The Cost To Travel Full Time

The Cost To Travel Full Time

Hey everybody Welcome to syracusa Sicily but our Focus today is not on Sicily um we are going to share with you the cost to travel for a full year as Nomads through Europe and what we experienced in 2023 so now first off I need to let you

Guys know we recently said in a video that our average monthly cost was probably about $3,500 that is um reality is we came in much lower than we thought we were so what happened we had a lot of different background noise on budget stuff that uh

Had us believing some of our costs were more but when we take out the expenses that you would not typically have incurred we came out to a very reasonable annual amount and monthly average I think it’ll surprise you now first off if you are a new viewer to

Our channel uh we travel by car through Europe we have a car that we registered in Bulgaria we opened up a corporation we put our car in the name of the corporation as officers of the corporation we can drive all over Europe As Americans without having residency

Somewhere and and that gives us the freedom to get around we also recently spoke about a German option if that’s a lifestyle that you want to do but we’ve really enjoyed our Bulgarian vehicle as gave us freedom so we had um a couple major trips um through Europe this year

And we also have a home base that we utilize in Montenegro so we have a home that we own there that we go to um and uh get ourselves refreshed basically at least that’s the way it went in 2020 23 we’re going to probably spend more time

At it in 2024 so we’re going to tell you about the costs that we experienced when we were on the road for the 9 months when we were traveling on the road and the 3 months when we were in our home base and giving you giving you out those

Averages and we’ll give you the average if you had 12 months of traveling on the road if we prated out the other nine months so first off let’s talk about car because if you want to travel by car um you know it gives you free freom we’re

Able to go to a lot of places uh we were able to do a lot of driving this year um with trips that went from one side of the continent to the other we traveled all the way from the Balkans to Poland and back we went from Turkey to Portugal

And Spain and then back towards Montenegro um so let’s talk about car expenses and what what did we look at so surprisingly we did spend $4,644.00 55 we’re lucky to find parking in some places so we’re you know that that can cost you our annual car insurance taxes

And inspection which is theot ran us $326 our car washes because I go down to the very Penny was $34 tolls ran us 371 France is expensive on tolls Italy and the Italian Riviera is pretty High uh and repairs and service ran us 560 now for that we had new brakes we

Did our uh big servicing and we also had a recharge done on the airon system so we really uh felt like 4,064 wasn’t that bad when we drove so far yeah so I mean when you break that out by the by the month you’re you know you’re not you’re looking at what 350

Buck a month approximately um so it it was well worth it for the amount of traveling that we were able to save um and you know we don’t have to rely on the public transportation and uh or you know whether or not there’s a train schedule

We can kind of come and go as we please and our maintenance I will tell you I’m a stickler before we start doing long trips I will go in and have the car looked at when nothing’s wrong because I want to make sure that AB our 2015 Citron berlingo that gets roughly

45 m a gallon when it’s not fully loaded down with a bunch of stuff or about 35 mes a gallon when it’s fully loaded down and we’re doing 130 km down the highway um that she’s not going to break down on us somewhere um you know so so I am

Constantly getting it inspected at different locations just to make sure everything’s good we’ve never had a problem with her she’s been perfect um so car gives you Freedom um so we are not jumping on planes at at all except for when there’s a uh life emergency

Where we have to go somewhere and then it’s typically just one of us because we do travel with our dogs and we need to make sure somebody’s with them so it’s typically one of us would only be going somewhere exactly one of the largest expenses you’re going to have when

You’re living as a nomad like us and you’re staying in a in a location is lodging now when we we go somewhere we normally are looking for a place that has one bedroom at least sometimes we get a second we have a kitchen we have

Wi-Fi um we are looking for a place if we can for parking for the for our car and we want a washing machine uh pet friendly so we have things we want so you may be able to cut back on these costs because we’re we have a a high

Need especially because we have pets yes exactly so we actually spent $1,275 for the year 2023 for our lodging and that’s primarily going to be spent on nine months of our lodging not for the full 12 so you would actually blow that up a little bit if we wanted to go

For a full 12 month right so what are we averaging and lodging per month if we just look at the 9 months where we’re in an are Airbnb 1,252 a month $1,252 a month on our Airbnb average cost that’s correct and now most of the time we’re going for one

Month stays to get some cost down but because of the type of traveling we do sometimes why we have lodging we go and we take a side trip and we get another place so sometimes we’re doubled up so sometimes we’re going to go and you know

Drive 2 and 1 half hours from where we’re staying for the month or two so we go check something else out and so that requires another Airbnb on top of the time that we already have an Airbnb so if you’re like us that would be something that you’d have to look at as

Well that you’re going to go take these side trips and you know if you don’t want to leave completely but you just want to do a one night here or two night there when you’re doing one or two nights it’s a bit more costly um and also when we’re traveling from point A

To point B um as we went from one side of the continent to the other sometimes we’re only staying one one night as we move on to the next location but we normally are not driving more than maybe 6 hours a day so we’re not trying to

