As you know Louise writes our travel updates, but once a month I’m allowed to pen my thoughts and share the figures, because, apart from chief driver and cook, I’m also the accountant and keep tabs on what we’re spending. Louise does pretty much everything else.
So here goes, instalment 2:
When you embark on a year-long European tour without a job, you do need to watch spending. That doesn’t mean being a “tight arse”, but rather be frugal and think where the spending needs to be. To that end we recently spent a week in Switzerland and knew it would be expensive, and it was, but we stocked up before we crossed the border saving us a lot of money.
In Basel where the French/German/Switzerland borders meet there is a huge, and I mean HUGE, supermarket. What it didn’t sell didn’t matter, anyway it was in Germany, and the prices were great so we basically stocked up with a week’s food
Statistically German food and drink prices are 44.68% lower than Switzerland, according to the September price index. Italy is 41% lower and Spain, where we will be heading to in a couple of months, 54% lower.
I have been using a website www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living .You can pick whichever country you want to get a gauge on prices. The prices I am quoting in the graph below are taken from this site. I know you can buy eggs, potatoes etc., cheaper when on special, but this is a broad price index and if you follow it, it will give you good indication of what to expect. As you can see Switzerland is very expensive and what puts the NZ total price up is the cost of wine and beer.
As Switzerland is not part of the EU you need change your money to Swiss Francs. That in itself is a hassle and a you do lose a bit with exchange rates. Zurich is currently rated the most expensive place in the world to live, and whilst its wonderfully situated on a large lake we had to pay $72NZ a night for a campsite, which was the dearest on our 4 months of travelling by some $10 (and they said Norway was expensive). And to be fair it would only rate in the bottom 30% of campsites we have stayed in, in regards to quality and facilities. You also need to buy a road toll vignette sticker before driving in Switzerland, and unlike Austria, you buy it at one price for the duration of 2017 – you wouldn’t want to arrive here on the 20th December. In Austria you can buy a 10-day pass for $15NZ, but in Switzerland you pay $56NZ for the 2017 sticker. However, the roads are great and we’re more than happy to contribute to the cost with building the incredible tunnels and bridges that make travelling through the mountains so easy. It’s a much better system of paying too, with one fee, rather than Norway’s charging you as you go.
If you enjoy a beer or wine then you should stock up in the cheaper countries. Whilst Czechia was so cheap for beer, and even wine, Germany has an amazing beer culture so the range is huge. In Czechia we went to a bar attached to a campsite, had a pint of beer each and had change from $5NZ. Yes, they cost $2.30NZ a pint. We also found a local Czech wine shop and bought a couple of bottles of local wine for around $10NZ each, but they also had fill your own and I couldn’t resist. I filled a 2 litre plastic bottle of red wine for $7NZ and prepared for the worst. I wanted to go back next morning and buy a truck load, it was better than most bottles you pay $15 for in New Zealand, and this was almost the equivalent of 3 bottles for $7.
As for wine, we stopped at a big supermarket in France called Cora. They had a huge wine selection and you could taste before you buy. The two guys in the wine section spoke English and we told them what we were looking for and a couple of samples later we had a few cartons of lovely red wine at less than 5 Euro ($8 NZ) a bottle – I reckon you would pay around $20 in New Zealand for the same, perhaps even more. Interesting that they sell most of their win in cartons of six.
As for beer, in Germany the supermarkets are stocked to the gunnels and there are so many varieties. When we were staying with Louise’s Aunt and Uncle in Wahlrod, George took us down to the Rewe Supermarket where they had a liquor section. First stop was getting money back for the empties. You put them in this machine, it reads the barcode, and when you are finished it spits out a voucher which you can redeem in store. For each beer bottle the refund is 10 cents (NZ) and for each plastic bottle (water or soft drink), 30 cents (NZ).
I decided I would stock up so I chose a few bottles and went home for a tasting. A 500ml bottle of nice German beer costs between 95 cents (NZ) and $1.40 (NZ) and you get 10 cents back on the bottle. Very cheap
The other thing I noticed was they sell them in crates of 10 and 20, in line with the metric system. Funny New Zealand is also metric, meters, Kilometres, kilos, litres etc., but we still use the old measurement of half dozen and dozen bottles. The same applies when buying eggs. Here they are in 10’s where in most cases New Zealand still has dozens (just an observation).
And if you like a tipple every now and then, you can buy a 700ml bottle of Whiskey or Brandy for about $10NZ, Gin for $8NZ and Jim Beam (don’t mind if I do occasionally) for $15.
Budget wise, we continued to be under budget, thanks largely to the fact we didn’t have to pay campsite fees whilst staying with Margaret and George – just as well because you will notice we had the highest monthly campsite fee average of the 4 months, and a whopping $12 a night more than August.
Finally, as you can see we are tracking well to budget considering we have spent a lot on tourist attractions and activities lately. To finish as I started, if you’re embarking on an adventure like ours, plan your route and look at the costs of the country and the average you should be paying before you go. The other morning we left Innsbruck in Austria and filled up in the little village beside the campsite. Diesel was 1.10 Euro a litre. The van took 64 litres. On the motorway the price was 1.39 Euro a litre so that meant we saved 18 Euro by filling up in the town. That’s $30NZ!
Really good summary Andrew. Thoroughly enjoying the posts!! I have itchy feet for more travel!!