£5k Budget Update – February 2023
Halfway through my budget gap year and I still have some money left – woohooo!!! I’m taking that as a win 😂 February has been one hell of a good month! I got to see my parents for a weekend as the couple I was housesitting for welcomed me to have guests to stay, I ticked off two new countries, got another tattoo, saw SiX again, spent quality time with some friends and had a lot of time to read on various overnight journeys – which is always a win 🙌🏻
Mind blowing that I’m at the halfway point already and I still change my mind daily on what I want to do once this year is up 😂 But the end of the month means only one thing around here, it’s time for a £5k budget update! Spoiler alert – February has been a spennny month!!
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 year travelling. I have set myself a strict £5k budget which needs to cover all costs! 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 February.
WHERE DID I SPEND FEBRUARY?
Itinerary:
Boston, USA (1st-2nd) – hostel
overnight flight via Reykjavik (2nd-3rd)
Cambridge, UK (3rd-15th) – housesit
overnight bus from London (15th-16th)
Amsterdam, Netherlands (16th-17th) – hostel
Groningen, Netherlands (17th-20th) – visiting friends
overnight train to Frankfurt (20th-21st)
overnight bus to Budapest (21st-22nd)
Budapest, Hungary (22nd-24th) – hostel
overnight bus to Heidelberg (24th-25th)
Heidelberg, Germany (25th-28th) – housesit
Ooof it’s been a busy month!! I’d completely blanked that I was still in the US at the start of the month 🤯 that trip already feels like years ago!
Now you know where I spent the month let’s get into how much I spent…
DAILY SPENDS = £578.64
Wow! February has been my most expensive month by a long shot BUT almost a 1/3 was spent on three bigger expenses that we’re unexpected.
Right let’s break it down…
Food & Drink ~ £321.84
I’ve clubbed all food & drink together this month as it was kinda all over the place. Like are we classing a meal deal as “eating out” or “groceries”? My little brain didn’t want to deal with those decisions so I’ve just grouped everything together. This includes all food & drink related costs this month from groceries, eating out, and coffee shops to meal deals and snack runs, you get the picture.
Big Things ~ £172.15
Ok so I had three big (for me) unexpected purchases happen in the month of February that have taken my spending from my normal range to crazy high. Firstly, a friend and I managed to get tickets to see the musical SiX on it’s first tour night in Cambridge which happened to be my last night there. I ended up buying both tickets (£70) and then my friend paid for us to go out for lunch. Secondly, whilst staying with two of my oldest friends and after a couple of cocktails we hatched a plan to get matching tattoos. Sober the next day, we ended up going through with it. This permanent souvenir came to £67.15, including the cost of the antiseptic cream we had to buy. And thirdly, I’m headed back to my uni town in a couple of weeks to visit one of my favourite people (oh and to see Lizzo 😱) and we’ve spontaneously decided to book tickets (£35) for puppy yoga whilst we’re in the city 🙌🏻
Transport ~ £48.86
I used public transport quite a bit in February, especially when I was in Cambridge because I was staying on the outskirts.
Random ~ £31.30
Random costs this month included various postcards, toilet charges, a couple of thank you gifts, a new sieve and a variety of snacks I bought back from the US.
Personal ~ £13
A few of my toiletries had ran out by the time I got back to the UK so I topped up on a few essential items whilst I was in Cambridge.
TRANSPORTATION = £325.71
I had one very spenny morning where I sat down and booked alllll my transportation for the rest of this leg – I’m talking 4 bus tickets, 3 train tickets and 3 flights 😅 Oh and I had to buy a second train ticket (Cambridge to London) because I missed my original one waiting to hear if the people I was housesitting for had landed.
ACCOMMODATION = £69.04
I paid for a total of 4 nights accommodation during the month of Feb. One night in Boston, one night in Amsterdam and two nights in Budapest! All hostel dorm beds and other than the questionable one in Amsterdam they were lovely and bougie!
MISC. = £0
I have taken the executive decision to separate out my camp-related expenses from my £5k budget going forward as they were just getting a little ridiculous. Instead I will be “lending” myself the money to cover all costs from another savings pot and then replacing it when camp pay me at the end of the summer. This should still leave me with a nice little profit of around £1,000. I will obviously continue to track how much this is costing and will be sharing the process but just in a separate post.
TOTAL SPENT IN FEBRUARY = £973.39
Almost 20% of the budget spent in one single month 😬 Thankfully March should be a relatively cheap month so I’m hoping to claw this back!
TOTAL SPENT OVERALL = £3864.52
BUDGET LEFT = £1135.48
Will just over a grand last another 3 months of travel? I reckon so 😅 I might just achieve this ridiculous challenge I’ve set myself 😂
Enjoyed reading this breakdown? Why not check out the previous five instalments…
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