Kill ourselves so that we can actually get out of the car stretch our legs and not have to do a rush to get somewhere so when we say a 6-hour drive it might take us 8 hours to get there because we’re stopping to have a picnic

Somewhere yes and we did have a couple of one week stays on this so you know we stayed in chin quara and we stayed in baramo and those are in Italy and they’re both not very inexpensive destinations so you know it it did cost

Us a bit more this year yeah and so if we flip the script a little bit when we are going to our home in Montenegro where we own that’s a uh you know we were there for 3 months and because we own a home in Montenegro um you know

There is no Airbnb cost for those months so that brings um our average down in that case uh a bit and so that’s a u that’s a savings of uh you over a th000 a month by being in Montenegro yes it is now groceries we came in at

$6,795 for the year so 550 uh some odd dollars uh per month how much was that one more time 6,798 for groceries so we’re looking at the you know a little over what $550 a a month Groceries on the average and we’re pretty peculiar on our groceries and

Pretty picky so I I think we would probably be running higher than a lot of people on on the grocery side and we eat home um you know probably 70 plus per of the time so so we are uh making a lot of food so 550 a month on groceries so now

Um what about uh restaurants and things like that restaurants we came in at 361 for the year um but I did not think that was too bad we uh didn’t not you know we’ve been traveling for four years so for us um it’s not brand new we’ve tried

Many places and so we’re not going out like he said we’re staying in 70 plus perc of the time uh we might just grab a coffee a tea you know just people watch yeah yeah $250 um a month um you know when when you look at a lot of the

Places we go part of the things we like is Cafe culture so we can just sit back and have a drink and watching people go by but also because this is our life our lifestyle we don’t have to go out and eat at a nice restaurant all the time

Like when you’re on vacation you’re like oh I’ve got to go try this top-of-the-line restaurant well you know we prefer to go where a lot of the locals go so we’re not we’re not out there trying to hit the the big tourist restaurants but we’re going to good

Comfortable places where we would be hanging out with people from whatever country in so 250 bucks um between coffees a beer here and there and going to restaurants getting a bike getting a quick lunch um you know I I would say a lot of times when we’re going out to eat

Um our meal for two is going to be running you know 15 bucks maybe 16 bucks yes on average it just depends on where we are but uh we we can do that especially lunch lunch is much less expensive than dinner in most cases um miscellaneous is our next category and

That came in at $1,731 so you know with that that’s haircuts that’s massages that’s tourist attractions SIM cards VPN uh little things like that um it doesn’t include the new cell phone replacement this year it doesn’t include the decor and the products uh that we bought for

Montenegro or the utilities that we pay and it doesn’t include the new remodel we did on the house that uh we have so those are some of the static costs we had to the static noise that was making our our mind believe we were spending

More on things but once we take out that stuff you wouldn’t have it’s it’s much lower exactly and we are also not including our flights back to the United States this year there were three so we want to make that really clear um but all in all we felt like that’s not bad

Um medical insurance we had came in at $2,580 for the two of us now let me say um we have medical coverage on us with a $2,500 deductible International Medical and we have a million dollars of coverage on both of us now the rates went up in 2024 by 9% so

Last year we were paying $215 a month for our um medical insurance for the two of us and this year it’s going to be $240 a month um for the two of us um so it will go up a little bit for uh for

2024 but in 2023 it was $215 if you want information on International health insurance send me an email at Warren jitra gmail.com I am a licensed agent in the states and it doesn’t matter if you’re American Canadian South African Indian whatever if you are looking for international medical insurance you’re

An exped a foreigner or even if you own a company you have employees that you want to cover reach out to me I’ll send you the information and you can check out some of the pricing and then on to phones so we each have a cell phone and

We come in at $90 a month 1,080 a year yeah so we are part of um we’ve got so many different phone options and we can go cheaper and there’s much cheaper options out there but we’ve been using our T-Mobile program um ever since we left the states in 2020 and we’ve got

The magenta international plan um and it’s a uh program that allows us to have uh 5 gigabyte of highspeed data each month um internationally and free text and talking not free te talking but free text um talking is 25 cents a minute we don’t ever use the talking we’ll use

WhatsApp um to typically communicate and we do have a Skype account now some things like um Julie just brought up Skype um our cost for Skype we’re not including in our totals we’re not including some of our streaming service costs we’re not including uh some of our

Data storage costs because you know we do a YouTube Channel we have to have some different things and Dropbox things where we pay a premium you guys are not going to typically have those premium costs so those are out of um these totals as well so it’s the cell phone is

In there but um streaming services and stuff like that no correct so all in all our total came in at $3,589 for 2023 that is $2,549 a month so we felt like we did really well 17,7 kilometers so many countries driven we’ll we’ll let you know how many uh so

