I didn't really have a spending strategy for my two-week trip along the West Coast (besides promising not to pay more than $20 for a meal, which I immediately did in LA). I got to see Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Fun times! The consequence is my bank notifying me that I had less than $3 in my account. To avoid this, I consolidated my expenditure history and visualized it.
Let's start with WHAT I spent money on.
- As expected, inter-city travel took up the biggest slice of the pie. I flew from Dallas to Los Angeles and from Seattle back to Dallas. Between the four cities along the coast, I flew once and took Greyhound the other two times.
- Food and drink takes up roughly a quarter of the entire budget. Though I could have limited the culinary allocation, half of my desire to travel is synonymous with my desire to eat. I would say it's perfect where it is.
- Accommodation is a success! I stayed at a Couchsurfing host and with a friend so cost of staying got cut down tremendously.
- Cash withdrawal might be too much. Those Portland foodtrucks that only accept cash were so good though.
- The only reason why transportation around the city is this high is because I took an Uber once to a nightclub. Budgeted travelers stay away from ride hailing services if you can!
- I am happy with what I paid for entertainment (museums, botanical gardens). I am NOT happy with the "7D experience" in San Francisco that should have been free instead of $12.
- I can't live without magnets. Solid investment.
Cities cost about the same for me. San Francisco inflicts the most damage on my wallet, obviously. Seattle should have cost more but shout out to my Couchsurfing host for keeping that at bay.
It's interesting to see how I generally spent more towards the end of my trip. That San Francisco and Portland, the two more expensive cities, were wedged in the middle of the trip might explain why.
Full disclosure: I sold some stocks that I have owned since the summer to pay for this trip. Don't go into debt just to update your Instagram with a generic tourist photo, but be generous with your travels! I could enjoy another 5% return if I had kept the money, but the profits from investing in life experience, good friends, and outstanding food sure outperform any form of capital return!
(Except for cryptocurrency profits, don't realize those that until you don't have to pay short-term capital tax gains anymore)