How to Continuously Travel the World For Less Than $18k a Year Per Person
An honest breakdown of how much it costs to be a digital nomad — without skimping on comfort.
We made the decision a year-and-a-half ago after viewing our dream home. It was a fully restored Queenslander overlooking a beautiful valley, set on a block with every kind of fruit tree, an excellent vegetable garden and a chicken coop (chook pen if you’re Australian). As a bonus, it was only forty minutes from the Sunshine Coast with its gorgeous beaches and vibrant coffee culture. It ticked all the boxes of the Australian dream.
As we stood on the patio, admiring the view, I looked at my husband, Tony. “Why aren’t we jumping with excitement? We’ve spent a decade working in the middle-of-nowhere to save money for this.”
He didn’t say a anything for a while, because he’s an engineer and likes to take his time considering any problem thoroughly. “If we buy this place. That’s it. We can’t live here, live comfortably and travel. The budget won’t work.”
It was true. We’d saved enough to buy the house, but then what? The thought of staying in one location after a lifetime of travel — living in over thirty places in my case — suddenly felt unbearably claustrophobic. What sort of life would buying this house give us? A stable one, but maybe it would be too stable for our current needs.
We were both in our late-thirties. We didn’t have kids. We both had jobs that allowed us to be geographical mobile. We didn’t have any friends in the area…
“Why don’t we try house-sitting for a few years until we know what we want to do?” I asked, having recently met someone at a wedding who did it full-time. “It’s rent-free. We know how to live on the hoof. We love animals. It could be worth a try, right?”
This engendered a lot more silence from Tony, and then a large amount of discussion that resulted in what we called the Great Travel Experiment — a year of continuous travel around the world that we’d extend indefinitely if it worked financially and — for want of a better word — spiritually.
What were the parameters of the Great Travel Experiment?
In the early planning stages of our never-ending trip, we sat down and brainstormed a number of parameters that we’d have to meet to make our project work:
- Our yearly expenses would have to be less than two-people sharing a small house/apartment in an inexpensive Australian town, who owned and maintained a car, paid bills etc.
- We’d need global private health-insurance that covered us for all hospital costs. To be without that would be a deal-breaker.
- We would only house-sit homes and look after pets that we liked for people we liked. We wouldn’t be martyring ourselves for money.
- We’d need enough of a buffer in the budget to accommodate at least five months of AirBnb in an inexpensive country in case something went wrong.
- Good internet was mandatory at each location.
- We preferably wanted to stay in places accessible by public transport.
- We’d only rent entire places from AirBnB, rather than rooms. We’re two highly independent people who work from home and need our space.
- Our overall quality of life had to be as comfortable as living in our own home.
Our budget
Based on our parameters, and what we already knew about international travel, our first-year budget looked like the following:
(Taking in the costs for two people, converted to USD at the current exchange rate)
- Medical Insurance $4500
- Phones (Australian) $250
- Phones (International phone cards) $150
- Food Shop $3000
- Hair/Personal Maintenance $700
- Spotify $120
- Spending @ 30 a day $10950
- Flights/travel $6000
- Car Rental/Public Transport/Uber $1600
- AirBnB/Experiences/Transit Hotels $5400
- Medical & Additional $1400
- Clothing etc $1300
- Mail and Sundries $50
- Storage for the possessions we couldn’t take $200
Total cost per year for 2 people : $35620
How did we get these numbers?
Here’s our budget breakdown of major costs:
Health Insurance: Global medical insurance is almost double if you include the US, but most non-US packages will allow for US “holidays”. Our package allows us to travel to the US twice a year for three weeks at a time. We picked a hospital-only package because it included evacuation to a decent private hospital from wherever we may be, and included pretty-much any medical drama that would cost us the big bucks. Our price was negotiated after two weeks of back-and-forward with an insurance rep. (Don’t be scared to ask for a discount or to shop around!)
Our “Medical and Additional” allowance was for doctor’s visits, over-the-counter meds and any prescription meds.
Accommodation: We planned to house-sit as continuously as possible. We bought membership to almost all the housesitting websites but the only one we recommend now is TrustedHousesitters. Why? Because home owners have to pay a membership to list their sit, which filters out a lot of dodgy people or time-wasters. TrustedHousesitters also have a fantastic affiliate program that has cut our yearly membership fee in half and has given multiple friends and acquaintances a great discount.
