It’s that time of year again! We’re looking back on our expenses from 2023, focusing only on accommodation and transportation, as these are the two main things that make traveling different to just living in one place.
We set out to spend less this year, and we tracked more than we did the year previously. Trains didn’t make the list in 2022, and they really should have, because we spent several hundred dollars taking them around Japan. This year, we tracked all accommodation and all big transportation. We didn’t include local transport or excursions.
Purchased for NZ$3850, sold for NZ$3800
We also bought a car this year while traveling around New Zealand. We’ll go more into what this entailed in a future blog, but we also tracked the expenses that came with this, including petrol, insurance and any car-related purchases. Buying a car for a road trip is a risky endeavor, but we were lucky in that we didn’t have any major breakdowns and we were able to sell the car for about what we paid for it. This made for a rather small expense in a country where we accrued quite a lot of expenses.
This year we went to less places, and we were mindful of our spending. Seeing news of inflation taking the UK by storm and heavy surges in prices across Europe had us worried: Would we even be able to afford to go back?
Thankfully, we secured our flights to the Northern Hemisphere way back in December, an incredible deal from Sydney to Athens for £225 each. Booking far in advance can pay off if you know where you are going to be.
We had hoped to mostly house sit our way around New Zealand, however a last minute change of plans had us road tripping out of pocket for nearly 6 weeks. It was pricey, but worth it. Sometimes, you just need to spend the money and enjoy yourself. Later in the year, we more than made up for this unexpected journey.
We decided after 18 months of non-stop travel to well, stop, for a bit. We planned out about 3 months of housesits in London, giving Aaron enough time to secure a temporary job and refill his savings before we set off again. I was still working remotely at this point, so staying in the UK wasn’t an issue for me.
Below is a quick overview of our expenses for each month (in USD).
January
Accommodation:$471 Transport: $362
While house sitting in Wellington, we bought our car and set off on our trip through the South Island. This included the ferry ride from Wellington to Picton, which we managed to get a discount on thanks to our AA membership. I’d recommend buying this if you intend to drive around New Zealand, as it not only includes discounts on ferries and gas, but also provides peace of mind if you break down or your car starts leaking petrol (for example). The annual membership was around NZ$70 (as of 2024 I think it’s gone up to NZ$80) but we saved NZ$30.00 on the ferry and we used road side assistance with tow once. We also used them for a tune up and I think it was a bit cheaper than if we went to a third party. We didn’t really benefit from the AA petrol discount as it only applied to stations that were slightly more expensive than the cheapest option on the road.
February
Accommodation: $213 Transport: $188
February involved a few sits, both in Christchurch and Oamaru, so we took in the time in between to pop over to Lake Tekapo and Aoraki/Mount Cook.
We didn’t spend very much overall, thankfully, seeing as the rest of the trip was about to be very expensive!
March
Accommodation: $1847 Transport: $187
We had booked a month-long sit in Otago that ended up falling through a few weeks before we had planned to arrive. In the end this turned out to be a blessing, as we had an incredible trip and saw a lot that may have been rushed if we had gone through with it. This did result in us racking up the largest monthly expenditure of two years of traveling! Worth it? Yes, but it is a good reminder that house sitting, even full time, does NOT equal free travel and you should definitely have a financial safety net if things fall through.
April
Accommodation: $439 Transport: $617
We spent nearly all of April housesitting and recovering from a huge road trip and a persistent back injury for Jacki. Having a few weeks at the end of our time to sell the car really reduced our stress levels and allowed us to get what we were asking for the car while also selling off a few others things in preparation for a trip back to Europe.
All in all, the car ended up costing us about NZ$318 or $188 USD per month that we had it. For comparison, our exact car as a rental would cost around NZ$1300 per month – just to RENT it.
In addition to this expense, we also flew back to Sydney on a luxurious (and highly discounted) Emirates flight. Finding out which airlines are starting up new routes can save you a lot and let you fly in style!
May
Accommodation: $1239 Transport: $1035
We didn’t manage to get as many sits in Sydney as we’d hoped, which was unfortunate because it’s not a cheap place to pay for accommodation. Thankfully we were able to commit to a week-long booking on AirBnB, which came with a discount. We also booked in for a few weeks in Greece, which is much more affordable than Australia.
