Planning: Budgetizing
Now that I have my working itinerary down (though it’s been through a few changes since I posted it) I figured it was time to start working on the not-so-fun part: the budget.
This part was actually a bit scary and a bit challenging: some of the numbers that I was calculating were far higher than I anticipated while others were lower. The most difficult part, though, was figuring out how much to budget in for food! I already know to avoid restaurants as much as possible and to try to go to markets and such, but it’s not like I’m going to be buying groceries for a week at a time. And I do want to have the option of eating out every once in a while, because let’s face it, I won’t be able to make pasta as well as the restaurants in Italy and I wouldn’t even know where to begin in cooking an authentic German dinner.
I tried to overestimate everything so I estimated hostels at €30/night which I know is much higher than I’ll actually be paying in most places. and food at something like €22/day. Factor in “odds-n-ends” like museums, transit, etc. and that adds in another €20/day on average (I think?). That brings me to over €70/day which is just about $100. This doesn’t take into account the Eurail pass that I’m still debating…
All said and done, I’m really, really, really hoping to be able to cover the entire trip with $6000. It would be awesome if I can get it even lower, but I’d rather not sacrifice having a good time for a few hundred bucks. This is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime kind of deal, so as long as I splurge in moderation I think I’ll be OK.
$6000 (plus airfare!) for just over 60 days. Eek that’s a big number. Why does the US Dollar have to be such crap right now?
