Iceland Part 2: Budget

January 17, 2019

Iceland Part 2: Budget

As promised here is my Iceland Budget!

I ended up finding it a lot easier to budget for Iceland than I had thought! I colour coded everything so that anything highlighted in RED was where we came over budget, and anything in GREEN is under budget. Items I didn't highlight are because we had paid them previously so their cost didn't change. Places that I surprisingly came in under budget were eating out in Reykjavik, EVERYONE told me we hadn't budgeted enough but with some planning and research we found a restaurant that had good food and fair prices. Places we came in over budget were lunches, I had expected to buy more groceries and pack lunches instead of buying them but usually at night we would stay up late drinking so we wouldn't meal prep and then in the morning we would be up early and tired and didn't really think of it. We did pack peanut butter sandwiches one day but because we were out all day we still stopped for snacks! You could definitely do Iceland cheaper if you really committed to groceries and cooking at your hostel, AirBnB or hotel. Our grocery number is a bit lower than expected because as a group we went shopping for dinner, snacks, and breakfast items and then just divided everything up! I didn't budget anything under miscellaneous because I really wasn't sure what we might buy, maybe we would need extra socks, or souvenirs, and I foolishly forgot to put in an alcohol budget prior to leaving, so all our alcohol was put under the miscellaneous category. In the end, we came in JUST under budget!

I know that some people will consider 2500$ for 4 nights/4 days to be a lot of money to spend on vacation, however the 2500$ includes airfare and accommodation for two people. It was also a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to travel with friends and my fiance and make memories that last a life time.

Item	Approximate Cost	Actual Cost
Flights	765$ for two flights, Toronto to Reykjavik	765$
AirBnB	230$ for two people, for two nights in Reykjavik 400$ for two people for three nights in Hella	230$ 400$
Car Rental	310$ for two people for 4 days 100$ gas for two people for 4 days* = 410$	310$ 150$ = 460$
Museums	40$ entry cost to the phallic museum of Reykjavik*	9.43$ Kerid Crater
Dinner on Jan 4^th	200$ for two people including drinks, tip and tax	14.16$ Coffee 16.39$ Hot Dogs 102.83$ Frederiksen Ale House 20.29$ Water, chips, snacks 11.08$ hot dogs 164.75$
Lunches Jan 5-8th	100$ for lunches for two people, assuming we don’t pack a lunch and we are out touring around*	28.83$ breakfast Reykjavik 9.59$ Sandwich at grocery store 8.25$ Hot Chocolate 22.41$ Breakfast Sandwhich 10.69$ eggs milk etc 21.95$ Frederiksen Ale House 5.69$ hot dog 107.41$
Groceries	75$ for two people for 3 dinners	29.13$ dinner groceries 18.26$ dinner groceries 47.39$
Blue Lagoon	230$ two tickets	230$
Hot Springs	50$ for two people*	0$ we didn't end up going to a second hot springs.
Miscellaneous	??	43.50$ duty free booze 40.45$ booze at the liquor store 83.95$
Total:	2500$	2497.93$

***all of the numbers here are in Canadian Dollars and are for two people***

Coming up, I'll be focusing the blog more on just how to budget in general and how to save for trips!

If you've got any questions leave them in the comments! And don't forget to follow on Instagram @thenomadicbee

Enjoy some more photos of Iceland because it was honestly one of the prettiest countries I've ever been too!