How Much I Spent Travelling The UK For 2 Months

I took the first 72 days of my gap year slowly and spent half my time housesitting across my home country and the rest spending quality time with friends and family. My schedule was so jam packed throughout my entire last year of uni so this was a perfect way to slow down.

It was also a great way to begin travelling as I never more than 3 hours away from my base incase something went wrong plus I’d never been on an extended solo trip so I wanted to do a test run in a country I am very familiar with.

Housesitting in the UK took me to places I never would have gone to and I got to explore some really lovely areas of the country. It has really made to realise how little of my home country I have actually explored.

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So, how much did I spend travelling the UK for two and a half months?

ACCOMMODATION = £0

During the first two and a half months of my gap year, I didn’t have to pay for a single nights accommodation. I got free accommodation through housesitting, visiting friends and crashing at my parents house.

I spent 36 nights housesitting, 28 nights at my parents, 7 nights with friends and 1 night crashing at the airport, coming in at a total £0 spent!

Considering how tight my budget is for this year, I was very happy to kick off the year with a couple of cheap months.

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TRANSPORTATION = £216.72

I spent the two and half months in 10 different areas of the country, split over 13 different stays because I did 4 separate stints at my family home.

This total breaks down to…

Car costs = £115

I borrowed my sisters car for two weeks because a few things added together meant it made more sense to have a car. Obviously to do this I needed insurance which cost £71 for the two weeks, I also paid £24 for parking near one of my friends houses and £20 in petrol for the period I used the car. This is ridiculously low because one of the reasons it made more sense to use the car was that I needed to pick my dad up from the hospital so he actually filled the car up completely for me before I left meaning I only had to do a little top up.

Train tickets = £83.42

Majority of my travel between the different stops was via train!

Bus tickets = £15.40

I had to take a couple of local buses when I was staying in small towns to get to a train stations.

TFL charge = £2.90

Spent a couple of days in London visiting one of my amazing friends, this was the cost of getting from one of the bigger train stations to her house.

DAILY SPENDS = £484.26

My total daily spends came in at an average of £6.72 per day, which is absolutely crazy to me! So so glad with how low I was able to keep this.

Right, let’s break this down!

Drinks ~ £106.93

It does not come as a surprise to me that my biggest spending category was “drinks”. Includes nearly £50 spent on my rounds during a weekend with some friends in Chester, £25 spent on hot chocolates in various coffee shops across the country and a couple extra drinks whilst out and about.

Eating Out ~ £106.03

I didn’t eat out very much at all when I was solo but I did when I was staying with friends. This total covers nine different meals out, a few meal deals and the odd cake here and there.

Entertainment ~ £80

During my two and a half months “on the road”, I saw two shows in London and went to Chester Zoo.

Groceries ~ £66.36

This breaks down to an average of £11.06 per food shop which isn’t bad at all!

Transport ~ £53.86

All my day to day transport came to a total of £53.86 which I’m not mad about because I spent over £11 on one bus ticket! This total also includes a few parking charges during the two weeks I had the car.

Snacks ~ £25.88

Hello my name is Jess and I have a crisp problem!

Takeaways ~ £23.35

I got one single takeaway during the entire two and a half months! It was so ridiculously expensive for what I got because there was a minimum spend and a delivery fee. But the food did last three teas so that was a bonus!

Misc. ~ £21.85

Includes a dog bowl I had to replace, some household bits for my parents and toiletries I picked up alone the way.

TOTAL = £700.98

So my grand total for two and a half months spent slow travelling the UK was £700.98.

AVERAGE PER DAY = £9.74

Just under my £10 per day budget all in – not bad, not bad at all!! Starting my budget gap year off on an amazing foot.