Brett and I had no idea when we started out last year how we would feel about traveling after a year, or whether we’d want to keep going, but it’s turned out that we enjoy our nomadic life and want to keep going. There’s still a lot of this world we want to experience. However, beginning next month there are two upcoming financial matters that are going to cause changes to our monthly budget and that will impact not only how we travel but potentially how much of it we can do for a while.
- The out-of-pocket costs for all of my dental work this summer (three fillings, a new bridge, a tooth extraction, and teeth whitening) and Brett’s work (deep scalings) came to a whopping $3,590 – OUCH! We had both insurance and the means to pay the balance, but beginning next month we want to start replenishing our savings account by a few $100 per month.
- The cost of attending Bryn Mawr this year will exceed the financial aid YaYu receives, and next month we will begin helping her meet her out-of-pocket costs for the spring term and on into her senior year (she is in her second year now). YaYu works very hard and is extremely frugal and has so far been able to meet her expenses, but what’s left in her savings after this fall’s payment won’t be enough to cover all of the spring term’s bill, so we will step in and make up the difference. Meiling graduated without debt, and WenYu will next year as well, but they both received much larger scholarships than YaYu and were also attending at the same time with siblings, which increased the amount of aid all three girls received. Beginning in the fall of 2020, YaYu will be our only student, and we expect the amount of aid she receives to drop (it already dropped some because Meiling is no longer attending college). So, we will begin setting aside an additional several hundreds of dollars a month for the next two years for her so that she will also be able to graduate without any debt, or at least with as little as possible. Our other children have let us know that although we didn’t provide them with similar financial support, this is the right thing for us to do now for YaYu.
These two items are going to most directly impact our on-the-road expenses, most especially the amount of money we have available for day-to-day spending. Currently, we budget for an average of $50/day, with funds covering not only food but all our local transportation costs and incidentals such as admission fees or other necessary items. Beginning in September, we will be reducing our daily spending average to $35/day. Our summer in Portland has been good training for this lower amount as we’ve tried to keep our average about there (not all that successfully, but we’re getting there – it’s currently under $25/day for August). Thankfully housing during our stay in England is already paid for as are the overnight stay at Heathrow, our lodgings in Edinburg, our train fare out to the Cotswolds from London, two tours we are taking in London, and lodging for an overnight stay in Oxford during YaYu’s visit in October. We know though we are going to have to be very, very careful with and mindful of every penny we spend in England.
Our belt will also have to be tightened a bit more when we arrive in Japan in January of next year because the cost for our housing there will be more expensive than it was before thanks to the current exchange rate, and we will be paying rent month by month rather than ahead of time. If Brett gets the cultural activities visa I can work part-time which will help our bottom line, but if our stay is only for three months finances will be quite tight. We’re not sure yet what we’ll have available for our daily spending because we don’t know what the exchange rate will be, but we know it will be less than $35. We’ve already decided that we won’t make as many outings as we did during our stay earlier this year, and we’ll focus more on spending time with our son and family and helping care for our grandchildren. Our up-front transportation costs have already been covered, but we still don’t know at this time when we will need to purchase fares to leave Japan or to where. If the lower daily amount is unsustainable we will have to lessen the amounts we’re reimbursing our savings and setting aside for YaYu, but we’re hopeful we’ll be able to manage on less.
So, we’re going to have less room to maneuver, budget-wise, for a while but we are up for the challenge. I think we’ll be fine but we’re going to have to be far more careful and creative, say “no” to ourselves quite a bit more, and most likely change up how and where we travel for the next couple of years.
The Occasional Nomads 
It’s too bad you can’t monetize this blog….it’s really a great place to visit and probably a good resource for some.
Ive thought before that some of the countries that you’ve visited should pay you for promoting how great things are there and how to navigate things to make sure everyone is safe and happy!
Best of luck!
Anon in Massachusetts
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I’ve mulled over monetizing the blog several times but just don’t want to – the income it would generate wouldn’t make much of a difference, and I don’t want to deal with advertisers, etc. or worry about who is advertising or what they’re promoting. We’ll be fine – we’re very good at tightening our belts when we need to and still enjoying ourselves!
