Full time Travel budget | April 2023 - $5,340.86

What you came here for: April travel budget update

Breakdown of what's below:

• Expenses

• YouTube Analytics

• Summary

Expense Report

Expense by category

Catagory	Expense
Accomodation	$1116
Food and Drink	$1173
Transport	$3487 (Let me explain)
Misc	$391
Entertainment	$177
Insurance	$252
TOTAL	$6094

This is a quick reference category breakdown of our expenses. Yep, you read that correctly, April was a wreckingball for our budget. Our transport budget is so incredibly high because we ended up renting a campervan for a week at $208 per day! and that doesn't include Gas or the fee's to camp. Even though we had a partnership with the company and we should see a portion of that amount refunded to us next month. It meant our April expenses started with a 6 meaning our daily budget is comfortably sitting DOUBLE what we aim for.

Accommodations Expenses

Location	Accomodation	Nights	Notes	Cost
Squamish	Trusted house sitters	8	Best thing to do or anyone who loves pets and is happy to travel at a slower pace.	$0
British Columbia and Alberta	Campervan	7	Karma Campervans Vancouve to Vancouver	$128 for campsites Van Cost included in Transport section
Vancouver	Main street Hostel	1	Private room with shared bathroom	$84
Kamloops	Double tree	1	Included in Rocky Mountaineer!	$0
Toronto	Pembroke inn	1	Decent private room with ensuite (And unfortauntely CHEAPER than a ostel would have been in Toronto)	$158
Overnight Bus	Toronto to NYC	1	Travel hack - get your accom and transport together (Not recommended if you want to actually sleep haha)	Cost included in Transport Section
New York	Air BnB	3	Private room with shared bathroom in the Bronx	$408
Philadelphia	Air Bnb	3	Nice Private room with shared bathroom in Super dodgy area	$210
TOTAL				$1116

The prices in North America are out of control. Literally the CHEAPEST option i could find on the internet in Toronto was that $158 a night. That's an entire days budget and more than 50% of the following days budget too. (Probably why we only spent the one night there) The NYC daily spend was over our budget too but we had an expectation of that being the case in the big apple and had already accepted the money drain there. "we'll make it up in south america" we said to ourselves. The accommodation in Philadelphia was a really nice room with an ensuite but was positioned right near the huntingdon metro stop which was.... not a great area. we we're thankful there was three locked doors between us and the street! Of course, squamish accommodation was free through trusted house sitters! if we didn't have that, this budget update would be soul sucking.

Trusted house sitters is amazing and you can get a 25% discount through this link: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/refer/RAF275353/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=refer-a-friend&utm_campaign=refer-a-friend

Transport Expenses

Route	Mode	Notes	Cost
South - West Canada	Campervan Rentail	Karma Campervan	$1456
South - West Canada	Campervan Rentail	Karma Campervan Extra charge for additional distance traveller	$350
South - West Canada	Campervan Rentail	Karma Campervan Gas purchases on the road	$764
Vancouver to Banff	Rocky Mountaineer	Best Partnership in the world	$0
Banff - Calgary	Poparide		$58
Calgary - Toronto	Flight	Flair - (Including last minute change from Vancouver departure to Calgary departure)	$469
Toronto - New York	Overnight Bus	Flixbus overnight	$262
New York - Philadelphia	Day Bus	Flixbus	$43
Philadelphia - Washington DC	Day Bus	Flixbus	$66
TOTAL			$3487

Things to note: The numbers are 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, Taxis and short cheap trains which I thought wouldn't add any value in this section! (I kept the total the same) This campervan was not a cheap option and we could have been a bit more comfortable with a rented car and some good accommodation but we just wanted the experience and we definitely got it! #Noragrets Once we dropped the van back we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer! this was without a doubt the best partnership we've ever done. We got to experience 48 hours of pure luxury and loved every second of it. It's not lost on us that we get to experience these incredible things thanks to the viewers of this little youtube channel and it makes us so excited to see what the future holds. Once we made it to Banff we needed to get to New york. Prices to fly from the western side of Canada to the Eastern side of USA were about $650 so instead we decided to fly to the western side of Canada and catch an overnight bus from Toronoto to New York. It ended up being a pretty similar price when you factor in accommodation BUT we got to see Toronoto which was awesome!!

Fixed Costs

Details	Notes	Cost
Insurance	SafetyWing	$252
Adobe Premier Pro		$29.00
Epidemic Sound	All our music!	​$22
TOTAL		$301

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! - Unforauntely coming to America meant we had to increase our coverage which immediately doubled the price. But it's just something you Need to have. Adobe is the software we used to edit our YouTube videos. Epidemic sound is where we get all our music from, you can get a free trial with this link*: https://share.epidemicsound.com/i1nhpc

Income Report

Source	Notes	Amount
Affiliate (other)	​Amazon + Getyourguide + Viator	$0
Licensing		$0
Youtube	Ad revenue	$753.14
TOTAL		$753.14

Affiliate Income Amazon - Nothing happening here anymore, I think we need a viral video with some good cinematography before this kicks off maybe. Get your Guide - we had 18 people click on our link in April but still no purchases other than our initial success Viator - We had 0 new sessions on Viator in April and no new bookings.

Licensing Agreements No licensing this month, I'm hoping it wasn't a one time thing!

YouTube Analytics

Youtube Analytics for April 2023

This is a super unusualy month for us. It looks like the vide that started to kick off again was our Serbian food video. We love that it's getting views and contributing to an income we so desperately need but we also feel like we've put in a lot of effort to our recent stuff which really doesn't seem to be resonating with viewers! Still very unsure what works and what doesnt and it feels like we learn something new or come up with a new idea everyday. Hopefully we can get a video in North America to hit the algorithm to give us a bit fo a foothold but who knows!

Summary

Everyday in North America has been a treat - we've got to experience so many awesome things. Renting a campervan and driving through the rocky mountains as well as getting to experience the 5 star lucury of the rocky mountaineer has left us with huge smiles. Even though it was an expensive month, we wouldn't change it! Expenses: -$6094 Income: +$753.14 Change -$5340.86

Thank you so much if you have read this far! and of course, for watching along!

Editorial Note - Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

User Generated Content Disclosure - Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

*affiliate links - we may earn commission

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 were 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 even earn an income - all the money we have saved up has been solely from working full time.

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