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Year 1 Nomad Travel Spend Report – Traveling the world for half of the cost of staying home

When we decided to get married and sell everything to travel the world, we knew that this new lifestyle was going to be fun, exciting but also cheaper than staying at home. What we did not know was how much cheaper it was going to be to live a very high quality of life where we would enjoy the local food scene, cook amazing meals, take regular getaway trips, spend time in nature, attend local shows/festivals and everything else you get the freedom to do when you decide to travel the world slowly.

As we are closing our first year of nomadic travel, I am digging into our finances to answer this question and the results are pretty exciting. In a nutshell in the last 12 months, we slow traveled to 10 locations in 5 countries for about half the cost of living in San Francisco. But more than reducing our spending, geo-arbitrage let us rebalance our expenses towards activities that we enjoy the most, spending more time with our respective families, living a less stressful life and exploring new places in the world.

So let’s dig into our spending report for our first year of nomadic living!

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

What our $3,700 California wedding looks like: a budget breakdown

It is the early morning exactly one year ago. I’m standing up front, surrounded by magnificent and giant redwood trees that have been living here for thousands of years. On my left side, I see close friends and family members. On my right side, our wedding officiant is reminding everyone to be present and absorb the energy of such a unique nature setting in this very special moment. Holding my hands and standing in front of me is the love of my life (Mrs. Nomad Numbers). She is wearing a stunning dress that is competing with the early sunlight that is illuminating the entire grove we are gathered in. As I look into her eyes, I can feel the love radiating around her. This was one of the highlights on the best day of my life that took place exactly one year ago.

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

International phone plan options for travel – Google FI Review

As we embarked on long-term nomadic travel, we had to figure out a lot of logistics and choosing an international phone plan is a big one because we rely on it everyday. We ultimately decided on Google FI and will share with you our comprehensive review of the Google FI phone plan.

We will be going over the reason why we believe it is critical to have connectivity while traveling long term, why we chose Google FI has the phone plan we’ve been using since we started our journey, what are the alternatives and which option we recommend whether you want to travel the world long-term or simply stay in the US.

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Weekend Guide – Superbloom, California

As we came back to California to spend some quality time with family and friends, we decided to chase the rare superbloom which typically occurs once every 10 years or so. Due to a persistent drought in California, this year’s was particularly abundant which made for a unique and wonderful show we did not want to miss. In this post, we are sharing our itinerary as well as how much we spent! If you are in California and haven’t seen the superbloom, you still have a couple of weeks to catch up before it starts fading away!

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Detailed Guide + Cost of living in Aruba: Nomads in Paradise

Staying for a month in paradise on a Caribbean island costs tens of thousands of dollars right? We assumed it can only be affordable for 5 days or 10 days max unless you are a gazillionaire and it’s probably only worth it for a special occasion like a honeymoon. We never heard of any digital nomads or slow travelers going there, so it must not be practical. Well we have some good news for you, it is very doable and can be cheaper than staying at home! Are you ready to go explore Aruba?

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Cost of our travel to Mexico for 3.5 months

We recently wrapped up a 3.5 months (106 days to be exact) trip to Mexico where we slow traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Oaxaca City & San Miguel de Allende. We choose these places based on few factor which the main were 1) wifi quality (especially for Mrs. Nomad Numbers who was working remotely on that trip), 2) things to enjoy over a relatively long stay (4 weeks in average for us) and of course 3) safety.

In this spending report post we look at how much we spent in Mexico, project what our yearly cost of living in this country would have been and give a few tips to reduce this budget even further. Let’s dig into our Mexico spending report!

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Cost of our nomad living in San Miguel de Allende

After having such a great time in Oaxaca City where we felt we experienced for the first time what authentic Mexico is, we spent 4 weeks in San Miguel de Allende (SMA) as our last leg of our 100+ days trip to Mexico. While Oaxaca City set the bar pretty high on so many fronts, SMA turned out to be our favorite place of all the places we explored in Mexico and one we are planning on coming back to.

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Cost of our nomad living in Oaxaca City

After a wonderful 6 weeks in Mexico City where we explored both the city and the Pueblo Magicos surrounding it, we spent 4 weeks in Oaxaca City during Christmas and New Years. Oaxaca city is THE place to experiences authentic Mexican food. It is also extremely affordable as we only spent $26 per person and per day making it the cheapest place we’ve visited since we started to travel the world!

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago