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Dec 18, 20158 min read

EatShopPlay Melbourne on a Budget: 10-day Melbourne Trip with $2000


Hi there!

I have recently returned from my Melbourne trip and for this trip, I try to budget myself so that I will not overspend, because I spent way too much for my previous trip to Australia, and many of the expenses were unneccessary and could be avoided. For this trip, I give myself a total of SG$2000 to spend for for 10 days! With the current 1 : 1 exchange rate, it becomes a great deal! And yes, in total means inclusive of airfare, accommodation, meals, transport, shopping and admission fares! And here's how you can do it as well!

1) Low Airfare

Choose the cheapeast flight. Survey around and see which is the best and more pocket-friendly airline. For me I feel that as compared with other flights, Scoot is one of the most affordable and comfortable flights to Australia. Since my dates are flexible, I would choose the cheapest seat combination, which is to depart and arrive at the first half of the week. I departed on a Monday and returned on a Wednesday.

2) Travel Light

For Scoot, they have four different types of seats:

  • 'Fly' is seat + 7kg cabin baggage.

  • 'FlyBag' is seat + 7kg cabin baggage + 20kg check-in baggage.

  • 'FlyBagEat' is seat + 7kg cabin baggage + 20kg check-in baggage + on-plane meal.

  • 'ScootBiz' is premium seat with extra legroom + 15kg cabin baggage + 20kg check-in baggage + on-plane meal + piriority check-in and boarding.

Travel light means packing only the necessary items. It saves up a lot of baggage space and weight! You can get 'Fly' seat for your departing flight if you don't intend to bring a lot of things. However, it is always better to have extra baggage weight for the return flight just in case shopping gets a little too crazy, so get 'FlyBag' seat instead for your return flight (additional $40).

You can read on my 'Travel Packing Tips' for some travelling tips.

3) Pay for the Essentials

(Based on Scoot) Opt out from seat selection ($9 each selection, $18 in total), insurance (addtional $39) and meals (additional $55 each, $110 in total). Since it's an overnight departure flight, it would not be a problem. As for the return flight, you can always have your meals before you board the plane and after you alight the plane. I have a low metabolism rate and it is only an 8hr-flight, so I am fine going without on-plane meals.

*Disclaimer: I bought my insurance seperately.

4) Promotions

Wait for promotions. Scoot usually has a promotion every Tuesday morning from 0500-0900hrs, called the 'Scoot Morning Glory Tuesdays'. Sometimes, banks like DBS or Citibank would tie up with Scoot and you can get like 10% or 15% discount off your airfares.

You can also try purchasing 2 one-way tickets instead of a round trip. I realised Scoot's promotion only applies to departing flight, but not the return flight. So I bought 2 one-way tickets instead of round trip.

Depart (SG to MEL): Original: $409.63. My purchase: $217.24 (bought on promotion).

Return (MEL to SG): Original: $784.29. My purchase: $527.04 (bought at 3 weeks).

5) Affordable Accommodation

I really love the idea of Airbnb. It is a website that allows people to list, find and rent lodging. I do not really like the idea of staying at a hotel as it is rather cramp and expensive. I like the idea of Airbnb as it allows you to pick an accommodation based on your preferance. I lived in a flat (better known as an apartment) in Singapore, so I always wanted to live in a house with a large garden. With Airbnb, now I can! I don't mind staying with strangers, so I booked a private room for about $45/night, and it looks fabulous! The house is huge and amazing. Though I only pay for the room, but I get to use the whole house! Queen-sized bed with free usuage of amenities like kitchen, washer and wireless internet! It is also near to the theme park (Luna Park), St Kilda Beach (where you see penguins after sunset), supermart (Woolworths), St Kilda Botanical Gardens, tram station (straight tram to CBD), and many more!

Another good thing about staying in a rented place is that it comes with washer and dryer (for most of the airbnb listings), so you can pack less clothes. You just have to wash and rewear them! You can also put all of them (of course except for the set you are going to wear to airport) to wash before you return home so you wouldn't have a pile of unwashed clothes when you unpack your luggage. It can be tiring after a long flight journey and all you want to do is to have some proper rest..

*Click here to read more about my Airbnb apartment.

