digital nomad budget

I’m just getting on the road again after several months of living in Medellin, Colombia, so I thought I’d start trying to do monthly summaries again.  Because I treated myself to a business class flight and hopped around quite a bit, this month was a bit expensive, but if you cut out my trans-Atlantic, which was $650, it’s just about where my target monthly spend is.

This summary covers travel related expenses for 7 September 2015 – 30 September 2015.

Location(s) Visited This Month

  • Kiev, Ukraine
  • Lviv, Ukraine
  • Kiev, Ukraine
  • Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Kaunas, Lithuania
  • Southampton, UK
  • Bath, UK

Transportation – $849.16

  • This includes all transportation between cities as well as public transport within cities.  It is especially high because it includes my flight from the USA which was $665.40.  Without that, this monthly expense is a much more reasonable $183.76.  That number is still high given I had several flights, but it’s not too bad.

Lodging – $333.46

  • I only started house sitting for the last 10 days of the month, so I spent quite a bit of time this month in hotels, hostels, and AirBNB rentals.

Food – $221.55

  • Since I started my house sit, I’ve mostly eaten in, but this amount includes all of my restaurant meals while I was traveling in the Ukraine and Lithuania.

Entertainment – $206.72

  • I’m not generally one for tours, but I was so close to Chernobyl when I was in Kiev that it seemed silly to not go see it, and I’m glad I did.  But, it cost $180.32 which is crazy expensive for me.  The other $25-ish covered a few rounds and snacks at the pub.

Miscellaneous – $234.83

  • This is mostly the cash I’ve taken out of the ATM since I’ve been in Europe.  It’s not entirely accurate because I still have Euros and Pounds that I’ll spend in other months but it came out this month so I’ll count it now.  It also includes $34.06 which I paid for mobile data service in the UK.  The rest of it went to a mix of food, bus fares, and just other random things.  I don’t like tracking cash so I don’t have an exact breakdown.

Monthly Total:  $1845.72

This seems like a lot, and it is.  It would be much more reasonable without my trans-Atantic flight and the Chernobyl tour, and it should be lower in future months (which is a good thing).