overseas living – Millennial Mom

We Laugh at “Lucky”… Respect “Resourceful”, and We Are Blessed: the answer to how we are able to travel the way we do!

Happy to share my love for nature and travel with them at such early ages 💙

If you should know one thing about me as a Millennial Mom, you should know about my obsession with travel; and more importantly my dedication to sharing such experiences with my children. If you’re a close friend or family member, you can probably recall the number of times that I said (in the past) that my dream was to stay at home with my children and travel the world with them. And would you look at that, that dream is exactly the dream I am living today. So many people ask us how we travel the way we do, assume that we are “rich”, or comment that we are “lucky” (hah… I don’t recall much of anything that happened in my life being as a result of luck lol). However, I can assure you that what we do is no thanks to any stashed fortune or luck. So I write today to share just how we are able to travel for extended periods as a family. At present, “family” meaning me and my two littles as hubby has stayed behind to work during our recent adventures. I hope my practices inspire someone to try it too. (If you’re looking for more content on this topic, check out my blog post on Budget Travel.)

Me and my “littles” A’Bree (9) and A’Brahm (8-months) 💙💓

Now before I jump into any of the logistical stuff regarding how we travel, I must first highlight the two overall reasons we are able to make this dream life our reality. Reason one is… WE ARE BLESSED. Plain and simple! We would not be able to live this dream without the man above hearing my countless prayers, seeing my heart, and putting opportunities in my path. Call me crazy for believing in this way but I see no other way. I am blessed that my energy has guided my family and I to places that give us just what we need in terms of healing, peace, and balance. We rarely travel to places that we are familiar, or where we know people. We always venture out in search of the things I’ve just mentioned. And this is a part of the reason why meditation has become a big part of our world. But I won’t get too deep into this subject just yet. It’s a topic for a future post. Just understand that in a nutshell, we are blessed and I’m a mama very much in-tune with the universe.

Sometimes the only way you can see your next step, is through prayer and meditation… Falling to your knees with an open heart. I teach this young!

Not only are we blessed to live this life, but we are RESOURCEFUL. We have learned to seek out the things that help make our dream life possible. Two of the things we sought out prior to taking on this traveling lifestyle were my job which is remote and a homeschooling routine for “mini me”. Being able to work and school from home makes this dream life doable while keeping up with the two things we must do; work and study. Prior to traveling and as we travel, there are a few things that we do which allow us to keep traveling and spending extended time away from home. To start, we…

1. Plan Ahead

We plan ahead as much as possible prior to traveling for the purpose of budgeting, saving, and planning out our school and work schedules. If we were last minute travelers, we probably would not be able to continue traveling as frequently as we do. I have a book that I call my “life journal” which has a section dedicated solely to travel. This journal helps me with planning trips, noting wish list destinations, comparing travel costs, and tracking the best places to travel based on cost/season. Inside, there are trips organized as far as one year in advance. I have an old journal just for travel which I now look back on to see how I mapped out our long-term international trip. In that journal, I made a savings plan, made to/do lists, highlighted things to be purchased liked backpacks and travel insurance (Allianz Global), and tracked my planning weekly and monthly. It has become a resource for me and brings back great memories when reading through it. I encourage anyone looking to take on any big venture to get a journal dedicated to keeping track of your goal(s) as it is extremely helpful and motivating.

My ” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”> “Life Journal” with these cool holographic scratch notes that can be found here

I recently planned an upcoming surprise trip for my mama’s birthday in a span of six months, where we will live like “royalty” for one week. There will be 6-8 of us traveling together. The planning time for this trip allowed me to secure travel and accommodation options for everyone within a very inexpensive budget (under $3k to be exact). The accommodation that I found would cost me a fortune if I waited to book it, so planning ahead was essential for planning this surprise trip and saving. Now there are occasions where I plan last minute trips. During these instances, I simply research multiple sites for airfare and look into different types of accommodation before booking anything. Which brings me to my next point…

2. Shop Around

We never book the first thing that we see. We research plane tickets on multiple sites prior to booking them and roll with whatever is more affordable. Sometimes that means booking from an airline directly. Other times it means booking through our favorite sites like Momondo, CheapOair, Skyscanner, Priceline, or Orbitz. There are occasions when we book roundtrip flights and other times that we book one way options. Sometimes booking a one way flight saves you a ton of cash so it’s important to look prior to just rolling with a round-trip ticket. Again, we always go with what’s more affordable.

