We’re getting our September 2024 budget report out a little later than usual. Sorry about that. But now that we are in fast travel mode we don’t always have the opportunity to post when we want!
We spent the vast majority of September exploring Bosnia & Herzegovina. Specifically, we stayed an additional 20 days in Sarajevo, followed by a “quick” nine-day stay in the picturesque town of Mostar. And on the last day of the month, we finally left B&H, relocating to Kotor, Montenegro.
So was Bosnia & Herzegovina an expensive country for us?
And did starting the fast-travel leg of our Balkans journey bust our budget?
Short answer – not really.
Take a look at our September 2024 budget report to see what we mean.
Accommodation: $790.96 USD
Madrid, Spain aside, this was our most expensive accommodation month since we traveled in Mexico. And the answer for why is simple – we weren’t able to take advantage of long-stay Airbnb discounts in Mostar or Kotor (Montenegro)!
20 nights in Sarajevo cost $470.80 USD, including a long-stay discount. In comparison, 9 nights in Mostar cost $271.44 USD, and 1 night in Kotor (Montenegro) cost $48.72 USD.
Granted, the Mostar and Kotor costs include weekly discounts, but that pales in comparison to monthly discounts!
So on a per night basis, we got a much better deal in Sarajevo. That said, ~$30 USD per night in Mostar wasn’t exactly breaking the bank.
But at ~$50 USD per night x 6 nights in Kotor, our budget will feel the burn when our upcoming October accommodation expenses are tabulated.
Activities: $114.31 USD
Our activity expenses were a mish-mash of different things.
The biggest expenses were tips for free walking tours of Sarajevo ($19.75 USD) and Mostar ($22.86 USD), as well as our hike-specific rental car fee + gasoline ($34.13), and 2 tickets to the National Museum of B&H ($22.71 USD).
The remaining expenses were from cheaper entry fees, each costing under $6 USD.
Alcohol: $54.36 USD
A relatively dry month, although we did try bottles of local products.
In Sarajevo, the local wine red grape variety (Blatina) wasn’t really to our taste. Nor was their version of cherry liquor, which reminded us of cough medicine. The version we had in Belgrade, Serbia was much better, although it was twice the cost!
That said, the local beers were good and cheap – although we only bought around 6 pints (at around $1 USD each) from local supermarkets.
To be honest, the bulk of our alcohol expenses came from a single wine and liquor tasting we did in Mostar – $17.16 USD for 2 glasses of wine and 6 shots of locally produced liquors.
Eating Out: $282.23 USD
The majority of our eating-out expenses happened once we shifted into fast-travel mode with our stay in Mostar.
It is actually pretty easy to keep meals to $5 – $8 USD per plate if you stay away from the touristy areas in Sarajevo, Mostar, and Kotor. We just ate out more often because we didn’t have time to cook meals now that we are infast travel mode!
We’ll see how expensive things get in October when we will be in fast-travel mode for almost the entire month.
Groceries: $334.15 USD
A surprisingly cheap month of grocery expenses for us.
This could be due to many of our preferred staples being a little cheaper in B&H, which was true. But it is also true that we grocery-shopped less once we entered fast-travel mode the last 9 days of September.
It will be interesting to see how the fast-travel version of this expense category plays out in October.
Miscellaneous: $0.34 USD
This small expense was the cost of printing copies of our bus tickets, which you often need to do when you buy them online in the Balkans.
Supplies: $15.38 USD
No major expenses here – just apartment, hygiene, and minor equipment resupplies.
Transportation: $140.52 USD
Our biggest transportation expenses came from our Mostar to Kotor bus tickets ($55.87 USD), Sarajevo to Mostar train tickets ($16.08 USD), and Mostar to Capljina round-trip train tickets ($10.98 USD).
The remainder was from the many public bus and tram rides we took to get around (~1 USD per ticket) and a single taxi ride ($4.56 USD).
Utilities/Upkeep: $43.89 USD
$20.57 USD of this category total came from our monthly myRVmail fee for our home mailbox service, and $17.50 USD came from Airalo eSim data top-offs.
The remainder were public bathroom fees and personal upkeep expenses.
For those keeping score of our monthly spending average for our third year of travel – after two months we are at $1,873.08 USD, well below our $2,500 USD average monthly spend goal.
Not bad!
But we’ll see how our October of fast travel upends things. We hope that the budget surplus we’ve generated to date will help absorb the damage!
We’ll see.
Until next time…
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