£5k Budget Update – December 2022
December, month four of my gap year and the first month I’ve spent fully abroad and zero nights crashing at my parents house 😂. As I’m following where the housesits take me to save on accommodation costs, I spent all of December in the Pacific North West. I’m here until mid-January then I’ll be flying over the east coast for the remaining 3 weeks of my time in the US.
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New here? Let me give you a little context...
I graduated from uni this past summer and have chosen to take a gap year before deciding what to do next, career wise. My plan is to spend the year travelling to various places. I have set myself a strict £5k budget which needs to cover all costs and last the entire year! Seem a little tight? Check out this blog post on how I intend to stay in budget!
Before we get into exactly how much I spent and on what, let me first tell you where I was in December.
WHERE DID I SPEND DECEMBER?
Itinerary:
Portland, OR (1st-2nd) – stayed in a hostel
Steilacoom, WA (2nd-11th) – housesit
Portland, OR (11th-16th) – housesit
Seattle, WA (16th-31st) – housesit
Not much movement in December which has been nice as I’ve been able to get settled in each place. Plus after my second visit there, I can safely say that Portland has grown on me and I wouldn’t hate it if I had to visit again 😅
I find all my housesits using the site Trusted Housesitters which is such a good platform. I would highly recommend it to all the pet lovers out there! Fancy giving it a go yourself? Sign up using my link to get 20% off 🙂
Ok now let’s get into what I spent this month…
DAILY SPENDS = £169.48
Not bad! Not bad at all!! Coming in £140.52 under my £10 per day budget. Which is a good thing because I’ve completely spent my transport and accommodation pots so will be needing this surplus to cover the difference. Going forward my £10 per day budget will now need to cover everything!
Right as always let’s break it down….
Groceries = £54.05
This includes my festive food shop for my solo crimbo so this came in much lower than I was expecting.
Eating Out = £38.89
I ate out a few times at the start of the month because I was staying in a hostel. From then on, I was housesitting so had access to a full kitchen.
Snacks = £26.65
Felt like this needed it’s own category away from eating out because it feels wrong to club them together.
Cafes = £25.43
I got into a routine whilst in Portland of going to a new cafe each day to hustle for a few hours, which I absolutely loved!
Transport = £9.14
Low cost here as I’ve been able to walk to most places!
Entertainment = £8.25
I bought a ticket to see a Christmas play just before the big day but unfortunately due to the bomb cyclone it was cancelled. Now I have a $10 TodayTix voucher to spend on something fun in the new year 🤩
Personal = £7.07
After being in the country for a month, I finally had to buy shampoo and conditioner. Headed straight to the dollar tree to get a bargain as I’m not picky when it comes to this stuff. This also includes some other products I needed to get.
ACCOMMODATION = £99.75
Finally sat down one night and figured out the rest of my US itinerary. I decided to stop holding out for a miracle housesit that would perfect align with my dates and went ahead and booked two city stops that are on my dream visit list, DC and Philly. I booked and paid for the hostels at both stops that night. This total is for three nights.
TRANSPORTATION = £217.60
This was all spent on filling the gap in my itinerary. It includes tickets for a flight, a bus and a train, which are all overnighters saving me on accommodation. Budget win!
MISC. = £75
Another camp related cost. This time I had to pay for a police check. Thankfully, I will recoup all these costs and a little more.
TOTAL SPENT IN DECEMBER = £561.83
TOTAL SPENT OVERALL = £2796.35
BUDGET LEFT = £2203.65
Ok so I’m a third of the way into my gap year and have spent 56% of the budget. Starting to think I was a little too optimistic but I love a challenge! And it’s not over till I’ve spent that last penny or the year is over, whichever comes first 🤩
Enjoyed reading this breakdown? Why not check out the previous three instalments…
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