In regards to accommodation, we choose between hotels, Airbnb-s, and VRBO-s (Vacation Rentals by Owner ). Most times we rock with Airbnb-s (sign up using my link at the end of this post, to earn $40 to use towards your first stay). With this type of accommodation, we like that we get to rent nice spaces that feel like home, and love that such places have kitchens where I can cook. This saves us money when it comes to dining and we typically choose to eat out for only one meal which is lunch/dinner. While traveling out of the states, securing inexpensive accommodation is pretty easy; simply by walking around and communicating with locals or booking online through the platforms I’ve just shared. One perk we found while booking hotels and hostels abroad, was that breakfast was almost always included. And the low cost of living in different countries allowed us to dine at tons of restaurants for a fraction of what it would cost at home in NYC. Now on to my next point….

Some fun accommodation that we recently found via Airbnb and stayed in… a yacht in Key Largo, FL and a converted school bus in Homestead, FL.

3. Budget, Work, and Save

After booking trips, we come up with a budget of what we anticipate we will spend for the time that we will be away. I come up with an estimated budget based on what activities we will do and considering the area we will be in. The website Numbeo helps me greatly with budgeting. “Mini me” is typically responsible for coming up with the itinerary of things to do. This is mainly because we always connect travel and homeschooling (aka “worldschooling”). I like for my daughter to find things to do related to her interests/studies and I guide her when needed. (If you’re interested in learning more about how we school at home, check out my post Our Home… Her School.) After coming up with an anticipated budget, we then work and save. Not for the upcoming trip, but for future trips. We have funds allocated to travel and after we tap into our fund for a trip, we work to replenish it. Now when I say “work”, it’s not just my job that brings in income for travel. We save:

Money that “Mini me” earns from collecting bottles
Cash back rewards from shopping and credit cards
Money we make from selling our gently/unworn clothing (check out my Poshmark closet for some chic finds).

Our earnings from these hobbies are never a lot but they do add up. The biggest earnings we made came after we cleared out our apartment in Brooklyn, NY by selling everything. We used the funds we made to pay for a good portion of our South/Central American adventures. When it comes to saving, my goal is always to save at least half of the amount that I anticipate we will spend on a trip before we depart. Sometimes things go according to plan and other times not so much but it’s always good to have a goal. And whenever we are about to get on the road, my stress levels are low so I’m not too overwhelmed if I don’t meet my goal. The last thing that we do to make it so we can keep traveling is…

4. To Continue Traveling

Lol! So long as we continue to roam and fall in love with new places, new foods/cultures, and new people, the desire to travel will always be there for us. Since the day that Bree and I got the travel bug about five years ago, we have found that traveling only feeds that bug more. And since that time, we have continued to travel as often as we can. We make it our number one priority to always seek out places that work within our budget. While we travel, we practice a few habits that allow us to keep costs low on our trips which include:

Cooking at least one meal in our accommodation
Packing snacks to take on outings
Filling our itinerary with free and low cost activities (botanical gardens, museums, national parks, libraries, beaches, etc)
Walking places whenever possible
Limiting our shopping and collection of items to take back home

However, much of the savings come with choosing the right destination based on the cost/season and shopping around for airfare. We use a number of resources to help us budget and know when and where to travel. For our international trip, we heavily utilized author & blogger Matthew Kepnes’ site Nomadic Matt to help choose travel destinations, create an itinerary, and decide when to travel. The website Rome2Rio is my go to, to learn the best/most affordable ways to get around. As I previously mentioned, Numbeo.com helps me budget travel domestically and internationally. This site breaks down the cost of living in any region down to how much you can anticipate to pay for eggs lol. I pray that the day will come when I will be able to eliminate this form of planning prior to taking a trip. But for now, as long as we remain a lower middle-class family trying to make ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world, while still trying to follow our hearts and dreams, this is what we must do.

