South America Prep Part 3: Budget

Money Money makes the world go around. You know what they say, spend money on the things money can buy and spend time on the things money can't buy (not that it's relevant to this topic... )

Budget
I always have a rough budget plan so I will not return home broke, the costs will not be a surprise afterwards and that there is emergency money set aside for a rainy day. Everything below are budgeted in Canadian Dollars.

3 months budget to Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile
Return Ticket (Lima, Peru): $700
Travel Insurance (WorldNomads): $300
Vaccination: $500 (It was high because I did everything including meningitis and yellow fever)
Daily budget of hostels and food (Roughly based from guides book recommendations)
$20 per day at Peru x 25 days: $500
$20 per day at Bolivia x25 days: $500
$40 per day at Argentina x20 days: $800
$45 per day at Chile x20 days: $900
Guided tours approximate allocation: $600
Transportation: $600 (travelling mainly by bus)
Souvenirs and shopping: $250 (I am not a huge shopper)
Trip essentials: $200 (Backpack, prescriptions, sunscreen, bug spray)
Visa: $250 (for Argentina and Chile as Canadian)
Rainy day: $500

Rough budget total: $7500

For the rough budget to be effective and useful, determine your travel style and your general preference. If you are more of an luxury type or like to splurge, then allocate appropriately to daily budget and guided tours. If you are visiting for a short time, then check on the transportation costs of flying to destinations. If you do big shopping sprees or plan on taking home 50 pairs of Havaianas, then bump up that shopping budget.

I intentionally made guided tours, transportation and daily budget more than the recommended so it would be  more enjoyable rather than suffering (and safer in some cases). I have a low shopping budget because I generally just send post cards to friends and family then the rest of that money are for splurging purposes. Backpack cost would be much greater if you are buying it completely new and it would be non existent if you are able to get hands on a free one.

My recommendation would be to not cheap out so much that it would make your trip a complete lump of suffering. It's not fun when there's only one meal a day or sleeping in bed bug infested rooms. Stay on track of spendings and do the homework to find out which things you definitely want to do and plan it in the budget.

If partying day and night is your thing, bump up that alkie budget!