April 2022 | -$4,389.80

So why record our expenses?

We wrestled with the idea of spending all our money on experiences versus knuckling down at work in an attempt to set ourselves up for the future. Ultimately, we decided that houses can burn down, investments can be lost and money can be wasted but memories can never be taken from you. We wanted to solidify those memories by creating videos. But also wanted to show people a realistic view of what a full-time travel lifestyle would cost. When I went looking for something similar they we're few and far between so I wanted to do something for the next person who comes looking. And so, a terrible and laborious google sheet was born. It's since been updated many times and is much easier to manage. All of the data here is from that sheet.

Where did the money come from? When we tell people that we are travelling full-time, they tend to have the same few comments. We must have wealthy parents who are paying for everything, or that we have come into inheritance or a lottery win or something else crazy. While we both acknowledge we are very privileged to be able to earn an income (and both have jobs unaffected by the pandemic) - so all the money we have saved up has been solely from working at jobs that we held without any tertiary education.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

What you came here for:

Breakdown of what's below:

• Expenses

• YouTube Analytics

• Summary

Expense Report

Expense by category

Catagory	Expense	Per day
Accomodation	$903.50	$30.11
Food and Drink	$656.10	$21.87
Transport	$1670.50	$55.68
​Tours booked	$805	$26.83
Miscellaneous	$352.70	$11.75
TOTAL	$4,468.80	$148.96

This is a quick reference category breakdown of our expenses. Looks can absolutely be deceiving though. Spending almost twice as much on transport than accommodation is not the norm at all. We decided to book ahead as far as we could so in that number also includes flights into India as well as flights from India to Egypt (Which you can see in the breakdown below). Transport Expenses

Route	Mode	Notes	Cost
Bangkok - Saigon	Flight		$345
Saigon - Nha Trang	Overnight bus		$39
Nha Trang - Hoi An	Overnight bus	Stopped in Danag	$58
Hoi an - Hue	Transfer van		$39
Hue - Hanoi	​Overnight Train		$125
Hanoi - SaPa	Love bus?		$40
SaPa - Hanoi	Transfer van		$40
Hanoi - New Delhi	Flight	​Flight next month	$397
New Delhi - Cairo	Flight	Flight next month	$401
TOTAL			$1484

Few things to note here, firstly, the number is different to the 'Expenses by Category' Section. that's because in that section I use the Master sheet which includes small transports like Ubers, Grabs and Taxis which I thought wouldn't add value in this section! Also, the overnight Busses and trains all have videos on our channel so check them out in this playlist!

Accommodations Expenses

Location	Accomodation	Nights	Notes	Cost
Chiang Mai	ESTIA	3		$61.50
​C Mai - BKK	Overnight train	1		$70
Bangkok	Capsule Hotel	1		$108
Saigon	Colas Homestay	3		$63
Nha Trang	Aaron's Hotel	3		$69
Hoi An	Back Home	5		$66
Hue	Serene Palace	2		$40
Ken Hotel	Hanoi	3		$63
Sapa	Lacasa	3		$93
Hanoi	Eco House	4		$270
TOTAL				$903.50

I miss Vietnam so much. Most of the places we stayed there were less than $25 AUD per night. Notable exceptions are of course the overnight train (But that's transport too right?) the capsule hotel which you can watch here was also expensive but then we splurged to have a few comfortable nights in an AMAZING hotel in Hanoi in order to get some work done. I was pretty upset with myself for spending so much when I booked it but comparing it to Europe. It was incredible affordable.

Fixed Costs

Details	Notes	Cost
Insurance	SafetyWing	$123.50
Adobe Premier Pro		$29.00
TOTAL		$152.50

Insurance is expensive but worth it. Safety wing is our insurer of choice, they seemed to offer the most comprehensive cover especially when lots of countries needed specific types of insurance during the pandemic, they were great! Adobe is the software we used to edit our YouTube videos - its great!

Income

Source	Notes	Amount
Youtube		$79.46
Amazon Affiliate		$0
Affiliate (other)		$0
TOTAL		$79.46

I can't believe we can put 'Income' on our second month on the road! our original optimistic estimation to get monetised on YouTube was 6 months but a much more realistic goal was the YouTube average of 12 months! This happening so quickly was due to a video we shot in Thailand of an overnight bus from Bangkok to Chiang Rai which you can watch here. It took a couple of weeks but then it exploded! still not sure why but it gave us enough subscribers (1000) and watch house (4000) to be able to monetise while we spent our last few nights in Hanoi! It is not lost on us that the rate we were growing was not sustainable at all, but we loved the feeling in the moment!

YouTube Analytics

Now into our second month of Analytics we got pretty lucky! We've noticed that some countries perform much better than others and it is mainly due to locals watching foreigners in their country. In this month (right at the end) we were able to click that monetise button thanks to a video doing very well in Thailand (this one) as well as the overall performance of our Vietnam series!

Summary

Isn't it fantastic to have the most expensive month in month two... can't wait to see what month three and four bring! We have definitely spent ahead in April by booking flights to Egypt and India as well as Visa costs which translated to an INCREDIBLE $148.94 AUD per day. Nobody is perfect and I think for the next few months we will be battling to get our daily average back under $100 per day. so I'm really hoping we can reign it in for May and June. We were ecstatic to cap off the month by being able to monetise our videos!

Thank you so much if you have read this far!

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