The view from our plane window, heading to Milan, Italy.

I hope someone found this read inspirational, interesting, and helpful. Travel is big on our agenda for 2019 and I cannot wait to finish our two series “Oh the Places We’ve Been” and “Oh the Places We’ll Go”, to share with our readers. In addition, I will soon be blogging about remote work options and things to make money before/while traveling ; as I know many people are mostly interested in finding income to sustain travel. We are currently on a fun adventure in the Florida Keys, and have one upcoming trip at the end of the month. I won’t spoil our future blog posts by sharing any details now, so stay tuned! Until next time…

Xoxo,

Millennial Mom

Not down with Airbnb yet and looking for more than a hotel stay while traveling away from home? Sign up using my link and earn $40 to use towards your first booking:

https://abnb.me/e/lEOUWKDEbV

Are you also a nomad with tips to share? Are you a parent interested in trying out travel with your little(s)? Do you like to travel but need to learn how to be more resourceful or want to use my skills? Drop a comment below or message me!

Living “Lavishly” on Less Than $25k: extended travel on a budget

Over the past few months I have repeatedly been hit with the question “how did you do it?? Wasn’t traveling for 7 months expensive??? And from this, I felt it important to share my tricks and tips on financially making extended travel possible on a budget.

The answer to the most commonly asked question that people pose when learning about our journey is no! Traveling for 7 months was not expensive and it is totally possible. So here is what we did.

We live for an amazing sunset! Puerto, Viejo, Costa Rica

1. Planned like crazy

We initially analyzed our monthly expenses in New York City to simply be reminded how ridiculously expensive things were for us. We then considered places we wanted to visit and began comparing the cost in those areas to what we spent in NYC monthly. After we completed a list of places we wanted to visit, we calculated the average cost for a family of three to live there for one month, and threw in a few hundreds extra just to be safe. We calculated a budget for the 7 months and got busy saving.

2. Saved our coins

Once we learned how much money we would need for our journey, we got busy saving. Being that our expenses in NYC were high, saving was challenging so we had to get creative. We started a savings jar that we contributed loose change to daily. We cut out eating out and put the money that we would typically spend on lunch into our saving fund. We collected bottles and would return them to the market each month to receive a bottle deposit refund. I participated in paid online surveys to raise a little extra money, and discontinued cable in our home. We tried to cut out any extra expenses that we could live without. 6 months prior to our journey, we sold everything in our apartment which brought in a large sum of money for us. We had weekly yard sales, posted on selling apps, and took our expensive items to consignment shops. In my free time, I did hair and makeup on the side to raise extra funds. Whatever money I had left over from my pay check after paying bills went to our travel saving account. At the end of everything, we were able to save over $16,000 USD for our trip.

3. Book a one-way ticket abroad and home

After we saved and allocated funds for our trip, we vaguely mapped out where we wanted to go and booked a one-way ticket to destination one and a one-way ticket back home from our last destination (essential to finalize our travel insurance). We picked our first destination and the ones to follow based on the best seasons to visit each place. We decided that we would use various means of transportation to travel to each of our destinations including land, water, and air travel. Whenever we needed to fly, we used special websites known for discounted airfare and only booked one-way tickets as we found it to be cheaper; and we often did not require roundtrip tickets being that we moved about.

4. Moved in with family

In efforts to continue saving money, to eliminate a crazy rent expense, and to still live comfortably after giving up all of our furniture, we moved in with family.

5. Purchase luggage

One of the last things we did before we set off on our journey was purchasing backpacking luggage for our family of 3. By trial and error, we practiced how to pack light and carry our backpacks.

6. Doctors appointments and insurance

As it got closer to the time for us to set out on our journey, we went to see our doctors for checkups and to secure medication for our time away. We then purchased inexpensive insurance plans that would cover us if we became ill abroad. A package for 3 people cost $ 150 USD for 7 months.

