October 2019 Budget & Expenses | Digital Nomads Pursuing Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)
We never really thought that a month of expenses while visiting New York City could be done for anywhere near $600, but we did it! We did sightseeing, lived in comfortable homes, ate well, and lived a pretty good life this month. Plus, we’re one month closer to financial independence, retire early (FI/RE) and loving our lives as full time house sitters and digital nomads.
This is a recurring monthly series where we share our budget/expenses as digital nomads pursuing financial independence, retire early (FI/RE) and traveling continuously and long-term! So, if you’re wondering how our year to date totals break down each month, or what the trends in our budget/expenses are, then check out the series.
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Tip to Make the Most of This Article
If you’re new to Screw The Average we recommend reading through the entire article, as it gives context to the how and the why of how we budget and spend our money. If you’re already a follower of our Monthly Budget & Expense series then consider skipping to the ‘meat and potatoes’ of it all.
Quick Links
Monthly and Year-To-Date Expenses
We’re often asked how much we budget for our lifestyle of continuous and long-term travel as digital nomads. So we’re pulling the cover off our expenses and sharing what we spend month to month!
Be prepared; we truly Screw The Average when it comes to our budget/expenses. We have many tricks up our sleeves when it comes to saving money, whether it be for travel (sightseeing, airfare, transportation, etc.), day-to-day expenses (groceries, haircuts, toiletries, etc.), or everything else (gear, supplies, odds and ends, etc.).
“We spend money on what’s important to us: on experiences and on quality and value.”
There are a few reasons why our monthly expenditures are extremely low (relative to most) and dialed in.
+ A Monthly Budget (Or Not)
Budgets have their time and place and do many people a great service. Surprisingly enough though, we don’t keep a budget in the traditional sense because we’re extremely intentional with our decisions, including how we spend money.
Since our living expenses are dialed in, meaning they’re mostly known and similar month to month, and our expenditures are calculated and thought out, we find that we don’t need a budget.
While we don’t keep a budget, as you can see we do track our expenses. This allows us to see trends in our spending and ensure we’re on track. Consider it mindfulness of our finances!
+ Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)
In its simplest form, reaching (Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)) means: A) making much more money than you spend, and B) spending much less than you make.
Now whether your put your emphasis on A (make more money) or B (spend less money) is a debate within the FI/RE community and in our opinion a personal decision. And really, either method means living below your means, so ultimately, why not do both?
For us, we’re building FI/RE into our lifestyle. We believe the journey to reach FI/RE doesn’t need to be a 10-20 year grueling grind where it’s the sole focus of life until reached. Don’t get us wrong, we’ve worked our fair share of intense hours and we’ve delayed gratification plenty.
After years of creating a financial, professional, and personal foundation we decided we could incorporate the pursuit of Financial Independence, Retire Early with doing the things we love. We decided that even if it delayed FI/RE a bit, it was well worth it!
+ Freedom
Having a dialed-in, lean, and minimalist lifestyle (and therefore budget) offers us increased freedom. We’ve designed our life in a way that allows us, within reason of course, to make our own decisions, do what we want, and have the upmost flexibility.
We find satisfaction in being able to sleep-in on any given day, take a hike, or play a video game when we choose to.
We’re minimalists when it comes to ‘stuff’, allowing us to get up and go at a moment’s notice.
We only take on the jobs, contracts, or clients we want to and say ‘no thank you’ to the ones that aren’t a good fit.
Thankfully big expenses or unexpected bills don’t put us in debt or throw us for a loop. Because we choose not to inflate our lifestyle to the size of our income we’re able to have an emergency fund.
Once in a lifetime opportunities rarely pass us by because we’re ready for them, whatever they entail.
This freedom isn’t just luck (although we are lucky we haven’t been hit by a meteor or become terminally ill), we fundamentally believe we’re in charge of our own destiny and therefore have worked long and hard for these freedoms. We’ve made thousands of rational, logical choices for decades to get to (where we are today).
Long-Term Travel, FI/RE, and Freedom are Fueled by Our Monthly Budget/Expenses
We don’t consider ourselves cheap, although inevitably some will. We’re frugal, as we worry less about cost and more about value. And finally, we don’t feel we sacrifice; we sometimes delay satisfaction but at other times we live quite luxuriously.
“How we choose to live is very much a personal decision. We don’t for one second believe it’s the only way or even the correct way.”
Where we place our value and therefore our money may not be where you choose to place yours, and that’s okay. We do however hope that just as we’ve learned from other people, maybe others can take a few things away from our approach.
Follow us each month as we post our actual and full expenses. We’ll share tips on how we saved money and insight into where we spent money!
