Having a blast on a budget: How we're traveling through Latin America on less than $1,000 a month

Before we left the US, we shared our plans to backpack from Mexico to Patagonia with friends and family. While generally supportive, many of them responded with a disbelieving and slightly bewildered question, "But how can you afford that?"

The truth is that our long-term travel lifestyle is actually far less expensive than our life back in the US. In Rhode Island, our expenses averaged about $2,500 a month — and that was with no car, cheap rent in a communal house, and a concerted effort to save as much as possible. But now that we're living in Latin American, we've managed to keep our total monthly expenses below $1,000 for three months in a row — and that's for two people.

What's even more incredible is that sticking to our modest budget hasn't required us to sacrifice anything. We still do all the activities we want, like taking side trips to the beach, dining in delicious restaurants, and checking out local attractions. It's not that we're being stingy. It's that we simply don't need to spend more than $1,000 a month to have a blast. 

To many people who haven't traveled long-term before, $1,000 a month sounds like a fantasy. But it's not. We're doing it, and one of our hopes is to show others that it's not as hard as you might think.

Part of it is simply that the cost of living in Latin America is much cheaper than the United States. If we were in Europe, $1,000 a month just wouldn't be feasible. But it's also about making a savings goal, spending wisely, and planning your trip in a way that makes the most sense. 

Set a savings goal

Unless you're planning to continue working while traveling, building up a reserve in your bank account is the first step towards making long-term travel a reality. To set a savings goal, we needed to figure out what it was going to cost us to visit the places we wanted to see. So we spent a couple of months researching transportation, lodging, travel insurance, and the cost of living in different counties we planned to visit. We concluded that we could travel through virtually all of Latin America on roughly $1,000 a month. In some countries, like Mexico or Guatemala, we might be under budget, saving us some extra money to use in a more expensive place like Patagonia. Knowing that, we set a savings goal that would allow us to travel for at least a year while still having a reasonable amount in our bank account at the end of our journey. For a more in-depth discussion about saving for your trip, check out our other post here. 

How we're sticking to our budget

It's easy to keep your spending in check if you follow just a handful of guidelines: 

• Stay in one place for weeks or months at a time. When you're moving slowly, you save on transportation costs. Once you're there, you're there. Even more significant, you can often save a lot of money on lodging. Many Airbnb listings offer big weekly or monthly discounts to renters who stay for an extended period of time. Our apartment in Oaxaca, for example, gave us a 70% discount for staying more than a month. As a couple, it often makes a lot more economic sense for us to rent a place through Airbnb rather than pay for two dorm beds in a hostel. Renting our own apartment also comes with perks like privacy and a kitchen to ourselves.
• Make a least half your meals at home. Virtually every city in Latin America has a daily market and/or grocery store where you can pick up delicious fresh food on the cheap. Even with our mostly vegetarian diet, we've found that there are plenty of very affordable meals we can cook at home. This is another benefit of renting an apartment, since you'll have access to your own kitchen. While certainly not impossible, it can be more challenging to store and cook your own meals in a hostel. While we usually cook breakfast and dinner at home, we still eat out about once a day. Usually that's lunch, since we're already out and about exploring and don't want to interrupt our day by returning home. In Latin America, lunch is also the biggest meal of the day and most restaurants offer a menú del día (menu of the day), which is a set menu that usually includes a soup or salad, an entree, dessert, and a drink, all for about $3 USD.
• Always walk or take public transportation. Taking a taxi or an Uber might save you a few minutes, but it's going to quickly eat into your budget. Most Latin American cities offer cheap and generally reliable public transportation. Mexico City's subway system, for example, will take you anywhere you want to go for only $0.25 USD a ride! Other cities and towns have bus systems and shared taxis called colectivos. Taking a ride in the back of a colectivo not only saves us money but also gives us a chance to practice our Spanish and meet some of the locals. We also walk a lot because it's the best way to get to know a place.
• Avoid tours and go on your own. If you're in a popular tourist destination, there will likely be several companies offering day trips to local attractions. But nine times out of ten, if you do a bit of your own research, you can get there on your own for far cheaper. Our rule is that we don't do tours unless it's required to do the activity or if we think the tour will add something valuable to the experience itself. Most of the time, neither of these apply, so we go our own way. Not only does this save us a lot of money, but we also get to see places at our own pace and avoid crowds of tourists.
• Travel in shoulder seasons. Most tourist hot spots have high and low seasons. Usually there's a reason people don't want to travel someplace during low season — you probably want to avoid a place like the Caribbean during hurricane season. And while high season usually means ideal weather, it also attracts hordes of tourists, which means higher prices on everything. The shoulder seasons are the sweet spot. You'll have decent weather and get much better deals on things like lodging. A quick Google search can tell you what times of the year correspond to high, low, and shoulder seasons. 
• Spend money on experiences, not things. It may be tempting to pick up souvenirs or gifts for people back home along your journey, but don't do it. Not only is it impractical as a backpacker to lug around trinkets, but it's also an easy way to drain your budget. It's better to spend your money on experiences and capture memories with photos. We guarantee you'll remember and appreciate the view from the top of an ancient monument more than the replica you bought at the base.