7. Book first destination airbnb

A few weeks before departure, we booked a place to stay via airbnb to avoid the hassle of doing so once we arrived at our first destination. During the course of our trip we used airbnb, Homeaway, and locals to help secure accommodation. We often found accomodation ranging from $15 USD per night to $40 USD per night. There were times we could splurge on a nice hotel or home when we came in under budget which was always nice; or we would eat out somewhere fancy which I loved.

8. Set out and stick to the budget

Following these minor steps, we left school and work and set out on our trip. We made sure we stuck to our budget to avoid running out of money. I maintained a notebook to be on task with budgeting and practiced a few routines to help with this. In areas where we needed to exchange money, we did so in the airport to get the best exchange rate. We shopped at local markets, ate the meal of the day whenever we ate out, cooked at home, and brought snacks on outings when we could. We also got accustomed to walking everywhere to eliminate travel expenses and downloaded maps to help us. We tried hard to do much of what a local would do to save money and it all worked out.

Ready to set out with all our luggage and gear

After all, we were able to live very nicely in each destination that we traveled to. In fact we spent about $12,600 for the 7 months we were away, and travled to Peru (Lima, Huacachina, Cuzco, and Puno), Panama (Panama City and Bocas del Toro), Costa Rica (San Jose, Monteverde, and Puerto Viejo), Nicaragua (Managua and Big Corn Island), Colombia (Bogota and Medellin), and Mexico (Playa del Carmen, Cancun, and Tulum). Our expenses for 7 months in all of these regions were equal to the cost for our expenses for 3-4 months in the states. Much of what we did were things that would be difficult for us to enjoy in the states. We got so much for our money and often felt that we were living lavishly. I was lucky to maintain remote employment to save for life when we returned home and to maintain expenses I had including loans, credit cards, and my vehicle that I was unable to sell prior to traveling. I signed up for income-based programs/options wherever possible and everything worked out very easy. The one tip that I will emphasize for anyone interested in trying this out, is researching the expenses for the places you will travel to, and allow yourself enough time to plan and save. I believe I have mastered these steps and feel well prepared to plan and budget for our next trip.

Such a tranquil sight… Big Corn Island, Nicaragua

I hope I have not missed anything but will be sure to add anything I may have forgotten at a later date. If you are interested in more details about blogs I used or websites I found helpful in the course of planning my travel, feel free to message me. Until next time…

Xoxo,

Millennial Mom

Our Road to Happiness (pt. II): planning a new route

After years of hard work and dedication to living out my “American Dream”, I grew to a different place mentally. Such growth yielded me to be in search of a life more fulfilling and different from what I am familiar with back home in the states. I realized that the “American Dream” allowed me to reach many of my goals and then this particular dream was not my dream anymore. Nor was it something as close to my heart as it previously had been. I was over working 50+ hours per week for a business that was not my own; tired of spending countless hours away from my little one; confused as to why I accepted dedicating the majority of my earnings to bills and debt; and frustrated with traveling for only one or two weeks out of the 52 weeks in the year to quickly return to work again. Such a routine was less of a dream for me and more of a nightmare. However, I was grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to advance my education, to work as a young professional in a managerial position in my field of study, and blessed to have been in a position to afford my “mini me” and I a comfortable lifestyle; opportunities not available to many people. So I embraced the ideal of the “American Dream” for some time and then accepted the fact that I had outgrown it. I then had my mind set on a new dream; a dream considered very much unorthodox in the minds of many; a dream easier to be embraced by people with a millennial mindset. And in November of 2014, I was on a new mission to make that dream my new reality. I was in pursuit of a new route to our happiness.

