam on Vueling:  $56 per person

Amsterdam to Berlin on EasyJet:  $41 per person

Berlin to Prague was by bus for $20 per person

As you can see, traveling around Europe is very inexpensive if you fly or take the bus.  We are on the Polski bus right now heading to Krakow for $12 per person.

Another tip I’d like to mention is our method of renting cars.  I have been using Autoslash and so far, I love it.  You make the reservation with them, and if a lower rate becomes available, they will contact you with the option to accept the lower rate if you want to change rental companies.  For instance, I rented a car for Ireland and the original price with Avis was $331 for 8 days.  Several days later, I got an email from Autoslash informing me that I could switch to Budget for a rental of $150 for those same days.  Well,  duh..”Yes” was my answer.  Last night I rented a car for our upcoming trip to Greece for $266 for 8 days, and this morning I had an email saying they could lower it to $160; so of course, I accepted.   

Here’s one more tip for those of you who are planning to go overseas for an extended period:  get a Charles Schwab checking account.  They will refund your ATM withdrawal fees at the end of each month.  Those fees can add up quickly, and it’s nice to have that money coming back to you.  We also don’t have to worry about exchanging money as our withdrawls are in the correct currency for the country we are in.  If you are using a credit card while overseas, be sure you have one that doesn’t charge foreign exchange fees.  There are several credit cards that do not have those fees including the Barclay Arrival card that we primarily use.