6 months ago I wrote an article with a 6-month breakdown of my spending to show how I cut spending by traveling. Another 6 months have passed so I thought I would compare it to the first 6 and show how much I spent after a full year of traveling around the world. The following estimates are for essentials accommodations, transportation & food.

A few things to keep in mind:

• To keep all of my estimates at an even 6 months, I will list what I have spent between January 22nd, 2017 and June 21st, 2017.
• Estimates for public transportation and food are rough calculations.
• These estimates do not include things such as entertainment, clothing purchases(which I rarely have anyways), cell phone bills, etc.. In reality, I spend more than this.

_{My AirBNB in Mauritius}

Accommodations

The first 6 months of my journey, I went to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia. I was lucky that I had many friends to help house me for cheap and bring my 6-month accommodation spending to $800. I wasn't able to get my accommodation costs quite as low this past 6 months but I still did a good job. I owe a lot to wonderful friends that helped me out with places to sleep during my journey. Airbnb also worked out very well and I found a couple great places at a good price.

My accommodation breakdown:

Melbourne, Australia:  $0 for 1 month (amount paid included from first 6-month breakdown)

Mauritius: $400 for 1 month

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam:  $17 for 10 days

Niigata, Tokyo, Osaka & Shiga, Japan:  $193 for 5 weeks

Seoul, South Korea: $300 for 9 weeks

_{Kyoto Station}

Transportation

I proved in my article about the first 6 months of my travels that globetrotting does not have to be expensive. After constantly tracking airplane prices, I was able to snag a few good deals along with a business trip that got me a free flight. Compared to my first 6 months of transportation costs ($2905), this time around I cut my spending on transportation in about half! I highly recommend Google Flights if you are trying to track flight prices and waiting for that right moment to book a flight.

My airplane breakdown:

Australia -> Mauritius: $390

Mauritius -> Vietnam: $280

Vietnam -> Japan: $0

Japan -> Korea: $85

My public transport breakdown:

Melbourne, Australia:  $80 for 1 month

Mauritius: $100 for 1 month

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam:  $50 for 10 days

Niigata, Tokyo, Osaka & Shiga, Japan:  $350 for 5 weeks

Seoul, South Korea: $170 for 9 weeks

*Note: my transportation spending for Vietnam should have been closer to about 20 dollars if it wasn't for getting ripped off by a taxi driver

_{Street food in Ho Chi Minh}

Food

Just a disclaimer, this category is the most difficult to calculate so the estimates are rather on the rough side. My first 6-month breakdown for food was calculated at $3,540. Most of my time then was spent in countries that were a bit more expensive and I didn't do much cooking. This past 6 months I brought my spending down quite a lot by traveling to cheaper countries and trying hard to cook more and eat healthy (I lost about 5 kilos in the past few months).

My food breakdown:

Australia:  $350 for 1 month

Mauritius: $300 for 1 month

Vietnam:  $50 for 10 days

Japan:  $500 for 5 weeks

South Korea: $1300 for 9 weeks

Conclusion

In my first article on how I save money by traveling, I compared how much I would have spent living at home in the US vs how much I actually spent by traveling. I estimated that essentials for 6 months at home would have cost me around $12,380 but by traveling I only spent about $7,245. This time around I am comparing the most recent 6 months of my travels to the first 6 months and found out I was able to bring my spending down even more.

The first 6 months living overseas (6/21/2016 - 1/21/2017):

• Accommodations: $800
• Transportation: $2,905
• Food: $3,540

Total: $7,245

The past 6 months living overseas (1/22/2017 - 6/21/2017):

• Accommodations: $910
• Transportation: $1,505
• Food: $2,500

Total: $4,915

That means my total essentials spending for the past year was $12,160! That is basically the same as my estimate for 6 months of living at home. So according to my (rough) calculations, By traveling the world this past year I saved about $12,600!

If you are looking for advice on traveling the world (and saving money while doing it), feel free to send me a message!