My Budget for a Year in South America

Hi! I am Jo, a 30 year old veterinary surgeon hoping to quit my job, rent my house, buy a campervan in South America and travel around the continent for a year. This is my open and honest budget, no holding back! Since this blog was written, I've broken up with my longterm partner, so excuse the 'we' and 'us' wording, I can't be bothered to go back and change it all ha... So whether you're a solo traveller or in a couple, hopefully you find the following helpful!

Background - About Me

Jo and Apollo, my trusty van

I have been saving for our trip around South America for around 3-5 years. Jo is a Veterinary Surgeon but then lectured at a Veterinary Nursing college for a few years. We both inherited some money which we used as the foundation for our savings, but most of it comes from being frugal. The pandemic and lockdown has sombrely helped with that, as we haven't been able to do anything for the last year...

Less dinners out, nights out and petrol. Less holidays abroad (sadly, as we LOVE travelling), more staycations and less shopping... Which means no new shoes for Jo! Equally, we found that buying a small something every now and again stopped us from binging and spending insane amounts because we wanted to 'treat' ourselves, so don't try to go cold turkey.

Disclaimer!

Money is very personal to each and every person, and everyone will have a different amount of savings, budget and plan. We know we are very lucky to be able to afford this and are SO grateful for that. But we don't want anyone to be disheartened by our numbers or think they can't do their trip - I'm a firm believer that if you want to do something, you can do it! No matter your budget, you can save hard, sell things, work whilst you're abroad... you can always find a way. We know a lot of people travelling on a LOT less than us, so save hard, be frugal and dream big. Don't give up.

The Numbers

Let's get straight to the numbers. Over the years, we managed to save up around £7000 each, but we knew we didn't want to spend everything and come home broke. After reading lots of other blogs and listening to people's experiences, the range of money they spent was insane! Some people hitch-hiked, worked whilst they were out there, ate nothing but street food for a year and camped, spending an impressive £1500 over 10 months! Whilst others really splashed out, stayed in luxury hotels and spent over £15,000. We found a few blogs that sounded like a comfortable medium, and they spent £6000--8000. That sounded good for us.

When you think about your budget, ALWAYS overestimate. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how unexpected costs frequently pop up; car repairs, fines, trips to the doctor and lost or damaged property; it happens. Plan for it. I was really bad at being honest with myself, as I wanted to make our trip sound as cheap as possible, but we forced each other to over budget.

Therefore, just from research, we were roughly aiming for £10,000 each.

Better to overestimate and be pleasantly surprised, than underestimate and get a nasty shock...

Start with the big ones

When we did our budget, we started with the big, obvious costs and worked our way down. And again, remember we rounded a lot of these up to overestimate. So...

NB: Everything is per person.

Transport (one off, per person)

1. £500 - One way flights from London to Santiago, Chile.

2. £500 - Return flights from wherever we end up!

3. £100 - Extra baggage (we aren't great at packing our lives into one backpack...)

4. £500 - PCRs and Covid Insurance

5. £400 - Animal Sanctuary Experience in CIWY, Bolivia

6. £1000 - Flights and Experiences in the Galapagos

7. £10,000 - Van Budget (we hope to make this back when we sell, so won't include in total)

Then, the more difficult part - weekly living costs. This will obviously vary massively depending on the country and what we plan to do. Some weeks I'm sure we will be relaxing by the beach, whilst others may be full of experiences, repairs and other big costs... Don't be too specific, an average works out well and gives you wriggle room. We got most of these by researching other blogs. And again... always try to be realistic and overestimate if needed!

Weekly Living Costs (per week, per person)

1. £20 - Diesel (price varies massively per country)

2. £50 - Food and Drink

3. £15 - Activities and Experiences

4. £10 - New Clothes / Gadgets

5. £10 - Souvenirs and Gifts

6. £10 - Phone Credit

Lastly, don't forget to have wiggle room for emergencies. Van life especially can be unpredictable and if you think you're getting down the Panamerican highway with ZERO complications, you have unrealistic expectations my friend!

Emergency Costs (one off, per person)

1. £1000 - Van Emergencies (e.g. punctures, mechanics, windscreens)

2. £500 - Other Emergencies (e.g. medical, rescue, other)

3. £600 - Travel Insurance

TOTAL BUDGET

So, in our opinion (and remember, no one can tell you that you are wrong, budgets are VERY personal to you and how YOU live) our overcautious budget for a year in South America is:

£10,000 - £11,000

Again, I really cannot stress enough how personal this is to us and how you should NOT feel disheartened if your budget is lower and you want to do this trip. You certainly can! Backpacking, eating locally, working or volunteering whilst you travel and waiting for cheaper flights can all easily knock this price in half.

But, we always want to be honest with money and we hope that it helps someone out there get some tips for budgeting and planning their trip of a lifetime! Throughout our journey we will be sharing exactly what we spend, every week, on our Instagram and Facebook page - so come join us to see whether we stay in budget or not! We can't wait to look back at this at the end of our trip and see how accurate (or indeed, how very, very wrong we were...) about our expectations!

If you have any questions about budgeting or need some tips and advice, do not hesitate to get in touch via my social media or drop me an email - wherejowanders@gmail.com

Thanks for reading, let the adventure begin!

Love, Jo

@wherejowanders

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