The question now is how much do we need to save for one month of full-time travel? Also, will Japan actually be fully open in time for us to go?
The last time we travelled internationally was in September 2019 to none other than Japan. We're glad we did because who knew the world was about to shut down. With #Japan2019, we were trying to travel in a cheaper fashion since I was still in school and Katerina...was being Katerina. We stayed in local Japanese budget hotels instead of opting for American hotel chains. However, we did end up splurging for a ryokan with a private onsen in Hakone for $500/night per room #worthit.
This upcoming trip is going to be a little different. With #Asia2022, we're thinking of visiting multiple countries instead of just one. Additionally, we're going to live comfortably instead of cramming ourselves into tiny hotel rooms. To be quite honest, our approach has always been to just work, save up a bit, and spend our dollars on whatever we want during our travels. We don't necessarily budget out an allotted amount for our needs and only started doing so on and off this year. For #Asia2022, we researched flights and lodging for the locations we wanted to visit. We also have a general idea of the potential expenses due to previous experiences from visiting these countries. After inputting all this information into a spreadsheet, we decided to each save a whopping $6,000 to $7,500 for one month of traveling around Asia. I personally wanted to save a little bit more in case I wanted to stay at nicer resorts or you know, fly more luxuriously.
"Margaret, please. That's already half our budget." -Katerina on trying to talk Margaret out of trying to fly business.
Business class is $3,000+ if booking with cash for a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Singapore on our airline of choice during our specified time frame. We both have Chase credit cards which allow us to accumulate points. We then have the option to convert said points into travel for 50% more value. It's a great deal because you're essentially being given free money.
We've been hoarding our points and there's no better time to redeem those points than the present. Katerina does have a valid point about flying business (as quoted above) and since we were trying to stretch our points/cash, I ended up booking 2 one-way flights for roughly 70,000 Chase rewards points in economy. I'm still keeping my hopes up for an upgrade to premium economy or business though. Not sure how I'll respond to sitting in coach for 13 hours as it has been a few years since I last endured a transatlantic flight. #noshame
In additional to our Chase credit cards, we both also have the IHG premier credit card. I believe we each were awarded 140,000 points and 1 free anniversary night at qualifying hotels. The card does have a $99 annual fee, but considering you get a free night at an IHG property, it seems to already pay itself off. Between the two of us, we have a little over 300,000 points that we can use on our month-long journey plus 2 free nights!
Savings Goals
We've given ourselves a goal of saving $1,500 to $1,900 a month for the next 4 months in order to hit our final number. Think we can do it? In additional to saving from our usual paychecks, we're going to embark on other methods of making extra cash. Katerina has been completing surveys via Survey Junkie. We also list and resell items from our closet on Poshmark. I've also signed up for various types of gig work through DoorDash, Wag!, and Instacart previously for fun.
How much would you save for a month-long trip? Comment below or message us!
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