There are all sorts of ways to see the world, from high end tours to truly living as an expat. For Erich and I, we really are budget travelers. We look for ways to keep our costs down so that we can do the things we want to do and not have to work full-time to make ends meet. We are definitely not on vacation though. We sometimes say that we live boring lives in exciting places. Our goal is more to learn about a place and its culture than to "see the sights."
Okay, let's talk money. Erich and I keep a monthly budget broken down into actual expenses divided into the categories of lodging, food, gas/travel, cell phones, and health/entertainment. Our goal for all of these categories is to stay under $3060 each month for the two of us with the understanding that some months are going to be splurge months and the others will make up for it.
Our first full month in Vlore, Albania cost us $1,810! We will definitely be pushing the extra to our upcoming splurge over Christmas!
Lodging: Our first month in Vlore was a 2 bedroom/1 bath place that looked out on the beach in a quieter part of town that charged $878/month. We liked it but it kept having problems with power outages and it was a bit farther away from all the things we wanted to do. In the early November, we moved about half a mile away to a new apartment that doesn't have such an amazing view but only costs $685 for five weeks and has two bathrooms, plus it is in a better part of town. Because we were already in town, we met with the landlord and negotiated the price directly. If we could sign a lease for a year, 2 bedroom apartments overlooking the water are asking around $400 here.
Food: The food here is fabulous, if not as varied as we are used to in America. There is no McDonalds or Starbucks in the whole country but the produce is straight off the farm and easy to get. We find that we end up buying groceries every couple days since it is super fresh but goes bad quickly. We also eat out 5-6 days each week because the prices for a standard meal will run us around eight dollars for the two of us. Albania is very much a cash economy with very few places accepting credit cards and ATMs charge around $7 per withdrawal so we are thoughtful about how much we withdraw. Food for the month ran $766.
Today's fruit purchase came to $2.50. Love trying things like persimmons that are in season when everything is perfectly ripe!
Gas/Travel: Vlore isn't close to an airport so no flights this month but we did do a great two day trip to Berat and our total for this came to $22.
Cell Phones: We recommend a local provider called One. Don't purchase it at the airport if you can help it because you get better prices and options in the city. Our two sim cards came with 2 GB of data and unlimited calls and texts for $24 total. Before we left the US, we ported our US phone numbers to Google voice so we can still use those numbers any time we have internet, and wifi is everywhere. BTW, if you are traveling, you might check out esims. Our phones don't take them but if yours does, they can be less expensive, though the service isn't quite a good yet in Albania.
Health/Entertainment: Since it is off-season, a lot of tourist sites that normally have charges don't right now and Albania isn't a place that has gotten into the habit of charging entry for everything (though it is considered good manners to donate some cash when you enter a mosque). We were also both due for a dental cleaning and visited a local dentist this month. He was super clean, spoke great English, and charged us $21/each for our cleaning/checkup. We highly recommend this! Total this month came to $86.
Hope that this helps anyone looking to spend some time here. It is a beautiful country and allows Americans to live here for a year visa-free so well worth checking out.
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