Don’t miss our Ultimate Gear and Packing Lists! Whether you’re traveling long-term or going on a short vacation, we'll show you how to travel with a single carry-on. We share our packing lists (his and hers!), packing tips, and our favorite gear. Plus, we discuss what we don’t carry and why!
Our Expenses: October 2019
If you’re wondering how to travel internationally, or simply vacation nearby and not spend a fortune on airfare or hotels, then we’d like to welcome you to the world of ‘travel hacking’. See what credit cards we carry, and how we take full advantage of the points and miles we’ve earned.
Notable Expenses in October 2019
Marriott Platinum Elite Status
For the last two years we’ve held Platinum Elite status with Marriott’s Bonvoy rewards program. We were well on our way to hitting the required 50+ nights to maintain Platinum Elite status for 2020 when we decided to change our hotel stays to IHG properties.
We applied for and received the IHG Rewards Club Premier credit card which has a 40x point bonus (before quarterly promotions) on IHG hotel spend during the first year holding the card. And while we get a 6x point bonus at Marriott properties with our Marriott Bonvoy credit card, it just doesn’t compare to the value of 40x at IHG!
With that said, we hate to be only a few nights away from maintaining our Marriott Bonvoy status for 2020. The perks are quite nice!
Enhanced internet access
50% bonus on earned points
4 pm late checkout
Room upgrades
Free breakfast
Club lounge access
So, we booked and paid for an ‘event’ at a Marriott property and received 10 elite qualifying nights added to our account. With one more Marriott stay coming up in November (planned over a month ago), we’ll be over 50 nights and will maintain our Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status for 2020!
Tip: Travel hacking is a BIG part of how we keep our budget low month to month. So, don’t miss this month’s Real World Travel, Budget, Deal, and Life Hacking article to get ideas on how you too can hack your budget and travel !
Shipping Cold Weather Gear
Winter seems to be coming quickly. The temps in New York City are dipping into the 40’s and November will surely see freezing temperatures.
“While Sergio can walk around at 45° F with just a long sleeve shirt and be okay, that’s certainly not the case for Shannon!”
This month we had our cold weather gear (beanies, gloves, and jacket) shipped to us from ‘home’ (thank you Mom!).
Shipping might be a bit of an expense, but it’s certainly better than purchasing all new gear. To keep our bags minimal (36 litters and at about 15 pounds), we’ll ship some of our warmer weather gear back home and then switch everything out again as winter ends and things warm back up.
In other words, traveling full time and with just a carry on backpack means that shipping is just part of the cost of our lifestyle.
Oh No! We Ruined the Sheets
We try to be so careful in every home we house sit in, but inevitably things happen.
Sadly, during our Brooklyn Heights house sit this month we woke up one morning to pillow cases with bleach spots on them. We don’t know if it was our toothpaste or skincare or…?
We immediately let the homeowner know and found out what type of sheets he had. We started off thinking we’d only replace the pillow cases when low and be hold we noticed a couple of spots on the sheets as well.
To be honest, we’d already commented on how nice the sheets were , so we were expecting a pretty hefty price tag for this mistake. However, we were genuinely impressed when we found these 400-thread count Egyptian cotton, super comfy and high quality sheets on Amazon for about $45!
Notable Savings in October, 2019
Groceries
This was one of our least expensive months for groceries.
“Even we were surprised that we spent under $100 for two people on food this month!”
Between making all of our own meals and when house sitting homeowners sharing meals with us, we generally have a low food budget compared to most. However, this month dropped to an all time low because of the amount of travel and time in the office Shannon did for work in October.
When Shannon is traveling her meals are paid for and when she’s in the office (she’s considered remote but sometimes needs to go in) meals are provided. So, while it was a savings to only need to purchase meals for one person most of the time, it’s also quite sad to realize we spent that much time eating alone.
Google Fi
As smart phones have become an integral part of daily life, having a reliable plan with voice, text, and data that can take us nationwide as well as internationally at a reasonable price is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
As we travel not only around the United States, but worldwide, having a phone that’s affordable, has good coverage, is simple, and ‘just works’ is critical!
There are an incredible number of voice and data carriers and subsequent plans to choose from. We considered the major U.S. providers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon) and an assortment of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), as well as purchasing a SIM upon arriving at new international destinations.
But in the end, Google Fi (formerly Google Project Fi) was hands down the best for our needs, and travel style!
Check out Google Project Fi | The Best International Cell Phone & Data Plan for World Travel for more information.
Where We’ve Traveled to This Month
Our month started with the continuation of a house sit in Greenwood Lake, New York and then took us to Harlem and Brooklyn Heights in New York City.