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Along the theme of monetizing…I believe the Senior Nomads have some kind of arrangement with AirbnB. Perhaps that would be worth looking into?
Good luck!
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The Senior Nomads have been doing this for a long time now, and have been working with Airbnb for several years, including speaking at events, writing a book (!) and even interning at Airbnb headquarters for a few months. They’re a “brand” now, something we have no interest in doing or becoming (we couldn’t afford to stay in Japan these days in the location and space we do if we were committed to staying with Airbnb, for example). We’re big fans of using Airbnb and will continue to use them, but also understand some of the pitfalls and reasons various locations around the world are unhappy with their presence. We’re happy doing what we’re doing for now, and will just tighten our belts for the next couple of years – maybe having to do that while still enjoying quality travel will be both interesting and helpful to others?
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If you cannot stay in Japan for more than 3 months, would you consider settling down temporarily where YaYu is, till she graduates College? She can live with you guys at an apartment and that should lower the costs depending on the cost of living and apartment rentals in her area. Just a thought…
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This is a really good idea . . . except at this point YaYu doesn’t want to live with us! It would be a very hard sell – she likes living on campus with her friends.
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Haha! I am glad she is enjoying College.
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We actually asked her today what she thought of the idea and she told us she loved us and didn’t want to live with us – just what I thought she’d say (it’s what I would have said too if I were her).
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When I read this reply I was thinking there is no way someone YaYu’s age would want to live with parents, LOL. I have a niece and nephews in this age group and it’s amazing to me how just a few years ago they couldn’t wait to hang out with me and now I rarely see them–and I live nearby. It’s just the way it goes at that age–friends become the focus and not family, but once they get into their early 30’s, that seems to change and they rediscover us.
I used to live in Bryn Mawr. This was more than 20 years ago, but even then it was expensive. Can YaYu live on campus the whole 4 years? Some colleges allow that and some don’t.
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As I replied to someone else, YaYu nixed that idea pretty fast – she has no desire to live with us for her last two years of school. Bryn Mawr requires almost all students to live on campus – only a very few are permitted to live off campus (same for Wellesley) so that’s what she plans to do. So, we will set money aside to help her out and keep on with our lives while she keeps on with hers!
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I totally understand about the dental expenses. I just totaled up how much I have spent this year and it was close to $3,000 with dental insurance! What can I say, I have bad teeth, and so did my mom, and my grandmother. I am also going to be paying for law school for my youngest. I totally understand about being strict with the budget. I just paid for air bnb, flight, and transport to the airport to go visit my daughter and whoa….I got good deals but still……
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I knew all this work was coming (well, except for the fillings – those were a surprise), but the total was still shocking. I’m just glad we could cover it, but I’d like to have that money back in our savings again.
I feel your pain about the travel expenses. I always get good deals as well, but it still adds up in surprising ways. I’m glad most of our upcoming travel has all been covered and I don’t have to think about it for a while.
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I can’t tell you how good it feels reading about someone Elsie who believes in funding the bulk of a child’s Bachelors Degree. I do believe that students should have some skin in the game, but for young people to come out of school with a lot of debt sets them up for a more difficult time in life. You are true proper parents. Note that you have succeeded in parenthood as your other children agree that you should help out despite the fact that they didn’t need as much assistance
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Thank you for your very kind words! So far we have not funded the bulk of our children’s college expenses – they have done that on their own through work and scholarships. Following their adoptions, we knew there was no way we could save enough to pay for all three of them to go to college, and we let them know that early on. They all worked very, very hard in high school (all through school, really) and all three did very significant scholarships from the schools they attend/attended (and all three were prepared to start in community college if they didn’t earn enough in scholarships). They all qualified for federal financial aid as well, but have only used work-study and a small fraction of the Pell Grants they were awarded. I know the financial burden of carrying loan debt (I am still paying off my loans from grad school) and do/did not want our children to have to graduate with that weight.
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