Our AirBnb figure factored in the gaps between sits, allowing for at least fourteen house-sits per year with five-day gaps between. It also took into account a worst-case scenario of us not being able to find appropriate sits for up to five months, which didn’t happen.
Much like TrustedHousesitters, AirBnb also has an fantastic affiliate program that gives any new members up to a $65 discount, while giving us a small percentage off our next rental. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s enough to buy us both a coffee every now and then. Extra budget for coffee is always welcome!
Transport:
Car Rental: We wanted to rent cars as little as possible, unless a sit was bucket-list material and there was no other way to do it. However, we still included a relatively generous budget for it just in case we couldn’t find sits in walking cities or with good public transport.
Flights: Our plan was to chase summer as much as possible. We budgeted for one big return trip from the southern hemisphere to the north, with smaller flights in each hemisphere.
We would opt for budget flights as much as possible, with the understanding that budget airlines are sometimes late or can arbitrarily cancel flights. Because of this, we reasoned we’d allow a couple of days either side of each house-sit to make sure we could be there on time, with no disruption for our hosts.
Spending: Our figure of $30 USD a day came from knowing we’d at least want a coffee/glass of wine and maybe a meal a day. In some countries like Greece, Turkey or Thailand, we knew that figure would extend to three square meals a day out if we wanted it, with drinks included. In others, we knew it’d barely pay for coffees. (We’re looking at you Switzerland!) If we opted not to eat out, the money could be used for clothing and other small luxuries or activities.
Clothing: We decided that we’d take 18kg of hold luggage with us in addition to cabin baggage. It would include clothing appropriate for anywhere between 0 and 50 degrees Celsius. It would also include a mix of street wear and at least one formal-ish outfit, just in case. We didn’t opt for any specialist travel or hiking clothing, instead using what we had from our wardrobes. Our policy would be to replace single items on the road as we needed them, buying local or from thrift stores/flea markets where possible. For basic thermals etc, we found that Uniqlo was our best friend.
Food Shop: We’d buy the local ingredients and cook and eat a variation of a mediterranean/middle eastern diet heavy on vegetables, rice, bulgar, lentils, eggs and yoghurt. Or, if we were in France/Switzerland or Italy, we’d shift to a fresh bread, salad, vegetable, smallgoods and local cheese diet. We can both cook well and doing longer sits would mean that no ingredients would be wasted. (We’re not vegetarian, but we like our vegetables.)
Hair and Personal Maintenance: This was a big deal for me. Initially I budgeted for hair colour and cut wherever we went at high-end salons. (My hair is my vanity.) But after only a little while, I realised my short hair style could be cut better and in a much more feminine style at a barber shop by people who understand how to do a fade without making it weird. I would buy home dye to do my colour myself and get my hair cut once a month or so. Tony would gets his hair cut every other month, or when he remembered.
When it came to other vanities, I decided to limit getting my nails done only when I was in a country where it was affordable. Otherwise I’d do my own manicure. Makeup and beauty products turned out be much cheaper to purchase duty-free over the course of the year.
Phones: Because we’re running a business, we’d have to retain one Australian phone number. We picked a $30 AUD ($20USD) plan that cost an additional $5 ($3.50 USD) a day if data was activated overseas. In some countries, it would make sense just to activate the data on one or two days and then use Wifi the rest of the time. In others it would make more sense to buy a local sim.
Mail: We would opt for paperless bank statements and then use the mail-forwarding service that I’d already set up for my UK business for everything else. Reputable mail forwarding services aren’t difficult to find in whichever country you’re based in. We opted to go with a plan where we’d be charged per page scan of incoming mail. There was also a fee for any mail forwarding to which ever address we specified. It worked out to be very cheap.
Spotify: This is self-explanatory. We initially thought about including Netflix too, but soon learned that every house-sit we did had it.
Did we meet our budget after a year’s worth of travel?
Yes! Much to our surprise, we lived phenomenally well, while still coming in under budget for almost every category, with the exception of the health-insurance, Spotify, phones and storage, which were largely fixed figures. In fact, we managed to stash around $5000 away that we intend on using for a couple of splurges in the next year.
Over the course of the last year we managed the following highlights:
- A week in an art deco mansion in Surrey looking after an elderly (and very lovable) corgi
- Two weeks in Zurich in a huge, modern house caring for two friendly cats.
