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How a Solo Backpacker Spent 45 Days in Southeast Asia on $1,200
Tom's colour-coded spreadsheet revealed exactly where every baht went. Here's the full breakdown.
Read the full story →
Tom's colour-coded spreadsheet revealed exactly where every baht went. Here's the full breakdown.
Read the full story →25 real-world stories and tutorials, sorted by date.
I booked a flight to Miami last month. $189. Round trip. I thought I had found the deal of the century. By the time I checked in, I had paid $340. The...
The £3,000 European Trip I Planned for £900 and What Went Wrong I sat in my flat in Brighton at 2 AM, staring at a spreadsheet that said £903.47, and ...
Why My Arizona Road Trip Budget Went Up in Smoke—Literally Sarah Mitchell I was planning a road trip from Tucson to Flagstaff for my anniversary. I ha...
The spreadsheet was beautiful. I had color-coded categories, currency conversion formulas, and a contingency line item of 15% — which I thought was ge...
I Budgeted $3,500 for a Week in Brighton. I Spent $5,800. Here's Where the Money Went. It was supposed to be the perfect trip. My wife and I had been ...
The email landed in my inbox on a grey Tuesday morning in Brighton. Subject line in all caps: “I DID IT – 45 DAYS FOR $1,200.” The sender was a guy na...
That’s what Karen said when she called me from a hotel lobby in Orlando. Her voice was tight, the kind of tight that comes right before tears. She and...
The WhatsApp message came through at 11 PM. A friend named Sophie, who’d been a corporate lawyer in London for eight years, had just moved to Lisbon. ...
The yen dropped 12% against the pound in six weeks. A woman named Claire lost £450 of spending money without buying a single thing.
A spreadsheet with 1,247 rows. Every coffee. Every toll. Every campsite. That’s what a couple named Matt and Rachel sent me after their 90‑day road tr...
You’ve booked the flights. You’ve told your boss you’re taking two weeks off. Now you’re staring at a blank notebook trying to figure out how much mon...
The email arrived with twelve attachments. A woman named Hannah was planning a six‑city European trip for her and her husband. They had three weeks. T...
“How much should I budget for a week in Tokyo?” That’s the question I get more than any other about Japan. The answer is always the same: it depends o...
Laura’s trip to Iceland was going perfectly until she returned her rental car. The agent pointed to a tiny scratch on the bumper – something Laura had...
I once spent 20 minutes staring at a spreadsheet trying to figure out whether I’d actually spent £47 or the equivalent of £52 on a dinner in Budapest....
Southeast Asia costs $35 a day. Western Europe costs $120. Scandinavia costs $180. Those are averages. But averages hide the truth. A backpacker in Ba...
Sophie’s monthly spending in Lisbon was €1,400. Her monthly income from UK clients was €4,000. She was saving €2,600 a month – more than she’d saved i...
The email was short. “Oliver, I have 30 days and €3,000. Can I backpack Europe?” It came from a reader named Hannah, 23, first big trip. She wanted to...
The spreadsheet had 47 rows. A family of four – two adults, two kids aged 7 and 10 – had just returned from a week in Cancun. The total was $6,800. Th...
The hospital in Bangkok wanted $5,000 upfront before they would treat a man named Rob for appendicitis. He didn’t have travel insurance. He didn’t hav...
The Airbnb cleaning fee was $150. For a two-night stay. The hotel down the street was $120 per night, all taxes included. The hostel was $40 per night...
The email from a reader named Liam arrived in late February. Subject line: “Are these prices real?” He’d just priced a summer trip to Greece. Flights ...
The news broke in late 2025. Japan was relaxing visa requirements for tourists from dozens of countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and ...
The hotel receptionist in Venice handed Anna a bill for an extra €24. “Tourist tax,” she said. Anna had already paid for her room online. She didn’t k...
A reader named Jess emailed me last month. She was planning a 15-day trip to Italy. She’d never been to Europe. She’d never built a travel budget befo...
The email came from a woman named Priya. She was planning a six-week trip to Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore. S...
The email arrived at 7 AM on a Monday. The subject line: “Help me decide.” A reader named Chloe was in the middle of a quiet crisis. She was a freelan...
The decision seemed easy. A family of four – two adults, two kids aged 7 and 9 – had two options for a week in Mexico. Option A: an all-inclusive reso...
Three travellers. Same destination. Same duration. Same activities. Wildly different budgets.
The flight from London to Rome was £320 in June. In November, the same flight was £120. That's a 63% difference. The hotel that cost €250 a night in J...