June
Accommodation: $499 Transport: $512
Unfortunately, while Greece was affordable, Switzerland definitely isn’t. Even with a housesit, things like local trams were shockingly pricey ($8 return!) Groceries weren’t too bad, so we simply took a lot of walks, enjoyed the flat and the cat, and enjoyed a minibreak to Freiburg during the brief period our hosts were back between trips.
We spent more on train travel from Switzerland through France to the UK than we spent to fly from Australia to Greece. Go figure. Probably would’ve saved some money had we booked these tickets earlier, but that’s the risk you run when you’re waiting to see what housesits you can book. This year we are planning to do things a little differently to avoid unexpected last minute costs like this.
July
Accommodation: $0 Transport: 0
After all of the expenses we racked up Down Under, it was very nice to have a no low-spend summer. All of our sits except for one was in London, and so our transportation was mostly local. As we were in house sits, we mostly ate and drank at home, saving us lots of money. London is notorious for being an expensive city, but if you are only paying for groceries and the tube you won’t have to worry much.
August
Accommodation: $0 Transport: $0
We sat back to back (with a few overlaps) throughout the summer, as Aaron was working in London. I took a short minibreak up to Edinburgh, but didn’t include that in the price as it was a personal trip. It only ran me about £100 all up for the trains and one night in my old hostel at the whopping price of £14! I also spent quite a lot of money on Fringe tickets, but again, it was a personal trip so I’m not including it.
September
Accommodation: $0 Transport: $0
Because neither of us love London, not only were our travel costs quite low, but so were our everyday costs. We took this time to plan out the next part of our year and laid low.
October
Accommodation: $675 Transport: $537
We initially had a sit booked in Paris but unforeseen circumstances meant we were scrambling to make other plans in the vicinity as we had a flight booked to Barcelona on a certain day from Paris. This is a good time to mention that while Trusted Housesitters does offer cancellation insurance for premium members, they only offer $150/night for up to 10 nights within a certain distance from your original sit (plus a $100 deductible). Lots of fine print there. In this case, it was more economical for us to take a Flixbus to Rouen and book an Airbnb there.
Staying in the middle of Rouen’s old town for a week cost as much as two nights in a budget hotel in Paris, so we were happy with our choice. Barcelona was relatively affordable, and with a housesit saving us the cost of accommodation, we were able to go out for wine and tapas a few times a week. We also booked our Christmas sit at this time, so we were sorted for the year.
November
Accommodation: $1115 Transport: $878
Having been sitting almost non-stop since June, we decided to take a break somewhere warm without any animals to regroup. A random map search on Airbnb found us a cute little apartment in the South of France on an island called Séte near Montpellier. We stayed a month and had a nice, relaxing time.
Our transportation costs are so high this month because we initially flew from Barcelona to Mulhouse as we had no immediate plans after Spain. It was only then that we found Séte and had to make our way down there. Séte is only a three hour train from Barcelona, so had we sorted this out earlier we could’ve saved quite a bit of money. You live, you learn.
We finished up the month with a short train ride to Marseille and a one night Airbnb, leaving us with nearly no expenses for the rest of the year!
December
Accommodation: $0 Transport: $115
We had initially booked a stay for one night in Athens to collect the keys and meet our host, but because of some scheduling changes, we actually ended up staying in different accommodation provided by our host at no extra cost, so our only expenditure was our flights from Marseille to Athens.
Of course, like Barcelona, Athens is a city to be enjoyed and explored, so we did go out for a few meals and some wine now and again. Overall the prices are very affordable so we stayed well within our means while still enjoying this fantastic city!
And that’s 2023! This year, we hope to spend at least a month in each place, whether sitting or simply living. We are also incorporating some more paid sitting into our schedule, as well as pursuing our other interests. Until we have a place of our own (and even once we do!) pet sitting will continue to be a part of our lives. Not only is it an incredible way to save on accommodation costs, but it allows you the opportunity to get the stress relief that comes with being in a comfortable, homey environment and the enrichment and routine of looking after adorable animals.
Jetsetting Petsitters 