- One month in Parthenay, France at a not-so-great under-renovation sit. (At that time we still had a bit to learn about selecting the best sits!) But it was close enough to visit La Rochelle, which is excellent.
- Almost a month in Kalyves, Crete, lounging in the sun and caring for two lovely dogs and two street moggies.
- Almost a month in Cambridge, UK caring for two chilled out cats where we got to catch the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival.
- One month in Abu Dhabi in a beautiful harbour-front apartment caring for an Arabian Mau, who remains my favourite cat to this day.
- Two weeks in Bristol’s vibrant Totterdown, caring for a feline diva who was endlessly entertaining.
- A week in Florence, staying in an artist’s apartment right near the Palazzo Vecchio.
- Three weeks in the Tuscan countryside caring for a menagerie of dogs, alpacas, disabled pigeons (yes, they’re a thing), bees and a cat that thought it was a dog, in a beautiful old house.
- A week in Bangkok, seeing drag performances and all-around having a good time.
- Five weeks in a huge home with a pool in Chiang Mai, caring for three very cuddly street cats.
- Just over a month in Luang Prabang, Laos. (This was an AirBnb that cost us under $700 USD for the month.)
- Almost a month in Fremantle, Australia, again in an AirBnb ($1000USD)
- Three weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a huge apartment overlooking the KL tower and the Petronas towers, caring for two special cats. (Our second-favourite felines from our sitting experience.)
- Three weeks in Istanbul, Turkey in a cosy studio in Beyoğlu, right in the heart of the action. (So much coffee, so many happy street cats.) This, again was an Airbnb after a house-sit fell-through. It came to $700 USD.
- A week in Lisbon as a bridge between locations. (AirBnb $450 USD)
- Three weeks in the Portuguese countryside caring for two lovely little cats.
There are a couple of other places in between, but that’s the gist of it. In every one of those locations — with the exception of Switzerland, which is exorbitant — we never once had to have a discussion about budget. We largely ate out one meal or more a day and we ate well. We also made sure to visit any significant museums or sights in the cities we visited, as long as they were something we knew we’d enjoy.
What did we learn?
After a year of continuous travel, we’ve come to the following conclusions:
- The Hopper App is invaluable. If you do a lot of flying, get it. (We’re not affiliated, we just love it.) I look up the flights through the app and then go to the individual airline websites to book the flights. Going directly to the airlines means less hassle in the event of anything going wrong with the flights etc.
- Twenty-one days is the ideal time to spend in any location. I have no idea why this is the magical number, but by day 21 we’re ready to move on with a positive mind-frame. Any longer and we’re usually starting to champ at the bit, unless it is an extraordinary sit.
- It pays to leave a couple of days between each house-sit just to decompress and reset.
- We now have a comprehensive list of things we look for in a house-sit. If we’re unhappy, we spend money. They key idea is to be happy and comfortable in whichever home we’re staying.
- We’re never flying Aeroflot or going through Charles de Gaulle Airport again unless it’s absolutely, positively necessary. (Self-explanatory for anyone who has ever had a bad experience with either of these.)
- Renting a car in the UK can be a soul-destroying experience that will involve you haemorrhaging money for insurance you don’t need. (After three negative experiences, we’re ready to call a total veto.)
- Flexibility in location is mandatory. It means that we’re open to different locations that slot after each other on the calendar.
- We need to include a small budget for buying decent pillows during longer sits if our host’s pillows aren’t great. (We’ve discovered the English are notorious for ancient feather-down-pillows that have become sawdust hell-blocks.)
- It’s imperative to have an understanding of visas — particularly how the Schengen visa system works . We’ve also worked out that having a readily-available list of non-Schengen countries in Europe is handy.
There are more, but these are the main ones that come to mind!
In conclusion?
Living comfortably and affordably while continuously traveling the world is possible. You’ve just got to do a little planning and budgeting and not mind having contingencies for the odd rental car disaster or sandbag pillow.
As for the dream home we looked at, sadly it burned to the ground during the recent awful Australian bushfires. Luckily the owners had full insurance and no one was in the property, but it really reinforced our confidence in our decision. In a life where there’s no way of knowing what will happen next, why not take the leap and do what you really want to do?