While last month was a month with zero lodging costs (wow!), this month we had one night at an Airbnb between our Harlem house sitting job and our Brooklyn Heights one. However, with our Airbnb coupon (thanks to travel hacking) we only paid $6.29 for the night stay!
Greenwood Lake, New York
We were incredibly fortunate and grateful to have our house sitting job in Greenwood Lake, New York! Here’s the recap from last month…
First, for a bit of background, when we started our house sitting adventure nearly three years ago, we'd get anxious not knowing where our next house sitting job was going to be if it wasn't planned at least three months in advance. However, after returning from our year abroad, we'd become comfortable with a month. After an additional year traveling around North America, we'd cut it down to two weeks.
But, the final days of September and the beginning of October (11 days in total) were wide open and it just wasn't looking good.
We kept an eagle eye on new listings posted to Trusted House Sitters but the weeks kept ticking off. Then we hit our comfortable two week mark, and nothing.
One week left and still nothing...
Five days… four days… three days and NOTHING!
It felt like we had every possible thing that could happen to us not finding and getting a house sit happen. From applying too late, applying early but not being picked, to only finding super short two day sits, to finding sits that wanted extreme pet care (eight adult Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs, a litter of puppies, chickens, and farm animals anyone!?).
No matter what we tried, it was a square peg in a round hole!
“Then, with 36 hours (!!!) before our current house sit was ending we THANKFULLY found something! ”
While not in NYC, Greenwood Lake, New York is about 35 miles northwest and about a two hour bus ride outside of New York City. We found a super gracious host that not only picked us, but allowed us to arrive two nights early and offered to take us to the grocery store before she left (since a car is required and we don’t have one). Plus, we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have met Michelle and consider her a friend!
And, for the record, while this time it worked out our comfort zone is still two weeks!
Again, thank you Michelle for welcoming us into your home and giving us the opportunity to meet and care for Tinkerbelle and Tigerlily. They are both adorable and we enjoyed their very different personalities! Tinkerbelle was our friend within minutes of meeting us, while Tigerlily was more reserved.
Finally, congratulations on earning your Project Management Professional (PMP) certification!
Harlem, Manhattan, New York
After caring for Tinkerbelle and Tigerlily we moved on to a new house sitting job in Harlem where we met Antonia and Phineus.
Antonia is an older, shier cat, but once she warmed up to us she spent her time nearby. Sadly, she’d just had a tooth pulled and wasn’t healing well from it. We kept a close eye on her and gave her extra attention.
Phineus was a curious and friendly little guy who liked to jump on our lap and cuddle while we worked. He surprised us with how gentle he was, always seeming to ask for permission before jumping up and pawing us for more cuddles with the softest of touches!
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York
The day we made our way to our Brooklyn Heights house sitting job it was pouring down rain! Thankfully, we had a $10 Lyft credit for using our WorldElite Mastercard to pay for at least five rides in a calendar month, which got us from our Airbnb to the subway station nice and dry.
This was a our third house sitting job for Barry and the twins, Torretto and Hobbs. They’re adorable, curious, and energetic Siamese cats that we enjoy each time we’re there!
One of our favorite memories of this house sit was inadvertently getting the boys excited with a reflection on the ceiling (from a steel scale we were using to weigh a few things from our bag). They went crazy trying to get at it and we couldn’t stop laughing! Of course, we took pictures.
Our tool box is full of resources! From travel hacking to house sitting, digital nomad jobs to privacy and security, financially independent retire early (FI/RE) to entertainment, plus travel hacking (credit cards, miles, points, and rewards), and much much more…
Year to Date (YTD) Expenses for 2019
Where We’ve House Sat in NYC in 2019
Now that we’re house sitting full time in New York City, we’re including a map of all the neighborhoods we’ve ‘lived in’ so far!
Note: The map is live and will be continuously updated. In other words, if your looking at this post June 2019, you’re also seeing ‘future’ house sits.
See where we are now and everywhere we’ve traveled since we began this adventure in 2016!
London, San Francisco, Paris, New York City, Athens and more?! Trusted Housesitters has allowed us to travel the world on a budget, but more importantly given us an opportunity to make new friends and have cute and cuddly companions along the way. Sign up and start your next great adventure!
Final Thoughts
Being able to keep such a frugal budget really helps us on our way as we pursue financial independence, retire early (FI/RE). Ultimately though, our keen attention to detail with our budget and expenses isn’t about spending as little as possible. It’s about the bigger picture, making the most of our resources and being wise with where we spend our money.
