House sitting: $40,000 in savings in 381 nights

House sitting is our new way of travelling the world, staying in some beautiful places, living like locals, caring for homes and pets and reducing our travel costs.

We want to share with you how we saved approximately AUD$40,000 over a period of 381 nights during 2014/15.

We arrived back into Sydney after a 12 month round-the-world trip that took us to South America, Europe and Asia. As we had sold up everything before we left we did not have a home to come home to and house sitting was a way for us to catch up with our two sons and family, gain house sitting experience with a plan to house sit internationally in 2015.

Arrival Date Sydney: 21st February, 2014
Departure Date Sydney: 9th March, 2015
Total of 381 nights
35 nights we paid for accommodation = $3,440
33 nights we stayed with family and friends
313 nights house sitting on the Northern Beaches in Sydney
We estimate it costs $775 per week in Sydney for rent, utilities and internet
Our daily budget for our travel adventures in 2015/16 is AUD100 per day.

Our 2015 international housesits:

April – 1 month Canoa, Ecuador

June – 1 month San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

End August – 2 months Lake Chapala, Mexico

Approximate 121 days house sitting, our dates are flexible with the owners as we don’t have any fixed schedules.

We are currently in Canoa house sitting and our expenses are food and transport into Bahia de Caraquez for shopping. The fruit and vegetable market in Bahia is very cheap and has great quality fruit and vegetables. On average we spend USD12 per week here and another USD30-40 in the supermarket. On Sundays we walk down the beach and have brunch at Charlys Bar for USD7.50. Our weekly costs are between USD90-100.

Originally published here 

Have you been considering travelling? Would you try house sitting? Tell us below.