Well, I wasn’t road tripping this month, but I was still traveling, and to places that had hefty visa fees paired with semi-expensive flights and hotel time. So, it was another expensive month.

This summary covers nomad living expenses for 1-31 December 2018.

Location(s) Visited This Month

  • Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
  • Tanga, Tanzania
  • Kigali, Rwanda

Transportation – $727.93

  • Sadly, Africa is like Latin America with few budget flights between internal countries, so the little travel I did was quite expensive. This also includes my visas for Tanzania and Rwanda, which were $100 each. Additionally, my ubers in Dar are covered as is my driver to get me to my airbnb in Kigali

Lodging – $770.17

  • At least this went down a little bit. I spent most of the month in Airbnbs, but they were mostly for shorter times, so no discount. I had a few nights at a hotel and then a few nights on a friend’s boat.
  • Breakdown *
    • Airbnb – 22 (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19238238 – Recommend this one but not the others)
    • Hotel – 6
    • Friend – 3

Food & Entertainment – $564.77

  • For a good chunk of the month, I was still eating out all the time, which kept prices higher. I was also being social which meant more going out for drinks and dinners. Additionally, food in Rwanda is surprisingly expensive.

Miscellaneous & Tours/Activities – $229.36

  • In both Tanzania and Rwanda I’ve needed cash more than is normal. This category is covering taxis, tuktuks, food, drinks, etc.

Monthly Total:  $2292.23
Daily Average: $73.94

Average monthly spend: $1442.22 ($442.22)**
Average daily spend: $47.42

* When I published my summary in 2015 I had more than one person accuse me of always Couch Surfing or always staying in 30+ person dorms in order to keep my costs low. So this year I’m tracking my lodging type as an extra data point.

** My average monthly spending target is $1k/mo. This number is the average for the months I’ve been working remotely since January 2018.  The amount in parentheses is the amount I’m over or under my goal.

At reader request, I’m adding a link to a google doc with all of the monthly data at a glance: