September 2019 Budget & Expenses | Digital Nomads Pursuing Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)
Our monthly budget for two came in at just over $700 this month. Not bad considering we were in New York City! See how we’re outliers when it comes to our budget as we pursue financial independence, retire early (FI/RE).
This is a recurring monthly series where we share our budget/expenses as digital nomads pursuing financial independence, retire early (FI/RE) and traveling continuously and long-term! So, if you’re wondering how our year to date totals break down each month, or what the trends in our budget/expenses are, then check out the series.
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Tip to Make the Most of This Article
If you’re new to Screw The Average we recommend reading through the entire article, as it gives context to the how and the why of how we budget and spend our money. If you’re already a follower of our Monthly Budget & Expense series then consider skipping to the ‘meat and potatoes’ of it all.
Quick Links
Monthly and Year-To-Date Expenses
We’re often asked how much we budget for our lifestyle of continuous and long-term travel as digital nomads. So we’re pulling the cover off our expenses and sharing what we spend month to month!
Be prepared; we truly Screw The Average when it comes to our budget/expenses. We have many tricks up our sleeves when it comes to saving money, whether it be for travel (sightseeing, airfare, transportation, etc.), day-to-day expenses (groceries, haircuts, toiletries, etc.), or everything else (gear, supplies, odds and ends, etc.).
“We spend money on what’s important to us: on experiences and on quality and value.”
There are a few reasons why our monthly expenditures are extremely low (relative to most) and dialed in.
+ A Monthly Budget (Or Not)
Budgets have their time and place and do many people a great service. Surprisingly enough though, we don’t keep a budget in the traditional sense because we’re extremely intentional with our decisions, including how we spend money.
Since our living expenses are dialed in, meaning they’re mostly known and similar month to month, and our expenditures are calculated and thought out, we find that we don’t need a budget.
While we don’t keep a budget, as you can see we do track our expenses. This allows us to see trends in our spending and ensure we’re on track. Consider it mindfulness of our finances!
+ Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)
In its simplest form, reaching (Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)) means: A) making much more money than you spend, and B) spending much less than you make.
Now whether your put your emphasis on A (make more money) or B (spend less money) is a debate within the FI/RE community and in our opinion a personal decision. And really, either method means living below your means, so ultimately, why not do both?
For us, we’re building FI/RE into our lifestyle. We believe the journey to reach FI/RE doesn’t need to be a 10-20 year grueling grind where it’s the sole focus of life until reached. Don’t get us wrong, we’ve worked our fair share of intense hours and we’ve delayed gratification plenty.
After years of creating a financial, professional, and personal foundation we decided we could incorporate the pursuit of Financial Independence, Retire Early with doing the things we love. We decided that even if it delayed FI/RE a bit, it was well worth it!
+ Freedom
Having a dialed-in, lean, and minimalist lifestyle (and therefore budget) offers us increased freedom. We’ve designed our life in a way that allows us, within reason of course, to make our own decisions, do what we want, and have the upmost flexibility.
We find satisfaction in being able to sleep-in on any given day, take a hike, or play a video game when we choose to.
We’re minimalists when it comes to ‘stuff’, allowing us to get up and go at a moment’s notice.
We only take on the jobs, contracts, or clients we want to and say ‘no thank you’ to the ones that aren’t a good fit.
Thankfully big expenses or unexpected bills don’t put us in debt or throw us for a loop. Because we choose not to inflate our lifestyle to the size of our income we’re able to have an emergency fund.
Once in a lifetime opportunities rarely pass us by because we’re ready for them, whatever they entail.
This freedom isn’t just luck (although we are lucky we haven’t been hit by a meteor or become terminally ill), we fundamentally believe we’re in charge of our own destiny and therefore have worked long and hard for these freedoms. We’ve made thousands of rational, logical choices for decades to get to (where we are today).
Long-Term Travel, FI/RE, and Freedom are Fueled by Our Monthly Budget/Expenses
We don’t consider ourselves cheap, although inevitably some will. We’re frugal, as we worry less about cost and more about value. And finally, we don’t feel we sacrifice; we sometimes delay satisfaction but at other times we live quite luxuriously.
“How we choose to live is very much a personal decision. We don’t for one second believe it’s the only way or even the correct way.”
Where we place our value and therefore our money may not be where you choose to place yours, and that’s okay. We do however hope that just as we’ve learned from other people, maybe others can take a few things away from our approach.
Follow us each month as we post our actual and full expenses. We’ll share tips on how we saved money and insight into where we spent money!
Don’t miss our Ultimate Gear and Packing Lists! Whether you’re traveling long-term or going on a short vacation, we'll show you how to travel with a single carry-on. We share our packing lists (his and hers!), packing tips, and our favorite gear. Plus, we discuss what we don’t carry and why!
Our Expenses: September 2019
If you’re wondering how to travel internationally, or simply vacation nearby and not spend a fortune on airfare or hotels, then we’d like to welcome you to the world of ‘travel hacking’. See what credit cards we carry, and how we take full advantage of the points and miles we’ve earned.
Notable Expenses in September 2019
iPhone
We held out as long as we could as we’ve been anticipating a release of a new iPhone that would have a USB-C charging port. We put off upgrading our phones in 2018 and then were disappointed again that 2019 wasn’t our year to upgrade either.
Unfortunately, Shannon was walking around with an iPhone 5s 16GB that just wasn’t cutting it anymore when it came to speed and space. We decided that something had to be done.
We could purchase a new iPhone and spend between $500 and $1,000 depending on the model (without signing up for a contract, since we use Google Fi and we’re very happy with how well it fits into our lifestyle!). A second option was to purchase a used phone for $160.
We ended up putting a stop gap in place and simply purchasing a used and in good condition iPhone SE, 64GB phone.
“Originally selling for $160, we negotiated the cost down of the iPhone to $140!”
It replaced her outdated phone and will easily get her through a year until, fingers crossed, the 2020 iPhone meets rumored expectations of big hardware changes.
Transportation to an Out-of-the-City House Sit
We house sit full time and primarily in New York City. The closer we stay within its five boroughs the better, simply for ease of getting around.
However, lining up back to back house sits can be challenging. It’s like putting a puzzle together before you know what the full picture is. We only know about upcoming opportunities when homeowners publish their listing and we’re not chosen for everything we apply for.
We’ve considered ourselves incredibly fortunate to have had back-to-back house sits over the last four months and to have only needed six nights filled with Airbnbs or hotels.
For context, when we started our house sitting adventure nearly three years ago, we'd get anxious not knowing where our next house sitting job was going to be if it wasn't planned at least three months in advance.
After returning from our year abroad, we'd become comfortable with a month. After an additional year traveling around North America, we'd cut it down to two weeks.
Now, the last days of September and the beginning of October (11 days in total) were wide open and it just wasn't looking good.
We kept an eagle eye on new listings posted to Trusted House Sitters but the weeks kept ticking off. Then we hit our comfortable two week mark, and nothing.
One week left and still nothing...
Five days… four days… three days and NOTHING!
It felt like we had every possible thing that could happen to us not finding and getting a house sit happen. From applying too late, applying early but not being picked, to only finding super short two day sits, to finding sits that wanted extreme pet care (eight adult Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs, a litter of puppies, chickens, and farm animals anyone!?).
“No matter what we tried, it was a square peg in a round hole!”
Then, with 36 hours (!!!) before our current house sit was ending we THANKFULLY found something!
While not in NYC, Greenwood Lake, New York is about 35 miles northwest and about a two hour bus ride outside of New York City. We found a super gracious host that not only picked us, but allowed us to arrive two nights early and offered to take us to the grocery store before she left (since a car is required and we don’t have one).
We purchased a set of tickets to get to the house sit and back, plus another set for us to go back into New York City mid-sit. At $68.75 in bus tickets, it’s more than we’ve spent on transportation in a while, but it was well worth it!
For the record, while this time it worked out our comfort zone is still two weeks!
Notable Savings in September, 2019
Eating Out
Simply put, our savings in the ‘Eating Out’ category are that we didn’t do it this month.
Eating out for us is on rare and special occasions and is primarily for the experience, company of friends, and great conversation, and not typically for the cuisine.
But when it comes to eating out to just eat a meal, it rarely leaves us satisfied. We inevitably walk away thinking that we could have had a more enjoyable meal for less at ‘home’.
Lodging - Zero Dollars
We can barely believe it ourselves, but this month we spent zero dollars in lodging cost!
In fact, we summed our year to date expenses on lodging and realized that we’ve spent an average of $0.83 cents a day on lodging so far in 2019. Not too shabby, especially when you consider that we’ve stayed entirely in nice homes, brand-name hotels, and a handful of Airbnbs.
Where We’ve Traveled to This Month
September worked out extremely well and we had back-to-back house sits in Long Island City, the Upper West Side, and we cut it close, but landed a house sit for the end of the month in Greenwood Lake, New York. We met many new homeowners and even more wonderful pets this month!
Long Island City, Queens, New York
We can’t argue about a stay in an apartment on the river, in a sky-rise building, with floor to ceiling windows and a huge balcony to enjoy the views of Manhattan, boats in the river, breathtaking sunsets, and even sea planes landing in the river. This is what we were treated to in Long Island City at the beginning of the month.
Now, top all of that off with a beautiful Russian Blue cat, Babar, and an adorable dog, Huntley!
We enjoyed cuddles with Babar and walks with Huntley along the promenade that was just outside the apartment building. These two were definitely an adorable duo!
Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York
Directly following our house sit in Long Island City, we moved to a new house sitting job in the south part of the Upper West Side neighborhood in Manhattan. Here we were treated to two adorable dogs, Clark and Bruce in a great neighborhood and an apartment that was only a block from Central Park and Lincoln Center.
We’ve always wanted to take care of a Bull dog, and trust us, Bruce was one of the biggest and cutest Bull dogs we’ve met! Both Bruce and Clark were energetic but super great cuddlers. Seriously, both took it upon themselves to be lapdogs!
Manhattan Valley, Manhattan, New York
Following our house sit in the south part of the Upper West Side we made our way to the north part of the neighborhood, known as Manhattan Valley. We were in awe of the location (directly across the street from Central Park) and of the beautiful and historical building we were going to live in for nearly two weeks.
Then we met Luna, an incredibly sweet and graceful Husky and we knew we were in for a wonderful house sitting job. Sergio has always wanted a Husky, so this was a huge treat!
Greenwood Lake, New York
Just 36 hours before the end of our house sitting job with Luna, Michelle came to the rescue!
Before Michelle, we didn’t know where we’d be going next, so nerves were a bit high. Luckily, a last minute house sit was posted on Trusted House Sitters that would fill most of our open schedule.
Michelle reached out to us right away and we met her over video chat. She not only invited us to house sit for her, but also invited us to arrive a couple of days early. To top it off, she even gave us a ride to a grocery store in the next town to purchase food since Greenwood Lake is a small town and we don’t have a car.
We cared for Tigerlily and Tinkerbelle, two very cute cats. Like most pairs of cats we meet, one was very shy (yes, we’re talking about you Tigerlily!) and one was extremely friendly. The moment we walked in the door, Tinkerbelle had already decided that she’d made new friends!
Our tool box is full of resources! From travel hacking to house sitting, digital nomad jobs to privacy and security, financially independent retire early (FI/RE) to entertainment, plus travel hacking (credit cards, miles, points, and rewards), and much much more…
Year to Date (YTD) Expenses for 2019
Where We’ve House Sat in NYC in 2019
Now that we’re house sitting full time in New York City, we’re including a map of all the neighborhoods we’ve ‘lived in’ so far!
Note: The map is live and will be continuously updated. In other words, if your looking at this post June 2019, you’re also seeing ‘future’ house sits.
See where we are now and everywhere we’ve traveled since we began this adventure in 2016!
London, San Francisco, Paris, New York City, Athens and more?! Trusted Housesitters has allowed us to travel the world on a budget, but more importantly given us an opportunity to make new friends and have cute and cuddly companions along the way. Sign up and start your next great adventure!
Final Thoughts
It’s always intriguing to us that many people think that we endure great sacrifice to keep our budget so low month to month. When in fact, most of our decisions are ones we’d make regardless of our financial goals.
We prefer not eating out, we enjoy living with only 36 litter backpacks of essential ‘stuff’, and house sitting is a way of life with a lovely side-effect of replacing most of our monthly lodging costs.
We hope that we can inspire you to live a life you love which also leads you towards financial independence!
