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I recently returned from a business trip to Canberra (pronounced Can-Brah), Australia. Canberra was amazing, although the travel time, not so much. This was my first time 26-hour plane ride, and the trip only lasted 6 days. However, it was totally worth it. I saw kangaroos lounging in a park, I experienced driving on the left side of the road, and I accomplished a lot of work.
Needless to say, it took me awhile to get back on track. I was very jet-lagged as Australia is 15 hours ahead of the DC area. My days and nights felt all jumbled up. I felt like a zombie.
Per Diem Rate
A really nice perk I received while in Australia was a per diem rate to spend on food and lodging. Although, if I went over that amount, it was my responsibility to pay the difference. This is a double-edged sword. If you spend wisely, you can theoretically make additional money on a trip. However, the downside is that if you spend more, you could end up paying out-of-pocket.
Fortunately, I was able to find a hotel that came in right at per diem. Since I wanted to enjoy some exciting food options at night, I went cheaper on breakfast and lunch so that I could splurge on dinner at night. Even though I could spend around $100 on food each day, the money went quickly. Australia is a pretty expensive place to live.
Starving in Sydney
When I got off the plane in Sydney, Australia, I still had another flight to go. At that point, I was starving. Airplane food has never been known to be a first-class dining experience. I can also attest to that, as the food was pretty bland and left me unsatisfied. So, once we landed in Sydney, I was on the hunt for a filling muffin to scarf down before I hopped on my last flight.
Even though I knew airport food was expensive, I was in for sticker shock when I learned that a muffin would cost me $10 in Australia. Being sleep-deprived (I could barely sleep at all on the plane) and so hungry, I looked past the price and ate the most expensive muffin of my life. Sadly, it did not live up to the billing.
Costly Canberra
While I thought the muffin was expensive, when I arrived at the hotel in Canberra, I was offered a breakfast buffet deal that would cost me $35 each morning. Even more pathetic, it was a continental breakfast of basic toast, fruit, and coffee.
Needless to say, I found an Aldi close by and bought myself some breakfast bars to save on breakfast.
If I didn’t buy those breakfast bars, I have no doubt that I easily would have exceeded my per diem allowance for food. Dinner often came out to $50-$60 per evening, including drinks. Even though I didn’t drink, when it came to splitting the bills, we usually just split it equally. It wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to separate alcoholic beverages out.
How Much Each Day Costs
During my 26-hour return flight back home, I started to think about how much money I really needed to live on if I was put on a per diem at home. Could we really live off of $100 a day?
Since all I had was time on the plane, I started to play around with my Personal Capital account to determine how much I spent on a daily basis. The results were eye-opening.
Would I be able to live off $100 per day?
The short answer is yes, if it were only food. However, if it included everything, unfortunately that would not be possible.
Surprisingly, our family of four spends around $140 a day. This includes food, charity, housing, social security, and health insurance. Those five categories alone account for more than 80% of our total daily expenses.
How does that compare to the average family?
It is pretty much in line.
The average family, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the U.S. spends $157 per day, on average, on expenses.
Average Top Five Expenses
They are pretty much the same as mine. Housing, food, transportation, social security, and healthcare.
For you loyal readers, you may be wondering how my housing costs make my top 5 since I paid off my mortgage.
Well, paying off the mortgage doesn’t do away with property taxes, which is my second highest expense, after giving to charity.
When you swap out giving to charity with transportation costs of the average American, you can see that we basically share the same type of expenses.
For the most part, we Americans have the same basic needs. Outside of a few categories, I would expect the majority of Americans to follow the same pattern.
I spent two weeks in “the bush” of Kenya this past January where people live on about $1.50 per day. Being in that environment helped remind me just how blessed most people are in America to live in such a prosperous nation.
Brad – Financial Life Planning recently posted…How To Crush Your Debt With the Debt Snowball Method
Thanks for sharing Brad!!! I love going to other cultures as I feel like I always come back so much more appreciative 🙂
This is such a refreshing post. I have never thought about how much it costs me to live in DC.
I’ve heard that Sydney is super expensive. I didn’t know Canberra is too. I think when we stay at a hotel and don’t have access to groceries and kitchen, things tend to get much more expensive. That’s why we’ve been thinking about staying at an airbnb the next time we travel. I’m glad you had the per diem to offset the cost.
Ms. Frugal Asian Finance recently posted…The Costs Of Forgetfulness – The Lunch Bag Story
Thanks for stopping by Ms. FAF!!! DC is so stinking expensive although not nearly as some other places in the country. Although it sometimes feels like on a day to day basis 🙂
I’m curious to why they didn’t include taxes as one of our expenses? A huge chunk goes out every month to Uncle Sam lol!
