Travel Spending Diary: House Sitting in NYC for 10 Days

This summer I landed my dream housesit – 10 days house sitting in NYC! I’ve literally been looking (and hoping) for this sort of sit since I started housesitting in 2022. And in September 2024 it came true.

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I was browsing Trusted Housesitters one afternoon at camp out of boredom more than anything else. And I saw this sit in Queens, NY. The dates worked perfectly into my 30-day visa grace period so I thought, “what do I have to loose?” and sent in an application message. Over a week went by and I hadn’t heard anything so I thought oh well not meant to be. Then I got a message.

The couple loved my profile and wanted to offer me the sit!!!! I literally screamed!

So I worked it into my post-camp trip itinerary and kept pinching myself that my dream housesit was actually happening!!

But how much did I spend? Let’s break it down…

Accommodation = £0

I paid £0 for accommodation as I was there on a housesit. Housesitting is essentially where you “moved into” someone else’s home and look after the space and any pets. I do this in exchange for free accommodation but some do it as a side hustle. This was the only reason I was able to travel full-time for a year spending only £5,000. I am no longer a full-time housesitter but I do dabble here and there when a good opportunity comes along.

And boy, was this a good opportunity!

The apartment I was staying in was in a perfect location for exploring without being in the heart of the hustle and bustle. Plus the views were INSANE! I’m talking full 360* views of the East River and Manhattan skyline. I mean just look at it…

I exclusively use a site called Trusted Housesitters to find all my housesitting opportunities. I love this site because it focuses on housesitting for mutual gain, rather than it being transactional. Every single person I’ve housesat for has been incredible and made the experience amazing. Trusted Housesitters is a membership site meaning you have to pay an annual price to be on the site and apply for housesits. But this means that everyone on the site has been ID checked and are actually real people. Plus you are covered by various insurance policies and have 24/7 access to a vet.

The standard membership price is currently £199 but if you use my discount link you can get it for £149.25 instead. Even if you only use the site to do one housesit, compared to the price of a hotel (or even a hostel) housesitting could save you a good amount of coin.

Flight there = £251.34

I paid £251.34 to fly one way from Orlando up to NYC. Crazy right! Especially considering I only paid £50 to fly from the UK to NYC only a few months prior. But the options weren’t great and I was staying with friends so sort of limited to what was feasible. So £251.34 it was.

However, this was one of the nicest flights I’ve been on. It was only a couple of hours but because I flew with Delta, I had a comfy seat, entertainment and snacks. But it would’ve been 10x better if I got the $500 they were offering for passengers to take a later flight as they’d overbooked. I was the second person to offer to move flights so it was a potential but in the end they didn’t need to bump anyone. Never been so gutted to not have to miss my flight. That would’ve been a great boost to my current side hustle challenge!

Food & Drink = £161.22

Aside from the cute pets and fab locations, one of my favourite things about housesitting is having access to a kitchen.

I spent three weeks bouncing around the US before landing at this housesit so I was craving home cooking by that point. I love a Trader Joes browse so this was perfect. Across the 10 days, I did two food shops and mostly ate at home. But I did grab a couple of drinks whilst out and about, got takeout once and ate out a couple of times. So an average of £16 per day isn’t terrible!

Toiletries = £27.72

I am team hand luggage for life. But the toiletries situation is slightly annoying. Only being able to carry travel sizes means I often have to top up on basic items along the way. Doing it this way is obviously still cheaper than paying for a checked bag on every single leg of a long trip plus I get to test out new brands and items. But why do toiletries have to be so expensive?

On this leg of the trip I needed to buy shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wipes and some period products. I did a couple CVS trips over the 10 days to pick up these bits and spent almost £28 total.

Transport = £23.17

One of my favourite things to do when exploring a city is to walk everywhere. I always stumble across hidden gems and experience more on foot. But NYC is fricking huge and having a dog to look after meant if I was leaving him at the flat, I was limited to 3 hours. So hello public transport.

The housesit was down the road from one of the NYC ferry stops so I invested in a 10-trip pass for around £21. Best thing, the ferries let dogs on board so this was great for when I took the pup on adventures with me.

I also took the subway a couple of times over the 10 days, but paid individually for each of these.

Sim Card = £10

For the entirety of my 4 month trip this summer, I bought international roaming passes from my UK phone provider rather than getting an e-sim. For the 10 days in NYC, it was around £10 for this top-up. This essentially meant I could use my phone as I do in the UK without much thought.

TOTAL = £473.45

Under £500 for 10 days in New York City is INSANE! Plus over half of this was spent just getting there. Obviously the biggest budget win was that I got free accommodation through housesitting. And I didn’t spend any money on entertainment because this was my 5th time in NYC and I wanted a chilled 10 days to reset and catch up on work after 3 crazy months at camp.

Can you tell that I’m over the moon with this total? I had a rough budget of £500 for this leg of my trip so I was super happy to come in under budget. Plus it really was a dream housesit!

Have you ever tried housesitting before? Would you consider giving it a go?