Efficiency 1: Budget

Will post last few days' goings-on soon. Today I wanna take a second to talk about efficiencies I'm implementing on this trip. I'm all about efficiency. In fact, the very reason that I've chosen to abandon flight as a means of travel could come down to efficiency, since boats are about 10-20 times more efficient on fuel - this has much appeal to me.

Today's efficiency post is about budgeting. In the months leading up to my trip, I started a series of spreadsheets on The Google Documents, tracking in great detail my food spending for each day. Well, not great detail, but down to the meal. In this way, I could observe trends in spending, find where costs could be cut, and implement measures to do so. But I love food, so for those who would fear that such measures would serve to reduce the enjoyment you get from your food, worry not; I managed to cut costs while maintaining optimal deliciotude.

Another spreadsheet I made tracked all expenses related to the trip. I estimated preparation costs, daily costs while travelling, and big costs, such as the boat voyages and rail pass. I compared the combined value to my current bank account, and made sure I could afford everything, updating as I went. A few extra costs have come up here and there - for instance, I way underestimated "incidental" travel costs, but I've managed to compensate in other areas so far.

Finally, I'm now keeping a spreadsheet that tracks my daily spending while abroad. I've separated everything into the categories: Food, Travel and Other. These values are then added, and the result is compared against $70 - the approximate amount I've budgeted for each day. Anything not spent from the day's budget carries over into a bonus pot for each month. This gives me an idea of how much I can splurge at the end of the month. Or how much I need to scale back. But because I'm in efficient-spending mode still, from the months before, I find I'm way under-spending so far. This will, of course, change once I hit the mainland, and am getting fewer free meals.

Anyway, that's my efficiency post for today.