You might recall we’re trying to keep within a budget and that this year achieving this has proved to be tough going with our spending feeling somewhat out of control. I was therefore keen to keep costs low on our fantastic autumn trip to Spain from September to November. So how did this plan go and what did we spend?
Diesel – £390 (we avoided the temptation to visit all of Spain and travelled 2,430 miles)
Supermarket / food shopping – £536 (around £100 less than we would have spent at home and we returned with dozens of bottles of wine for the cellar!)
Cafes & meals out – £326 (Coffee in a cafe is inexpensive in Spain and we do this much more on holiday than at home but we ate out in the evening less and so spent almost £100 less than we would have spent at home so a small gold star to us)
Campsites – £708 (we had a few nights wild camping to keep costs down but could have done more)
Public transport – £51 (we stayed off the motorways with tolls in Spain and managed to spend a little less than we would if we’d stayed home)
Entrance fees – £98 (similar to when we are at home)
Miscellaneous – £80 (new sunglasses, maps, washing machines, occasional wi-fi)
Ferry Portsmouth to Bilbao – £895 (ouch! A lot of money to suffer the high seas of the Bay of Biscay)
Fixing the power steering & a new wing mirror for our van – £377 [power steering electrical fault]
Total spent £3,461
I’m feeling reasonably pleased with this total. It really is not that much more than we would have spent if we’d stayed at home so hasn’t had a massive impact on our budget. The lesson is that there are really no excuses not to go away again!
Back on the road again 
Thats the ticket. get back and go again…talking of tickets..absolutely much cheaper to do the extra miles from one of the french ports and France is great in the summer. apart from eating out..but we know some great restaurants there, where you can eat a 3 course for 10 euros..happy traveling
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Thanks for commenting and yes, nothing will keep us away :). Interesting you should mention going via France. We’ve been adding up the comparative costs of going through France, rather than the expensive Spanish ferry today (its raining so we have to entertain ourselves somehow). I think we’ll do this when we want to combine France and Spain in a trip but otherwise although it saves us a couple of hundred euros it does add a lot of miles to our already high mileage van and we might want to avoid that.
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