Money and Finances

Of course, nothing works without money. But where do you get it from? Can you save somewhere? And how much does such a trip actually cost? We've also given this a lot of thought and would like to share our considerations with you in this post.

Saving Money for the World Trip

We have to admit that we didn't have to take such drastic measures as are often described in forums and other blogs and websites. Therefore, we don't want to go into detail about all the various possibilities and bore you with them. You can certainly find better inspiration elsewhere.
Nevertheless, once we decided to travel the world, we did consciously give up the usual coffee to go. We also started preparing our own sandwiches at home. And later even stopped that completely, as Frank developed the desire to lose weight. Instead of eating at a restaurant or grabbing something at the butcher's counter during lunch break as usual, he brought food from home or bought a “food drink” at the supermarket. These usually (except for smoothies) contain a lot of protein, so they're good for maintaining your figure, and compared to a full meal, they're not that expensive.
We also didn't go out to eat as often as before and gave up other leisure activities. Instead, we went for walks more often, which turned out to be perfect for coming up with ideas for the trip and doing some brainstorming.
Oops, looks like we did have a few money-saving tips after all. 😉

Well, the fact that we didn't have to change or save that much was probably mainly because we're not in the typical age group of most people who set off on a world trip. We had already been working for over 20 years and were able to invest money wisely.
Since Uwe and Andrea didn't invest in a house or an apartment, their savings were invested in stocks and similar assets. However, in the event of a death, due to inheritance and the somewhat strange legal succession laws (but that's another story we won't go into here), the assets were divided and paid out.
Uwe and Andrea had always been thrifty. They often considered whether to book the hotel that cost €10 more but included a sauna and spa area. And very often chose the cheaper option so they could go out for dinner in the evening instead. They weren't interested in designer clothes or other luxury items to impress others, as they say. They preferred spending money on vacations. They also gave up their very old car, which unfortunately became a total loss in 2021 (and they even received €200 for it), and decided to use car sharing instead, which worked wonderfully. Andrea continued using it for a while before eventually giving up that option too and choosing to get around only by bicycle. Instead, they invested in good rain gear.

Frank had also used savings together with Katja for their own world trip back then - keeping in mind that they had learned to live on little money, since Frank initially earned very little during his apprenticeship. As a result, their living expenses remained low because they simply weren't used to anything different.

We believe that it generally makes a big difference whether you immediately raise your standard of living when your salary increases or whether you continue living as before.
That's why we did save in certain areas for the world trip, but we are mainly relying on our existing savings.
We also want to travel on a small budget, meaning we won't need much. For example, we plan to cook for ourselves and eat out less. We might also “stretch our money” by helping out somewhere or doing house sitting, etc. We can completely do without hotels (unless we get cabin fever), since we always have our sleeping place with us.

Traveling on a Small Budget

It was clear to us that we wanted to make a plan in order to know how much savings we would actually need for the trip and how long we would be able to travel with that amount.

When you start reading up on the topic and researching how much money a couple needs per day while traveling, you often come across the figure of €100 per day.
However, the following points must be taken into account: many couples do not include insurance costs (such as standard liability and accident insurance). Many young people also skip health insurance, don't contribute to pension funds, and apparently just hope that nothing will happen.
That was too risky for us.
Because of our age and since Andrea already has a pre-existing medical condition, everything had to be thought through more carefully. We didn't want to start the journey naively, as many (still healthy and young) people apparently do.
Therefore, we sought advice from our insurance broker to clarify what needed to be considered.
Andrea's life insurance (which can later be paid out as a pension) and Frank's occupational disability insurance were made contribution-free. Andrea also took out additional dental insurance, while Frank kept his existing policy. Their liability insurance policies were combined, and the accident insurance policies remained in place.
We also decided to get legal insurance (in case something unpleasant were to happen - although hopefully nothing ever will), as well as car insurance and household contents insurance for the vehicle.

