Budget

So that brings us to the budget. Using Numbers, which I'm a huge fan of, I started with the money I have now and tried subtracting all the expenses I knew would be coming between now and then. My Pre-Europe list includes:

• Spending cash
• Rent & utilities
• Cell phone
• Car

There's also my expenses before I leave. I had a lot of fun doing a podcast of my trip to Hawaii a few years ago, and would love to do that again. I'll go into more detail in a future post, but this will require an additional expense. My For-Europe includes:

• EF Bill
• Extend trip ($100)
• Passport ($110)
• Flip mino HD ($210)
• Still camera ($400)
• 16GB Memory card ($35)
• Netbook ($99)
• 1TB External HD ($130)

So obviously there's a little leeway in this list. I'd expected to be able to afford all these things, but hit a snag on the next list. Mom mentioned I should get a Eurail pass, as it would be the cheapest way to get around Europe. Cheap is good! However, I had a little sticker shock when I saw a 4-country pass would be €235 (roughly $312!)

So this will be tough, as I was already at the wire and still haven't accounted for lodging. Mom had mentioned youth hostels as being a cheap way to lodge, so I did some searching. I printed out this handy PDF from backpackingeurope.com which lists hostels in (all?) countries in western Europe alongside contact and price info. I'm hoping to stay anywhere from 2-4 weeks after my EF tour ends on July 31st, but as the cheaper hostels tend to run around €13/night ($17.25), this will cost between €182 and €364 ($241.50 - $483.00)! Sounds like it's time to get serious about CouchSurfing.