We spent $75,000 to travel around the world for fifteen months. That is a lot of money. We've spent a lot of time breaking down our spending and showing where the money went during our travels, but there are still a few things that we haven't talked about yet. One of which is all of the cases where we blew our savings with purchases that other travelers on a lower budget may not want to make.Looking back at our trip, there were a lot of places where we splurged and spent a lot of money. These were planned and we built our savings accordingly. When looking in greater detail; however, we found five unique purchases that really messed with our budget.
How much money can five purchases drain your account by? Let's find out.
The $1,650 Turkish Rug
We did not go to Istanbul expecting to buy a Turkish rug. In fact, we did not go there expecting to buy very many souvenirs at all. But somehow when it was all said in done we had a rug being shipped back to the USA and a friend who needed a second suitcase just to take our other purchases back home for us.
If we're going to talk about items that drastically altered our spending on our long-term trip, the Turkish rug would take the #1 spot. At $1,650, our silk-on-silk rug was a solid 2% of our entire spending and was not planned what-so-ever.
Now that we have it, as well as a large hanging lamp and other decorations, you can be certain a Turkish themed bedroom is in our future. We're not complaining here.
The $3,000 Week in Easter Island
The most expensive travel splurge during our 465-day trip was hands-down our week in Easter Island. After deciding not to go to Antarctica on this trip due to the last minute cruises being out of our budget, we had a bit of extra cash in our pockets that we wanted to do something truly epic with. Throw in a few friends encouraging us to go and the next thing you know we're throwing down some serious money to visit one of the most remote and mysterious islands on the planet.
At $3,000, our week in Easter Island actually sounds like somewhat of a deal. Our airfare was around $1,500 for two (around a 33% premium over the cheapest possible ticket), and most of our remaining budget went for the $100/night hotel we stayed at.
Compare that to our average spending in Chile of around $115/day, and we spent an extra $2,000 as a premium to visit this truly amazing destination. Although we consider it to be worth every penny, by cutting this one out you could save a serious chunk of change!
The $500 Camera in Dubai
Have you ever had a camera die on you while traveling? Or how about stolen? On our long-term trip we had three incidences that resulted in the loss of a camera.
Thankfully we had great travel insurance to cover two of these, but the very first one we were not able to claim with our policy. As hardcore photographers, being without a great camera was something we could not sit by and accept, and when we visited Dubai we had some shopping to do.
We picked up a new Sony point-and-shoot worth about $500 in total with accessories. This one was the newest model of the one that had failed, and, like the first one, this purchase also failed just a few months later (and led to my rant against all things Sony). Although our insurance covered the later failure, we still had this upfront purchase we never wanted to make in the first place.
The $2,000 in Souvenirs
When planning our long-term trip, we always had a budget set aside for souvenirs. We never knew how much money we were going to spend, so we just ensured that we had a lump sum set aside when building our budget.
All things considered, $2,000 for souvenirs was not that bad at all (excluding shipping and that Turkish rug mentioned above). But looking back on it, the purchases we made were also for things we didn't need. We do not need to collect shot glasses, shirts, or ornaments, nor do we need to buy paintings and other decorations to make themed rooms. We buy them because we want to, not because we have to.
For you, when we show our final trip spending it doesn't provide the best context when nearly 3% was in buying souvenirs! If you've been planning your own journey but do not consider yourself a shopper, this is one category that will drop your spending quite a bit.
The $750 Due to Buying Plane Tickets at the Last Second
We tried to stay on the ground as much as possible on this trip, and even with that goal we still spent roughly $7,500 on plane tickets as we traveled around the world. By using credit card points, optimized routes, and other planning tricks, we knocked off a significant amount of spending we otherwise would have had to make on top of that.
But even with all of the research we made, we still likely spent an extra $750, or more, purely because we were purchasing our plane tickets at the last minute. Had we took the time to look around on some holiday comparison tools or alternative route options, we probably could have got around this one and saved that money (or more).
As with all things on the road, when you get busy and have other things on your plate, some tasks get pushed to the back burner. In this case it likely resulted in extra spending on our part.
Five Expensive Things: $7,900
When it comes down to it, five items from our long-term trip cost well over 10% of our entire spending.
For us, it is hard to say whether or not we would do it any differently if given the option. Buying a Turkish rug, visiting Easter Island, and bringing home a significant amount of souvenirs was something we actively decided to do and are really glad we did. Paying a premium for airfare and picking up a new camera, well, not so much.
But for you as a traveler who may want to mimic our trip, avoiding a few of these points may save a serious amount of cash. Whether you avoid a big ticket purchase, a splurge to an expensive destination, or plan your trip in greater detail, a significant amount of savings is possible for those who go out and take it.
