I’m not saying that they aren’t out there, but I have yet to come across someone who will just flat out say how much their Worldschooling trips cost, and it’s not because I haven’t asked. I’ve gotten answers like:
“Oh, I don’t even know. I didn’t keep track, but we made it work.”
Me: I don’t get it.
“Our family of 17 traveled the world on $32 a day.”
Me: I don’t get it.
“We sold everything we own and lived off the proceeds for 2 years.”
Me: I don’t get it.
What these people failed to realize is that I wasn’t asking out of pure curiosity. I was asking because I wanted to know if I could ever do what they did the way that they did it. But they wouldn’t provide enough information for me to even have a peripheral idea of how they pulled it off.
I’m not going to be like that.
However, I do have to admit that it is anxiety-provoking to put the exact figures down for you here – not because I want to keep it a secret – but because I don’t want you to feel like your experience will be or should be anything at all like mine. So here are my caveats:
You can worldschool for far less than what we’re spending. We were 100% sold on going to Bolivia, specifically, because of the unique housing opportunity discussed here. Some countries would be far more expensive and others would be much less expensive.
Like many of you, I fall into bed feeling utterly exhausted at the end of every single night, and I’m awakened before dawn every single day by a nursing child who relishes the hours we have alone before his siblings descend upon our quiet time. Then there’s school or church. And meals, and the house, and my man, and all of my little people. And I run a business. And a homeschool support group. Oh, and I eat. And usually shower.
Why does this matter?
Only because I’m setting the scene to let you know that I don’t have time to exhaustively research every website, blog, app, and hack out there for doing everything in life as frugally as humanly possible. It is what it is, and I have to live with the fact that we could probably save a lot of money if I had time to find out how to save a lot money. You, on the other hand, may have more time (probably not) or know more (probably so) or know someone who can tell you what you need to know in 5 minutes or less. If so, you could definitely do what we’re doing for less.
Technically, we can’t afford this trip. That folks, is the honest truth. We’re not independently wealthy or even extraordinarily well off. We are just an everyday family with many prayers logged, a couple of tax returns and a whole lot of consignment sales under our belts. If you pull out a magnifying glass, you may even conclude that the trip is irresponsible. It may look like we’re gambling or making precarious decisions. I can’t really offer a rational argument to refute any of those thoughts. All I can say is that I feel God put the desire to connect our children with humanity across the globe into both of our hearts, and therefore He provided a series of unique ways for us to fund the trip.
Without further ado, here is the breakdown of costs related to our South American Worldschooling trip (including a side trip to Machu Picchu before arriving in our final destination of La Paz, Bolivia):
- Passports (2 renewals, 4 new plus fees & shipping): $800
- Plane tickets (from Atlanta to La Paz via Lima, Peru): $5200
- Visas (required to enter Bolivia, fees plus shipping): $850
- Ground transportation (trains, buses, taxis, Uber): $800
- Immunizations (12 shots): $1600
- Amazon order (travel gear): $950
- Walmart order (everyday consumables): $200
- Hotels in Lima, Cusco, and Ollantaytambo (Peru): $480
- Food: $190
Running total: $11,070
Not included: Our day-to-day expenses in La Paz, our home base for this trip. We’ve only been here a short while, so I don’t have a good estimate on that yet…particularly because I keep having to throw away so much of the food I buy. << That’s me being “hangry” right there. I’ll update this when I have a better idea of how much we’re spending each week while away.
The good news is that we’d estimated $10,000 for this trip and we’re pretty close to budget. The bad news is that the estimate was for the ENTIRE trip. Like the whole 3 months. And we just got here. So there’s that.
Amazing. But this is a trip of a lifetime that your kids will never forget. Priceless.
They probably will forget a bunch of it, lol, but hopefully the lessons learned will stick with them. Otherwise, I just spent a ton of money on the world’s most expensive play date, lol!!!
I love you and your story! Can my kids + I climb in your trunk next time you go somewhere? We’d be fine just eating the crumbs that fall from your table. Just as long as we are going somewhere…anywhere! I love to travel with my kids. I’m jobless these years, but worse than that, hubby hates to go anywhere. He has a phobia of going too far from the house. I feel like I’m in bondage here.
Haha, I’d love to bring you with us! It would be nice to have built-in friends on these trips 🙂 It can be hard when you’re hubby is not on board. My husband goes with us, but in the past, he’s never been able to stay because of work, so we end up doing most of the trip on our own. Not perfect but that’s how it is. Hopefully, now that he’s been remote for over a year due to the pandemic he can just remain remote and come on the next one with us.