Let's start off by getting things straight. No, we did not win the power ball. We have been saving all of our pennies, and have been working to reduce our overhead to as little as possible. We are working off of a very detailed budget, and our primary destinations will be in cheaper countries. European countries and other first world nations are very expensive. There is also a very real difference between how you spend money on vacation versus living abroad.
As we get closer to our departure date of February 15th, I find myself creating, reviewing and checking things off lists. There has been so much planning that has gone into this trip and sometimes it feels overwhelming. Will our finances be enough? Is there more we need to get in advance? Will it fit in our packs? Do we have all of our documents in order? Are we ready?
In the haze of anxiety, I realize we that we really are ready to go. We have had plenty of time to prepare and Ian has spent countless hours researching all of the what ifs. For those of you who may consider a trip of this scale, here are some of the things we did in advance. As we embark on our adventure, I'll let you know whether they were necessary or not.
First things first, we needed to make sure we had our bank accounts and budget in order. We setup a checking and savings account, into which we split our money. We also signed up for two credit cards each, yielding the best air miles sign up bonuses. The first, and most highly recommended to you all, was the Chase Sapphire. For just signing up you get 50k air miles if you spend $4k in 3 months. It is a pretty sturdy chip card, you can use them on multiple airlines, and you actually talk to a person when you call them. The second one we each got was the Capital One Venture, which also gets you 40k air miles for multiple airlines. It has a higher limit, but I have to call them every 2 months to let them know where we are for fear of them shutting down the card. Overall, with spending and earnings points we have 200k air miles that will pay for a large portion of our flights. Google Flights has been extremely useful. It gives us competitive prices for various airlines and shows us different prices for date flexibility.
While traveling we also have to consider our health. Since we both quit our jobs, we will not have regular insurance. We did some extensive research and discovered that most travel insurance companies offer very similar and minimal benefits. However, they are cheap and cover things like broken bones and other adventure based injuries. We are both reasonably healthy, so it will be enough for us. We ended up paying roughly $750 for 8 months of coverage for the two of us. We also had to consider immunizations for the various hideous diseases around the world. Plus, some countries will not let you in without proof of said immunizations (aka yellow card). Thankfully, there weren't too many we needed. There were a few small things we had to stock up on like enough contacts to last the duration of the trip. The only thing we have to worry about is paying the "no insurance" fee when we do our taxes next year.
Giving our notices at our respective workplaces was a must, which definitely produced interesting reactions. It's not everyday that you can say "I'm quitting my job to travel the world." We each were worried a little bit, but we gave more than the standard 2 weeks. All things considered though, everyone was pretty excited for us and we have both been encouraged to seek employment with them again.
We will also need to shut up the house to be occupied by only our two cats. Don't worry, we are not completely abandoning them. Since we live next door to Ian's dad, he has agreed to check up on them; change their litter, feed and water them, and scratch their heads. Within a week of departure, I intend to cancel utilities, car insurance and Netflix in order to keep our monthly expenditures at a minimum. We don't want to be paying for something we won't be using. Plus, we paid rent in advance for 8 months. The only things we will effectively be paying for is heating the house and our student loans. I also intend to do a thorough cleaning of the house. We don't want to leave anything at risk of molding or attracting unwanted pests. Although, we do have the cats to eradicate any unwanted guests while we are away. Dinner will be served on paper plates and eaten with plastic utensils.
Some other last details include having extra copies of our travel documents, ensuring that expiration dates are far enough in the future, and making sure we have all of our contact information in order. If we get into trouble, which is always a possibility, we will have methods to ask for help or get home safe.
The world is a big place, and as much as I'd like to think we can see it all in 8-12 months I know that is simply unrealistic. We had to plan a route. There will be more on the details of our route in a later post. This allowed us to determine what we will need to pack, as we will have limited space. We won't get around having to buy some stuff along the way. Here is what we are packing. Remember all of this stuff is split between 2 people. With all of this stuff, our packs weigh roughly 30 lbs each and we have extra space.
Clothes per person:
[ ] 2 pairs convertible pants
[ ] 3 pairs socks
[ ] 4 pairs underwear
[ ] 2 t-shirts
[ ] Belt
[ ] Boots
[ ] Sandals or tennis shoes
[ ] Coat
[ ] Puffy
[ ] Fleece leggings (Jessica)
[ ] Hat
[ ] Lightweight leggings (Jessica)
[ ] 2 Lightweight long sleeve shirts
[ ] 2 pair shorts
[ ] Swim suit
[ ] 2 Tank top
Accessories:
[ ] Extra waterproof bags
[ ] Batteries
[ ] Camelbak each
[ ] Camp pillow
[ ] Cards against humanity
[ ] Travel Hammock
[ ] Headlamps
[ ] Hula hoop
[ ] Journal
[ ] Knife
[ ] Pack of pens
[ ] Phone
[ ] Kindle Fire
[ ] 2 wall/USB chargers
[ ] Sleep bag
[ ] Sleep mask
[ ] Sleep pad
[ ] Small day backpack
[ ] 2 Spiral notebooks
[ ] Thumb drive
[ ] Tripod
[ ] Universal sink plug
[ ] Wallet
[ ] Mess kit
[ ] First aid kit
[ ] Bug net
[ ] Water purifier
[ ] 2 Cameras : Sony Rx100, this is the shit! A camera everyone should own! And one waterproof digital.
[ ] Extra Memory cards
[ ] 2 sets of earphones
[ ] 2 Spanish dictionaries
[ ] Paracord
Toiletries:
[ ] Baby powder
[ ] Comb
[ ] Contact case
[ ] Contact solution
[ ] Contacts
[ ] Glasses
[ ] Deodorant
[ ] Eye drops
[ ] Sunscreen
[ ] Toilet paper
[ ] Toiletry pouch
[ ] Toothbrush
[ ] Toothpaste
[ ] Towel
