Sunday, August 2, 2009

What's This Trip Costing Us?


By Claire
Our plan is to keep track of what we spend so I thought I'd start with what we've spent so far in pre-trip costs. With 4 weeks to go, I'm hoping this is a final list.

Airfare to Amsterdam and back $2,371
TomTom Go 930 GPS $359
GPS dash mount $17
Amazon Kindle e-readers (2) $600
IGo Car Charger for Kindle $5
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA Netbook laptop $390
Additional 1 Gb memory $24
Wireless Mouse, $22
Computer security cables (2) $40
2 external hard drives, one full of movies the other holding all our planning documents $200
17 guide books $231
Shipping those 17 books plus a few more to Amsterdam (42 lbs.) $136
Calling cards $17
Camping Card International (1) $20
International Driver's License (2) $50
Money belts (2) $30
Backpack $30
Smartwool tops (2) $140
Smartwool bottoms (2) $140
Rain hat (Claire) $30
Waterproof Walking/hiking shoes (Claire) $130
National Trust membership $80 ("Enjoy FREE admission into the castles, country houses, gardens and landscape parks preserved and presented by the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland")
France Passion membership $39 ("free camping at over 1,100 wineries and farms in every region of France")
Paris Greeters €10 donation ($14.08)
Our total so far: $5,115.08

I listed the Smartwool tops and bottoms, the shoes and the rain hat because they were bought specifically for this trip. Clothing purchases not listed are things we will use at home as well.

2 comments:

Brenda said...

WOW!! I'm very impressed with your trip cost analysis. Are you going to have an end of trip cost analysis? Would be very interesting to see what a year, traveling in Europe would cost.

Chuck and Claire said...

Brenda,
Yes, we plan to keep track of and post all our expenses as we go along. We'll have a grand total on our last blog.
Claire