Budgeting and Over Spending for One Month in USA

I know I’ve had so many questions about how much this “epic” trip to the USA and Canada has cost me. I’ve very much tried to keep costs to a minimum as much as possible, but I’m also not someone who particularly budgets. I don’t like to be too strict because it feels restrictive. With that being said, when I first started planning the trip I had a loose cost in mind of £5000. I personally have a holiday budget of £1000 per week usually and most years I go abroad for 2 weeks. 

I booked and paid for most things upfront so I created a spreadsheet of these to keep track of costs and also my schedule. I was on budget for this pretty much until I arrived in America. Upfront, I had costs totalling around £4600. 

I used Skyscanner to find my flights. This website compares hundred of flights from different websites. Sometimes it shows one flight sold through 10+ places, and you can pick the cheapest. One thing I would say is that it’s worth going through the bottom few websites because sometimes they include baggage, and sometimes they don’t, therefore it may be that the third lowest price ultimately works out cheaper. If booking.com ended up being the cheapest, I went out and then booked through the WeShop app to ensure I got the shares and cash back. As previously mentioned, I booked hotels through the same process. 

The total cost of flights and buses ended up being slightly more than anticipated due to the additional cost of baggage for some of the flights, which couldn't be pre-booked. I also had a number of problems with the hotel costs because although the booking price was supposed to include taxes and resort fees, many claimed this wasn't the case and I am still trying to dispute this. Also, the exchange rate changed so even though it said one price on my booking confirmation, it ended up being higher which was really frustrating and why I would have preferred to pay upfront completely. 

I actually got a notification that I could still cancel one of my hotels for free, so I looked to see how much the hotel now cost and the price had gone down by almost £100 so I cancelled my booking and then rebooked at the cheaper price. All the other hotels were much more expensive so I didn’t repeat the process but it is definitely worth double checking! 

I also pre-booked most of my trips. I booked 4 of the big day trips (Washington DC, Alcatraz, Grand Canyon and Universal Studios) through Get Your Guide. I then booked Go City New York and my Hawaii Island Tour direct through Go City and Royal Caribbean. For the latter, I did use a $100 “credit” due to my original cruise being cancelled. While I was out there, I ended up booking a few more trips and excursions due to not feeling as comfortable going out on my own, due to illness and other events, so this added a little more to the costs unfortunately. Additionally, I did end up splurging on a few extra things I wasn't planning on with a Broadway production, Vegas show, Vegas attractions and LA bus tour for example. 

Onto my daily expenses! In my head, I mainly only needed food to buy because most days were already organised. I planned to spend $50 a day, and felt this should cover 2 meals a day, brunch and late lunch/early dinner. I also didn’t need to buy on the 9 day cruise as it was already included. 

In total, before I got to America I spent just over £4600 including the £504 I spent on US dollars. Once in America, the biggest cost ended up being the Ubers and Lyfts I purchased that I hadn't particularly budgeted for. I spent £. That means for the total holiday of just under a month, I spent a total of £5,957.95. Yes...I am crying! 

My original plan was to go to Australia and New Zealand for a month next year but in all honesty, I just don't think I will be able to afford that so I think I am going to need a little longer to save and it will hopefully end up being the year after instead. 

You can definitely do the trip for cheaper if you want to and a lot of accommodations could be more affordable, especially if you don’t mind being a bit further out, not in a hotel and not having a private bathroom. Personally, I didn’t feel comfortable not having those things and I felt it just added more security too. Also, all the hotels were booked for 2-4 people so if you’re travelling non-solo those costs can definitely be split as America doesn’t seem to do single occupancy rates. Likewise, the cruise only removes taxes so for a second person it was an additional £93 which is crazy to me. Unfortunately, solo travelling it always going to be more expensive. I think realistically, if I had gone with a partner as originally anticipated it would have cost more so around £4500 per person, because the hotel costs (£2494.09) and taxi costs (£500) would have all been split.