Travel Budgeting 101
Our Baby Boomer Adult Gap Year Budget — For Better or For Worse
One Plus One = Two and a Bit
We have always been so-so when it comes to budgeting. We have never blown our life savings out the water in pursuit of some fantasy, but on the other hand, experiences have often trumped the need to stay strictly within budget.
So when we knew that we were actually going to go through with this adult gap year, the budget spread sheet was activated but with the realization that it was likely to serve as a rough guide only.
We Had Been Here Before
Our somewhat detached relationship with our budget has it’s roots in our backpacking days. Having saved up for about 5 months, in 1988 we set off on an 8 month round the world adventure.
We charted our route and paid for the intercontinental flights up front. We had determined that (in those days) 10 pounds sterling a day would cover local travel, a bed for the night, some food and leave enough over for any cultural or fun activity we came across that we wanted to do.
About 3 months into our trip it became apparent that we were way over budget and we still had 5 months to go!
