The Budget Plan We Created Before Leaving for a Year of Travel
Monthly Budget Estimate
Before we left Brisbane for this trip, we spent a lot of time trying to answer one simple question.
How much would it realistically cost for our family to live overseas for a year?
Travel blogs often focus on destinations and adventures, but when you’re planning long-term travel with two kids, the numbers matter just as much as the itinerary. So before booking anything, we sat down and did the research. We looked at accommodation prices across Southeast Asia, Europe and South/Central America. We looked at food costs, transport options, and the kinds of activities we thought we’d want to do. Eventually, we landed on a number that felt achievable.
Our Target: $10,000 AUD Per Month
Our plan was to keep our average travel budget to around $10,000 AUD per month for our family of four.
For readers outside Australia, that roughly converts to:
€6,000 per month
$6,500 USD per month
Exchange rates move, but this gives a solid reference point.
That number wasn’t random. We built it from the ground up.
Accommodation: $3,000 Per Month
After looking at hundreds of listings, we set a target of $100 AUD per night on average.
Over a 30-day month, that works out to about $3,000 AUD.
Some places, like Europe, will be more expensive, but others, like Vietnam and Morocco, will come in well under.
The goal wasn’t to hit $100 every night. The goal was to average it out over time.
To make that work, we planned to:
Stay longer in each place
Choose apartments or houses over hotels
Look just outside major tourist areas
Prioritise places with kitchens
If breakfast is included, even better! That will help stretch the food budget further.
Food: $3,000 Per Month
We budgeted $100 AUD per day for our family of four (2 adults, 2 kids aged 10 and 8), which again comes to about $3,000 per month.
This only works if you’re not eating out every meal, except in South-East Asia, where it is cheaper and easier to eat out every meal.
Our plan was simple:
Regular supermarket shops
Cook most dinners
Pack lunches and snacks for outings
We still wanted to enjoy local food, as that’s a big part of travel for us. But cooking most meals helps keep things under control.
It also gives a bit of routine, which matters more than you think when you’re travelling long term.
Everything Else: $4,000 Per Month
Once accommodation and food were covered, we had about $4,000 left each month for everything else.
This included:
Car hire
Public transport
Fuel
Trains and ferries
Flights between countries
Activities and experiences
Entrance fees and tours
Worldschooling hubs
Visas and admin costs
Unexpected expenses
Before leaving, we assumed flights would be one of the biggest costs, and long-haul flights can be. But once you’re in Europe, it’s a different story. Budget airlines like Ryanair can be surprisingly cheap. Even with bags and extras, we estimated around $500 AUD total for the four of us for some flights.
This portion of the budget is flexible as well, with the ultimate goal of averaging $4000 AUD per month on the above. We won’t be hiring cars at every destination, nor requiring Visa’s for every country we enter.
Costs Outside the Monthly Budget
Not everything sits inside the $10,000 monthly spend.
Some costs sit separately, including:
SIM cards and connectivity
Ongoing expenses back in Australia
Travel insurance
Standalone travel insurance for a family of four was coming in around $4,500 AUD for the year.
Instead, we activated the insurance included with our Commonwealth Bank credit card.
It covers 12 months of travel (with conditions), and the $35 monthly fee is waived if you spend $3,000 per month, which is easy when travelling full time.
So for us, it made sense. Insurance + points on everyday spending.
How We’re Funding the Trip
The $10,000 monthly budget is coming from savings we had saved up for a rainy day.
I’m still doing some remote work while we travel, but that income isn’t part of the travel budget.
Instead, it’s going towards future savings.
That gives us:
A clearer picture of what travel actually costs
More flexibility when we return home
A way to stay connected to work and the industry
Why We Chose Slow Travel
Once we had the numbers, it shaped how we planned the entire trip.
We chose slow travel over rushing from place to place.
Staying longer means:
Lower accommodation costs
Less spent on transport
More routine for the kids
A better feel for everyday life in each location
Some months will go over budget. Europe probably will.
Others, like Southeast Asia, will likely come in under.
The goal isn’t perfection.
The goal is simple:
Average around $10,000 per month across the year.
This Was the Plan
That’s the plan we left Brisbane with.
In future posts, we’ll share how it actually played out once we started travelling.