Gap Year Budget Update – 8 Months In
8 months done and dusted!!! That means I graduated 9 months ago 🤯 Wtf!!! I still frequently refer to myself as a student because I just haven’t got over it yet 😂
These past 8 months have been absolutely amazing and have really made me stop and think about the life I want to create going forward. I frequently change my mind on what I want to do next and I don’t think I’ll make a final decision until I absolutely have too.
Anyway, enough of my indecision, the end of the month means only one thing around here… it’s time to break down last months spending 🥳 You may have noticed that the title is a little different this month and my context section is missing 👀 Keep reading to find out why!
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First let me tell you where I spent April…
WHERE DID I SPEND APRIL?
Itinerary:
London, UK (till the 2nd) – housesit
2nd – slept on an overnight bus
Geneva, Switzerland (3rd-10th) – housesit
10th – slept on an overnight bus
Prague, Czechia (11th-13th) – hostel
Vienna, Austria (13th-15th) – hostel
15th – slept on an overnight bus
Copenhagen, Denmark (16th-18th) – hostel
18th – slept on an overnight bus
small town in Belgium (18th-8th April) – housesit
I find all my housesits using the site Trusted Housesitters which I absolutely love! Fancy giving it a go yourself? Sign up using my link to get 25% off 🙂
Now you know where I spent the month let’s get into how much I spent…
DAILY SPENDS = £316.18
Not far off my rough £10 per day budget at all!! I’m very shocked by this as I wasn’t actually staying in cheap places 😅
Like always let’s break this down further…
Eating Out = £121.37
Oof! Nearly 50% of my total spend this month was on eating out. After my spenny few days in Copenhagen, I’m not shocked by this at all. Things are expensive af over there – like I spent £2.61 on a solero from a 7/11!!! Yep solero as in the lolly 🤯
Transport = £59.50
I used all types of transportation this month – tubes, subways, buses, trains, bikes 🤩 This averages out at like £2 per day which isn’t terrible at all because I felt like I was here there and everywhere!
Groceries = £45.54
Sticking pretty strong to my ~£40 per month uni budget which continues to surprise me! Plus there’s half a bottle of wine included in that total 😉 Helps that I pretty much ate out for every single meal for a week which is why this is pretty low because let me tell ya groceries in Switzerland are not cheap at all!! Plus my hosts in Belgium had a tonne of food in that I made the most of.
Snacks = £28.64
Felt like I snacked a lot more than this!! Especially because this also includes food I’ve picked up to have on the go and a couple of waffles/ice creams I’ve treated myself too!!
Drinks = £26.38
Alcoholic, fizzy, hot – you name it I probably consumed it this month!
Sightseeing = £18.63
I got conned (jokes I just went to the wrong place!) into paying twice to see a fancy library in Vienna – annoying but it was pretty! I also took a couple of walking tours whilst in Copenhagen 🤩
Random = £10.68
Locker rentals, wooden cutlery, key deposit – I made a slew of random purchases this month.
Personal = £5.44
Note to self – do not mess around with the pill just before travelling to a very expensive country and not bring any products with you!!
TRANSPORTATION = £165.94
I sat down one afternoon and booked all the remaining transportation I needed to book. This was mostly spent on Flixbus which has become my preferred method of travel 😂
ACCOMMODATION = £126.70
I had a week long gap between housesits that I just couldn’t seem to fill. So instead of waiting for a unicorn sit to pop up, I went ahead and booked my ideal route. This ended up being three countries in a week so it was very full on but incredible! I stayed at hostels in all three and paid a total of £126.70 which isn’t bad at all!! Especially when it broken down as it comes to just over £21 per night! Not as good as that £7.50 per night hostel I stayed in in Budapest but still decent.
MISC. = £38.74
Adult purchase struck again, this time it was travel insurance. As someone who is very clumsy but also doesn’t want to end up with a massive hospital bill should something happen, this is unfortunately essential! Although I did remember to go through TopCashback so will be getting around a tenner back 😃
TOTAL SPENT IN APRIL = £647.56
TOTAL SPENT OVERALL = £5093.42
BUDGET LEFT = -£93.42
And we’re into the minuses. If you follow me on instagram (@thefrugalexplorer if you didn’t know 😉), you’ll have probably seen that I spent the last of my £5k whilst living it large in Copenhagen. Zero regrets, I had a fab time! But that does mean that we are now in the minuses. Thankfully I only have two weeks left of full time travel so I shouldn’t be too much over!
So yes, that is why the title has suddenly changed. It didn’t feel accurate to still call these posts “£5k budget updates” but as I still have 4 months left of my “gap year” I still wanted to post updates. Want to read the full £5k breakdown? Read here!
Enjoyed reading this breakdown? Why not check out the previous seven instalments…
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