Awesome article, I knew that Australia was expensive sheesh.
Sounds like your back on track man and feeling better, glad you had a safe trip!
You know I have no idea why they didn’t include taxes in the figure. I thought it would have been higher but for whatever reason it didn’t make it.
I travel a lot for work and I’ve been able to save and invest $62,000 in per diem money in 12 years.
I do not drink alcohol so when I travel with colleagues I often ask for a separate check as per diem savings is a huge goal of mine. Its amazing seeing how large some of the bills can be with 5-6 colleagues all having dinner and drinks.
In Europe its common for the wait staff to separate the bill and allow each person to pay with their respective credit card. They bring the wireless credit card machine to the table to facilitate this.
Wow $62k is a ton over 12 years. I had no idea that people could make that much off of per diem. You must know all the deals 🙂
Expense tracking is an important part of personal finance. Knowing what you spend is the first step to managing the spend better. Tom
Tom @ Dividends Diversify recently posted…You Gotta Eat
So true Tom!!! I know what I spend monthly but never broke it down to a daily amount. It was definitely an eye opener 🙂
Would love to visit Australia and New Zealand one of these days to play some golf. I was hoping that you have posted some photos, especially that $10 muffin.
You know I should have but the 27 hour flights and lack of sleep left me a little dazed at the airport 🙂
Had no idea Australia was that expensive. That’s nuts!
I just did a rough check, and it looks like I spend about $65 a day. Although it’s just me, and that figure doesn’t include social security and healthcare, which get auto-deducted from my paycheck.
My Money Wizard recently posted…Net Worth Update: March 2018
Thanks for sharing My Money Wizard!!! $65 is super low…that’s awesome!!!
Was that muffin $10 Australian dollars or converted to US dollars? $1 Aus = $0.75 US. Airport food is always expensive. They know they have a captive audience.
I’m a little confused about your per diem. You wrote “A really nice perk I received while in Australia was a per diem rate to spend on food and lodging…Even though I could spend around $100 on food each day, the money went quickly.”
That implies your per diem was over $100; $100 for food plus whatever you spent daily on lodging. Later you asked “Would I be able to live off $100 per day? The short answer is yes, if it were only food.” You excluded the lodging portion of your per diem from the $100 example so the question should have been “Could I eat for $100 per day at home?” That also ignores the question of whether $100 is Aus or US.
Similarly your per diem is per person whereas you compared against costs associated with a family of four. The per diem is based on the cost of lodging & feeding one person so I wouldn’t expect it to stretch out to feeding 4 people.
Since I don’t have a mortgage I only considered the per diem associated with the food since the lodging would have been really skewed. I tried to make it as apples to apples as possible for me 🙂
I was looking at our family of 5 in February and found out it took use $39,764.31 for all our bills and food and everything in 2017 so if you break that down by day it’s $108.94 a day and in 2016 I think I remember we came in closer to $35,000 for our family of 5, so I know $100 a day is doable. Our most expensive year was about $42,000 that year. However, I got a 13, 11, and 8 year old now, and I bet we eat more, have more expensive car insurance, and other expenses in the next decade. So maybe $150a day in future years to come.
Thanks for sharing Josh!!! That’s awesome that you have your expenses for a family of 5 down to almost $100 a day 🙂 I can’t even imagine how much my kiddos are going to eat as teenagers!!!
Dude, Sydney is ridiculously expensive. Portion sizes are tiny, and everything is ridiculously overpriced. That’s because the minimum wage is $17-$18 an hour.
Troy @ Bull Markets recently posted…State of the U.S. economy in April 2018
I had no idea that the minimum wage was so much. That makes a ton more sense why things are so much more expensive 🙂
Hi, I’m from Sydney. All my expenses (housing, travel fund, food, transport and utilities) equates to AUD$35 per day. You can live cheaply if you try.
Wow AUD$35 is amazing. I tried to be as frugal as I could down there but you are doing amazing. Great job!!!
Oh my gosh! My family of five is at $263 per day! When we get our house paid for at the end of this year it will drop to $225. We have a lot of progress to make! But we have current teenagers and have never tried to reduce the number. It’s nice to have a comparison and some goals to shoot for!
Thanks for sharing Amy!!! I’m sure when I have teenagers that my costs are going to sky rocket. I can’t imagine how much my two sons are going to eat in the future. They already like to eat a ton now.