Cost Breakdown of My Trip
Every time I tell people that I've been travelling, most people who would like to set out to do something similar ask me how much I ended up spending. For most folks, it's surprising that I was able to fund it on my own as well.
Before I get to the breakdown, here are something's I keep in mind before travelling and bit of information about the sort of expenses I incur generally.
- In case I'm flying I always book my flights well in advance, and usually plan my travel dates around the best flight prices.
- I usually prefer good quality hostel accommodations from chains like Zostel if available. If not, my second choice is to look for affordable Airbnb's. If neither of these are available, I look at budget hotels.
- Most of my travel happens in trains. When travelling in the day, I usually travel by Sleeper or Sitting class. For overnight journey's I usually try to travel by 3 tier AC.
- For food, 50% of the time I skip breakfast and have an early lunch. Which means I usually have two major meals a day. I also usually have a lot of street food when travelling, which also keeps my food expenses quite low.
Breakdown
Transportation
Flights: ₹4290 (BOM-CCJ)
Trains:
Breakup
CLT-PDY: 347
MAS-VSKP: 1498
VSKP-PURI: 292
PURI-HWH: 1439
SDAH-GAYA: 1144
GAYA - PNBE: 289
PNBE-BSB: 193
BSB-HWH: 3383 (Premium Tatkal)
HWH-R: 1223
R-JBP: 919
JBP-GWL: 1143
GWL-VGLJ: 363
VGLJ-JBP: 838
JBP-RKMP: 978
RKMP-CSMT: 2032
CSMT-LNL: 273
LNL-CSMT: 273
Total Train Expenses: ₹16,627
Bus:
Breakup
Pondicherry-Chennai: ₹619
Other Bus Expenses: ~ ₹300
Total Bus Expenses: ₹919
Internal Travel Expenses (Cabs, Autos, Rickshaws) : ~ ₹4000
Total Transportation Expenses: ₹25,836
Accommodation:
Break Up
Zostel Plus Lonavla(2 nights): ₹2349
Gostops Varanasi(2 Nights): ₹958
Shamuka Homestay, Puri(3 nights): ₹3783
Senamura Yoga Ashram, Bodh Gaya(2 Nights): ₹2017
Betwa Homestay, Bhopal (2nights): ₹2522
The Aster Heritage, Kolkata(5 nights): ₹5566
Hotel Grace, Gwalior(2 nights): ₹3195
Backpacker Cowies:(3 nights) ₹3213
Total Accommodation Expenses: ₹ 23,603
Food Expenses
As I don't have exact grasp over my day-to-day food expenses I am going to make an approximate that I spent on average ₹300 per day. It would be good to keep in mind that I didn't have much food expenditure when I stayed with friends, and that some of my accommodation charges already included one meal. I also ate lots of street food, so I didn't spend much on food overall, other than the occasional indulgences.
Total Food Expenditure ~ ₹ 12,600
Overall this would mean my 42-day trip costed me ₹62,039. I would include for another miscellaneous expenses of around ₹5000, as I also did some shopping for snacks and gifts along the way, that aren't included above.
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