JULY BUDGET: COST FOR A MONTH IN IRELAND & ENGLAND FOR A FAMILY OF FOUR
In July, we largely relied on a rental vehicle to travel around Ireland, with only one flight — from Dublin to London, Stansted en route to Cambridge — during this month. Months with minimal flights always feel a little bit more relaxed, with minimal time spent going through airports. Most of our costs during this month come from our rental vehicle and the associated costs of petrol and tolls (aside from 200 USD for our flights).
While we were in Ireland, we stayed at just one Airbnb just outside of Cashel, which allowed us to take advantage of a monthly discount. However, any savings in Cashel were offset by the high cost of accommodation in Cambridge, UK, with 3 and a half weeks in Cashel being comparably priced to the cost of a single week in Cambridge.
Because Cambridge is somewhere we have lived before and we still have friends there that we wanted to see, it was not somewhere that we wanted to skip. Also, because we were catching up with friends, we did eat out a little bit more often than usual for Europe while in Cambridge, which is reflected in our overall costs.
Now, on to our costs breakdown:
MEALS, GOODS, AND SERVICES COSTS
In July, we did once again tried to cook as often as possible at home, which helped minimize our food expenses. Our total expenses for meals, goods and services were 1,349 USD. While this cost does include a number of meals out at restaurants with friends and a bunch of takeaway, this is mitigated by shopping at Aldi, which saved us some money. And we quite liked Aldi, when compared to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks, etc. and the crappy grocers that we have in Canada. This figure also includes some very nice meals that we prepared at home for ourselves, including pot roasts, stews (when in Ireland, am-I-right?), and other delectable home cooked treats as well as occasional pints for Mr. and Mrs. Worldsmith.
ACCOMMODATION COSTS
This month, we stayed at two different Airbnbs (Cashel and Cambridge). Overall, we did quite well on accommodations, spending 2,938 USD in total, thanks primarily to our relatively inexpensive (yet highly rated) Airbnb in Cashel (which was offset by our expensive Airbnb in Cambridge).
As usual, our accommodations all had at least two bedrooms and were very comfortable and highly rated Airbnbs (a must), and we enjoyed amenities such as outdoor spaces, parking, walkability and close proximity to touristic sites. As always, comparing this spending to our expenses back home in Toronto (where our former house currently rents at $4,000 USD per month), this last month still represents a significant cost savings over our ordinary costs of living.
TRANSPORTATION COSTS
Spending in this category was fairly high this month, with costs driven primarily by rental cars. This was really the only mode to travel around Ireland and to take advantage of a number of fantastic hikes in more remote spots. Our costs were slightly elevated by Europcar Dublin Airport and their stupidity in claiming that confirmed written “global coverage” was not sufficient to prove coverage in Ireland, however full credit to Budget right next door for giving us a very decent deal for a last minute rental while Europcar was attempting to rip us off. This ended up being a manual transmission, which Mr. Worldsmith did not overly relish driving around the narrow mountainous roads in Ireland in particular, but we managed the month without much more than a few stalls.
SUMMARY
Overall, we spent a total of 6,310 USD in July of 2024. This is less than our normal monthly expenses back home in Toronto, Canada. Our only ongoing fixed expense back home is for storage of our things, which costs us 140 USD per month and is excluded from our total costs. We also maintain a Netflix subscription, which costs us around 18 USD per month.
If you’re interested in seeing how this month’s spending compares to that of previous months, you can check out all of our monthly budgets here.
So far, our total expenses for our travels as a family of four since the start of September have been approximately 65,280