A paradise that I had the opportunity to experience while living in Bocas del Toro for one month. Photo by me, December 2016

In November of 2014, I remember siting in my office while my mind wandered elsewhere. I would have very much preferred to have been somewhere else. I was bored of my routine, tired, and barely surviving the cold winter climate in NYC. So to offer myself a little hope and excitement I googled tropical images and dazed at them. I then began researching places opposite the U.S. in terms of culture, food, language, warm climate, etc. Although I was fortunate to live in a city where I could easily get a taste of these things (minus the warm climate part as it was winter) in the diverse neighborhoods around me, I wanted to find a place where I could escape with “mini me” and be totally immersed in these things if I wanted to. A number of places that appealed to me immediately appeared in my search results. So I purchased a travel journal and began compiling a list. This project was something I was very excited about. Despite several of my co-workers thinking that I was nuts and in the stage of some sort of early adult-life crisis, I knew I was just fine and on to something great . As my list of places to wander grew, I knew I needed to narrow it down. I believed that I could better do so by creating a list of things I would hope to do and accomplish in the regions on my list; and then select places based on what stood out to me from my list. However, I knew I could not do this task on my own. I had to consult with none other than my life partner… my “mini me”.

Some of the best conversations I have had, have been with this little face in some very special places; including our picnic blanket in Flushing Meadows Park, in Queens, NY.

Bree and I began regular conversations about changing our lifestyle through travel. We were yearning for culture and were in desperate need of a break. But we were clueless about what exactly we wanted to do and how we would make it happen. Would we take longer vacations together during the year? spend the summer months away? or do the “unthinkable” and make traveling a full-time practice as a single mama-daughter duo? At that time, my then five-year-old said yes to all options… everything was a go for her. I on the other hand needed to guide us towards a more specific goal. To arrive at a better goal, together Bree and I started highlighting many of the things that we loved about our New York life and discussed things that we wanted to get away from. We then talked about what we hoped to find in other places. I also created a threefold question for us to quickly answer each night before bedtime which was “if I had one wish what would I ask for, what would I change, and how would I live my life afterwards if my wish came true”. This question was one Bree and I routinely discussed for about a week until my then five-year-old so maturely and articulately laid out her wish for me, and then it hit me!

Evening conversations before rocking my “mini me” to sleep looked a little something like this.

One evening during our nightly discussion Bree hopefully shared her threefold wish with me. Her wish was something along the lines of “if I had one wish, I would want to spend more time with you! I would wish for more money so you wouldn’t have to work a lot and I would make you a teacher so you could teach me… after that I would just be happy”. As emotional as I could ever be, I held my baby and reassured her with the words “no worries, I got you”. I was uncertain of exactly what I needed to do but it was a start. Bree and I moved on from discussing wishes to watching YouTube videos of places we wanted to visit. In each region , we talked about what we wanted to see and learn. Bree was very much fascinated with Egypt and wanted to learn about architecture, archaeology, and desert animals. She also talked about learning Spanish language. Surprisingly she noted as much as she loved Egypt, she was uncertain about visiting there for safety reasons. She reiterated this point to my good friend Cynthia during a comical car ride where we discussed wandering further. So I introduced Bree to my research findings on places in Central and South America. We were sold on places like Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Peru; places where Bree could absorb information about diverse animal life, Maya and Inca cultures famous for great architecture (somewhat similar to the Egyptian culture), gold mining, and craftsmanship. And we would be able to be in the warmer climates we were craving. I began looking into homeschooling options to see if I also had what it took to teach Bree and explored different curriculums.

Things were looking really good and I was feeling very confident. This caused me to kick my research mode into overdrive. I learned the average cost of living in various countries in Central and South America. I then budgeted out the monthly expenses for Bree and I to explore in such regions. I looked up things such as food costs, accommodation, methods and cost of travel, schools, and fun things to do. Once I had an idea of what such an excursion would cost us, I was sold again! The cost for us to survive and explore overseas was significantly less than the massive expenses we held in the states. I decided that my salary from my part-time work position could be used to maintain any bills I had while traveling, and would begin saving a lump sum to be dedicated solely to our travel. After coming to this realization, I was beyond thrilled. Our new dream was looking more and more realistic. However, I had much more work to do; starting with a trial travel period to assess “mini me’s” potential to adjust to life overseas.

On a night where we realized changing our lives to fit our new dream was looking more promising!

Stay tuned for pt III of: Our Road to Happiness

Until next time…

xoxo

Millennial Mom