Budget
Our aim was to have $101,100 which worked out at $100 a day. This should make things easier and let me do everything we wanted to do.
Unfortunatley, two things have happened which mean we will not have that much money anymore.
1. The 'Credit Crunch' has resulted in a large drop in share prices, which has almost totally eliminated by ISA fund. 2. The GBP has fallen against the USD so now £1 is worth about 15% less than it was.
As of the beginning of October, it looks like we will have around $70,000. This should still be enough and as we are working in Australia and New Zealand, it may be possible to push the fund back up to $100,000 total that way. The Pound may rise against the dollar, or the shares might go up over the next few years which would also help.
We are setting up several methods of dealing with the cash. We will each have one of the following accounts.
Saftey net
This is £1000 in an account that we do not touch and we do not have the debit card for. It is not possible to spend money from this account but it is possible to phone home and have a flight purchased for us using the money in this account. £1000 should be enough to get us a flight home from most places.
Savings account
Our money will be deposited into a saving's account and each month, direct debited over into the Main spending account. This will be for security so that if our cards are stolen, it will not be possible to empty all our money from the accounts.
Main spending card
There is only one choice here, Nationwide, and for one reason - they don't charge a transaction fee on a foreign transaction. Since every transaction for 1001 days will be foreign, thats quite a saving.
Main spending account
Money from the savings account is put here each month to allow for paying of the credit card and for cash withdrawls.
September 9th
We anticipate going over budget in some area's, Antarctica for instance will not be $70 a day. But in other area's we can save alot of money. Finding cheap deals on things will certainly help.
September 18th
Dad found a fantastic website for us, www.justtheflight.co.uk lists one way flights for about half the cost of the return flight. Most airlines seem to charge more for a one way ticket than a return one for some reason. This lists flights to Orlando for just £216 or Miami for £264. This is very cheap indeed compared to the £450+ for a return with most airlines. These cheap flights are at reasonable times, direct and with Virgin Airlines.
The problem is that they will be booked up eventually and we cannot book them until Jackie has her passport and we are sure she can make the flight!
October 23rd
Spotted that the Pound has come right down against the dollar. Its now at 1.61 and theres little reason to believe it will continue to go down. This does have an effect on us overall, as our pounds are worth less during our time in the US. Theres little I can do now but keep at eye on it.
November 13th
The £ is now down to $1.47 today and the actual exchange rate will be even lower, I wouldn't be surprised to see that at $1.40.
The affect of that is simple, a year ago, buying a $100 item would have cost you £48 ($2.07). Today that same $100 will cost £68 ($1.47). So every $100 we spend costs us an extra £20. This really starts to add up quickly and alas, it shows no signs of getting any better as the Bang of England continues to cut interest rates and with the new president coming into power in January and everyone hoping for an up-turn in the American ecconomy, we may find the whole trip costing even more.
December 11th
The £ is hovering around the $1.48 mark today so it seems to have stabilised. We are hoping it won't go down any lower. The £ is so bad agains the € that £1 gets you €1.09 at today's rate.