6) Prepare Your Own Meals

Based on my first Australia experience last year, I realised that transport and meals are the two most expensive items when touring in Australia. Definitely not shopping (unless you prefer shopping at boutique shops and for branded goods)! Since I cannot cut down on transport fares, I try to cut down on meal fares. The standard rates of food in Singapore is about $4, but the standard rates of food in Australia is about $10. I try to have both my breakfast and dinner in the house, and pack my own lunch before I head out. This way, when I am hungry, I don't have to go hunting for food, I just get them out from my bag. I am not really a fussy eater so I do not really mind having some simple meals. I would rather spend the extra money on shopping!

*All recipes and relevant photos of meals prepared during this trip can be found here.

7) Plan Your Itinerary

By planning your itinerary ahead of time, it allows you to visit all the places you planned to go in a systematic order. I actually changed my itinerary for about 3-4 times before I managed to finalise it. I plot down all the places that I planned to go on Google Maps, and with the aid of Google, I plan my day-to-day schedule by grouping places that are near to one another. This helps save up on travelling cost and time.

I also watch some Melbourne-related videos to decide on some of the places that I want to go. Here are some good videos that you can take a look at:

Melbourne also has a free tram zone in the CBD area that goes round many attractions like the Eureka Tower, Federation Square, St Paul's Cathedral, Parliament House, Royal Exhibition Building and many more. To roughly calculate out travelling distance, cost and time, you can go to: http://www.rome2rio.com/ or Public Transport Victoria's journey planner that shows travelling time, the zone in which your tram is in and alternative public transport travelling routes.

8) Prepaid Data Plan

With smartphones and tablets around these days, it is hard to live without wireless internet. So what if your accommodation has free wireless internet? You can only use the internet within the building, which means no more whatsapp, facebook, instagram and Google Maps once you leave the place! Turning to SMSs and overseas calls can be expensive! Optus, one of Australia's telecommunication company, offers prepaid mobile broadband (data plan) that is very affordable! There are many options and you can view them here. With this, you can continue to whatsapp or facetime, and continue to be on facebook and instagram (and Google Maps, in case you get lost) even when your free internet is not available!

I got the $2 Daily Plus, which means I pay $2 per day for 500MB data usage with unlimited call time and SMS/MMS within Australia. Quite affordable, isn't it?

9) Work within a Budget

Budget yourself if you do not wish to overspend. I roughly checked out the price of airfare., accommodation, admission fees to attractions and other miscellaneous stuff, and I set a budget of $2000 for myself. The following is the breakdown of my rough estimation:

As I mentioned earlier, I'm travelling via Scoot and I am staying at a house rented through airbnb. I calculated my travelling distance, cost and time through rome2rio. I checked out the various admission fees through the various websites. For my meals, as I mentioned, I'm preparing them myself most of the time as it is going to be quite costly to eat out for every meal. I roughly put up a chart and write down the days that I am going to eat out, and count the remaining number of meals that I need to prepare myself. Next, I roughly write down a list of simple meals that can be done up quick and good. Depending on your preference, I like pasta, pancake, bread and cereal. I also add in some salads and a bit of canned food like corn kernels, and a bit of processed food like ham and smoked salmon. Next, is to write down all the recipes, the amount of ingredients requried for each meal and do up your shopping list! From here, you can check out the prices from any online supermarket (I did mine at Woolworths because there is one very near my accommodation, so I did my grocery shopping there) and get the rough amount that you are going to spend on groceries.

*All recipes and relevant photos of meals prepared during this trip can be found here.

10) 100% Public Transport + Walking

My very last tip to stay within budget is go 100% public transport and walk. And when I say public transport, this does not include cab/taxi, they are budget-killers. For this trip, I went 100% on bus, train and tram, and for places that are not accessible by public transport, I walked. Even when I am with my baggages, I went on bus and tram. It is actually not that inconvenient as long as you are willing to do it.

Most of the places that I went are within the city, so it is still quite accessible and the trams are very frequent. However, for places that are further away from the city like Werribee and Yarra Valley, buses usually come at 1hr intervals, so you have to be very careful of this. I wasn't aware of this initially, so by the time I reached the bus stop after my cherry picking, the bus left like 10mins ago and I had to spend another 50mins sitting at the bus stop, waiting for the next bus.

If this is your first time in Melbourne like me, there are two apps that you have to install in your phone and with these two apps, you will never get lost: 1) PTV (Public Transport Victoria app) and 2) Google Maps. PTV will guide you on the type of transport to use to get to the place that you want to and Google Maps will guide you to walk to the place that you want to get. For timetables of buses, trams and trains, you can check them at PTV website.

Without further ado, check out my 10-day Melbourne trip and itinerary! More photos on https://www.flickr.com/photos/travelfoodiary/albums

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