Saving Money: 580 euros / 14 days = 41.50 Euros per day assuming you have all other transportation costs covered. Stay at a Muncipal Albergue, 5 Euros/night in 2018 on
Camino Frances. Now you have 36.50 Euros per day for food. That’s enough for a big Bacon and 2 eggs plus coffee breakfast for 8 Euros, large Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch with beer/wine or soda 8 Euros, decent pilgrim dinner including wine/water 10 Euros with 10.5 Euros left over for snacks, wine, beer along the walk and/or after dinner socializing. To really cut food/wine costs, bring a backpack with a large amount of unused space for carrying food/wine. Most Municipals have good cooking facilities with adequately equipped kitchens (some municipals Albergues in Galicia may not so you may have to improvise...I think they put all their money into really nice monument trail markers) to prepare and then eat (including wine glasses) your meal. Some have communal butter in the refrigerator or olive oil for cooking along with Salt. To save more money, bring a bunch of large empty zip lock bags with you (for food storage) along with any spices you like to use when cooking, plus 14 days worth of instant coffee, cocoa or tea bags. Borrow a Bota or wine skin from someone before leaving home. Bring a light weight coffee mug and two silicone collapsible wine glasses. Bring a Spork and a rigid plastic camping plate. Buy a cheap steak knife in a hardware store or super market when you get to Europe (TSA won’t allow on flight) for cutting bread, cheese, meat, veggies etc… Then, once on the camino, buy vegetables that last awhile without refrigeration (onion, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, root veggies etc…) use just what you need of the fresh ingredients and make a meal for one or make extra and invite someone to dinner, ask them to get the wine or make a salad etc… Put the leftovers in the heavy duty ziplock freezer bag and put in the Albergue refrigerator overnight & pack it in the morning to reheat for dinner that night. Hard boil eggs the night before for snacks, breakfast or lunch or salad the next day while traveling. Buy hard cheeses and processed meats that last “forever” for lunch or snacks or salad ingredients during the day along with your baguette. Drink you instant coffee/cocoa/tea at breakfast in the Albergue along with bread, cheese, jelly, butter that you bought. If you drink wine, buy it by the bottle for 4 Euros and transfer to your Bota (wine skin) and get rid of the weight of the bottle. Use your extra wine glass to invite someone to join you for a bit of your wine and bread and cheese and chorizo, all purchased “in bulk” fairly inexpensively. When socializing at night on the plaza, square or centro…buy your first glass of wine from the café/bar and refill it with your bota a few times before ordering your next one. If friends/pilgrims ask or give you a look, just let them know you had to cut costs drastically for the trip but did not want to miss out on socializing at night with them and other pilgrims. They will understand and they might enjoy the opportunity to buy you another glass of wine. I think you could still eat and drink well and never be hungry doing what I described above for 15 – 20 Euro a day and then have 16.50 to 21.50 Euro left over in your 36.50/day budget for emergencies or unexpected expenses. A person I traveled with this spring had to go to the hospital for foot problems twice. There was no charge. She was told for all pilgrims, any Camino issues from the waist down are treated for free. I’ve read of others who had bigger medical issues on the Camino and the hospitals never take your money upfront but instead bill you when you get home (a letter in the mail with a bill). It is a “reasonable” charge that you are then obliged to pay. Perhaps by the time you get the bill, which takes awhile, you have worked and accumulated some more cash to take care of the expense. I think you have enough. Maybe spend the 1st week of the Camino conserving cash using the methods above. Make a game out of it to see how little you can spend each day and still not miss out on anything. At the end of that week reassess your financial situation and decide if you want to continue the game or splurge a little bit. I think you will have a great Camino. If you are not a cook, start practicing now making some simple meals with the same simple ingredients you will have in Spain so it’s easy to repeat when you get to Spain. Saving money by shopping for food and then cooking it will eat into free time but it seems like a good tradeoff. You will have fun, new, different interactions with the locals when shopping. Good Luck and Buen Camino.
I think that I am most concerned because in my past I have not been very good at calculating exchange rates and how much extra transport is going to cost me. I haven't even bought my ticket back yet (waiting for next week's pay) and I will be flying out of Paris. So I still have to figure out the whole extra transportation money. Santiago to Paris how?? I know I'm just going to take the 30 dollar flight from Lisbon to Porto but I'm lost after that!