So now Julie let me ask you so we got $2,549 a month and that’s including our pit stops in Montenegro where of course our monthly cost is much lower so if we have our nine months of being abroad or I shouldn’t say being abroad but traveling um what would that 9 months go

If we um prated that that out over 12 months so if we ended up uh not having Montenegro our total would come in at $ 34,35 or $2,862 a month so that’s less than 2900 and for those of you out there um on Social Security the new Social Security

Average for a couple is 2,900 a month so basically where we just interview interviewed um a couple that are traveling and have budgeted out or averaged out at $2,900 a month I didn’t think we were even in the same ballpark with them but we are actually um so if

You were wanting to do this on a social security budget um it’s possible typical couple at 2900 and if you’re a single person at 1,900 a month um on average now in 2024 for us Social Security um you know you probably have to cut some Corners because you’re not sharing some

Expenses but if you had a travel companion boom easy um and you know as he said we’re a bit of a unique case we’re we’re traveling with pets we have a car I mean we have all the freedom we’d like to have and it it is and so

Our our cost for um dog food and stuff um would typically not be in a budget but because we do a lot of homemade making dog food um our girls get a chicken meal everyday homemade chicken it’s actually fit for human consumption um we have additional costs for chicken

Because we have basically almost like having a another mouth to feed the the way we feed these girls so our grocery cost could probably be less because their chicken cost and their cost for potatoes and carrots and stuff is intermingled with ours so so so is that uh everything in a

Nutshell then that is everything and we really you know I am very surprised by this I when I told Warren I thought we were at 3500 I really did and when I started to really work it out I was amazed I and when we realized how many

Kilometers we drove in one year and enjoyed ourselves throughout the entire continent it really surprised me so this year we’re going to do a lot of driving too so we have uh left um earlier this year from Turkey went through Bulgaria Macedonia to Albania cairy into Italy

We’re currently in Sicily we’re going to leave here in a month and head back and spend a month in Albania then we’re going to go and uh go up to uh Montenegro this time for three months then we’re going to do a drive all the

Way up through Europe and go up to um through Copenhagen and Sweden and up to Oslo Norway then go we’re going to spend a month in Kil Germany and then we’re going to head over to the UK to hemsby beach near Norwich then jump uh through the Chunnel and come back through Europe

We’re getting one Scotland oh Scotland yes and then we’re going to come back through the channel and go all the way back to uh Montenegro before the end of the year so we’re going to have a lot of driving ahead this year so we’re probably looking at comparable um uh kilometers

And you know the things you can see in a car along the way is uh something you don’t get to experience when you’re on a plane or in a train um so you know it’s it’s worth it for us anyway I think so too so as a reminder um we’re traveling

The world with our two dogs we hope you’re going to subscribe if you haven’t already um please give the video a like it means a lot to us and if you can leave a comment that helps as well um we hope you’re going to join us in the

Future and until next time have a great day everybody bye-bye ciao

Nomads, Expats, Travelers, Retired Travelers, World travel on a Social Security budget is possible, we share our yearly cost of travel, and we came in under the typical couple Social Security budget. Social Security pays an average single $1900 a month and couple $2900 a month in 2024.We also travel with dogs! If you’re a Nomad, Retiree, or Budget traveler, this is your video to see.

We bought a home near Tivat on Kotor Bay Montenegro. We slow travel the world, often called roaming retirement or roving retirement. We retired early and use Montenegro as our non-Schengen home base. Montenegro is an attractive and affordable alternative to the high prices in the US. If you own a home in Montenegro life can be very comfortable for the average American.

To See Warren & Julie’s website visit www.WarrenJulieTravel.com

International Medical Plans for Expats, Nomads, Students, Missionaries, Groups and Employers.
Warren will make a commission if you use this link for International Medical Plans with IMGlobal:

https://producer.imglobal.com/international-insurance-plans.aspx?imgac=540642&app_method=2&svi=1

If you wish to contact us email: warrenjulietravel@gmail.com
Instagram: warren_julie_travel
Join our Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/warrenandjulie

Do you want to live abroad as an Expat? Are you looking for affordable and viable options? We are exploring the world to see what it’s like to live in a country, and also discover if Residency is an option.

We began our retirement in March of 2020 with the intent to travel the world, spending 1-3 months in a country or location. We want to see what it’s like to live there and not simply visit, and we want to share these experiences and the costs with whoever wishes to follow along.

If you wish to contact us email: warrenjulietravel@gmail.com
Join our Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/warrenandjulie
Instagram: warren_julie_travel

The average US Retiree on Social Security receives $1,900 a month, and a couple on Social Security averages over $2,900 a month. A US Expat living on Social Security can expect a great standard of living in many countries such as Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Thailand, Ecuador, and many others when compared to the living costs in the US. If you dreamed of traveling as a nomad in retirement this video is for you.

#slowtravel #nomadtravel #retiredtravel #traveleurope #pettravel #worldtravel #budgettravel #cheaptravel