We didn't want to approach traveling blindly without having a clear idea of how much we would need per day.

As mentioned, the figures found in forums are usually given per couple.
But in our case, the costs would be calculated completely differently.

As mentioned earlier, many people have no insurance. And thus potentially save a lot of money.
Many travel through Southeast Asia, which is much cheaper because you can eat well and inexpensively at street stalls.
However, many do not have their own sleeping space with them - which, in our case, we do. That allows us to save on accommodation costs.
Many also travel quickly from place A to place B. This results in high travel expenses due to shared taxis, buses, trains or, for camper van owners, driving many kilometers just to quickly discover something new.
We wanted to travel more slowly in order to take a closer look at the routes and places we pass through, but also to save money by not using so much fuel.

We therefore estimated that we could manage well on about €80 per day (despite health insurance contributions or long-term travel health insurance, pension contributions, and the other insurance policies we consider necessary).
This amount also includes Andrea's medication, as well as rent paid to Frank's parents (for the time we were “living” there, including electricity, water, waste disposal fees, and the German broadcasting fee), so that our remaining belongings would have a place to stay.

While we were still in Germany, gym fees were added (fortunately at a friendship rate) and occasionally the Germany ticket for public transport.

It's worth noting that this calculation was a so-called mixed calculation. We were aware that there would be times when we would have higher expenses, but also days that would be less costly.

The planned trip to the Rhine for the invitation to a silver wedding anniversary would be a more expensive item due to an additional rental car, train travel, and hotel costs. On the other hand, there will also be days when we only have our “fixed costs” (insurance, medication, etc.) and no additional expenses—meaning we will effectively “save” money on those days.

Saving Money During the Trip So We Can Travel Longer…

Our thoughts went further: we wanted to make use of certain opportunities to “stretch” our journey and be able to travel for a longer time.
If the opportunity arises and we find a place interesting, we would also like to do WWOOFing (helping out on a farm in exchange for food and accommodation) or try house-sitting.

We were also interested in finding ways to get groceries at a lower cost. That's why we started rescuing food through the app “Too Good To Go” (which we think is great - it also has a wonderful ecological aspect by saving food from being wasted).

We also found an app that allows us to redeem so-called “cashbacks” (at least in Germany). This means that we get reimbursed for groceries such as sweets, pasta, and pesto, or drugstore items like toothpaste and panty liners. It's admittedly a bit of an effort, since you have to keep and scan receipts and repeatedly enter your details. But so far, we've managed to save over €15 on items we would have bought anyway (and in the process, we got branded products that we probably wouldn't have bought otherwise). So far, we've been happy to put in the effort to save that money.
A great thing.

Frank has always taken great photos on his vacations (even back when he was traveling with Katja) and eventually bought himself a good DSLR camera because photography became his hobby. Several years ago, he started uploading some of his photos to various online platforms to sell them.
Back then, you earned more per photo than you do nowadays. Still, we want to continue regularly uploading new pictures so that we can sell more and earn some money that way. If we ever manage to make more than €5 per month, it will even be worth including it in our budget as “income”.

Budget Overview

We keep a very detailed (Excel) spreadsheet to track our expenses.
We quickly noticed that most of our spending goes toward groceries and fixed costs, which are probably also the biggest expense categories for many other travelers.
Since food costs vary greatly from country to country, we once again hope that our mixed calculation will work out.

So far, we've been managing well with this planned budget.
We were aware that this wouldn't allow for big splurges or luxury but that's not important to us. We would rather be able to travel longer.

Financial Buffer

This also needs to be considered!
If the car needs repairs or something else unexpected happens, it's important for us to have enough money available to handle it.
Given that Andrea requires medication to keep her chronic illness under control, it's especially important to have additional funds available in order to deal with emergencies abroad.

This might sound as if we have a hidden pot of gold in reserve. But we can assure you that this is not the case. Rather, we simply plan and manage our savings carefully and responsibly.