Our family of 3 traveled the world for 7 months and only spent $288.30 from our savings - here's how

• Progress: 3 countries, 6 cities
• Places visited: Greater San Salvador, El Salvador; Las Vegas, Nevada, US; and Cartagena, Santa Marta, Medellin, and Bogota, Colombia

• Active clients: 1
• Hours worked per week: 4

In Colombia, we spent the least on food than in any other country in South America — about $19 per day — because we stayed in apartments with fully-equipped kitchens and ate two meals per day at home.

• Progress: 3 countries, 7 cities
• Places visited: Bogota, Colombia; Quito, Otavalo, Santa Cruz (Galapagos), Isabella (Galapagos), and San Cristobal (Galapagos), Ecuador; Lima, Peru

• Active clients: 2
• Hours worked per week: 6

When preparing for Ecuador, we set two separate budgets — one for the mainland and one for the remote Galapagos islands made famous by Darwin, which locals refer to as a "lujo" (or "luxury") to visit. Our goal was to spend $150 a day on the islands and $90 a day on the mainland, but our averages crept up to $185 a day and $150 a day, respectively.

• Progress: 4 countries; 12 cities
• Places visited: Lima, Ollantaytambo, Aguas Caliente/Machu Picchu, Paracas, Huacachina, Cusco, Puno, and Islas Uros, Peru; New York City, NY, US; Greater San Salvador, El Salvador; Copacabana, Isla del Sol, and La Paz, Bolivia

• Active clients: 4
• Hours worked per week: 14

March was the busiest month for gigs and travel. Because I was bringing in more income, we saw some of the pricier parts of Peru, including Machu Picchu, and spent $523 on a three-day tour of the Ica Desert, the Huacachina Oasis, and a private plane tour over the famous Nazca Lines, which can only be seen from the air and are believed to be 2,500 years old.

• Progress: 4 countries; 9 cities
• Places visited: La Paz, Sucre, Santa Cruz, and Samaipata, Bolivia; Asuncion and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; the Iguazu Falls side of Brazil and Argentina; Manaus, Brazil

• Active clients: 2
• Hours worked per week: 10

I originally calculated that Bolivia would be our lowest daily budget — estimating we'd spend $60 per day. However, because it was a lower-cost place, we invited our teenage niece, two nephews and my sister-in-law to join us during the kids' spring break. For eight days, we were spending for a family of seven and still managed to spend only about $150 a day.

The big expense of this month was paying $320 for US tourist visas for Paraguay for me and our baby (my husband didn't have to pay because he's a dual citizen and used his El Salvador passport to enter for free). That major one-time expense is the reason our daily average was so high ($172 a day) — subtract that, and our average would be about $92 per day, similar to other countries.

Still, we loved our high-rise apartment overlooking the National Palace (the equivalent of the White House) in Asuncion, where we saw them roll out the red carpet for a state ceremony. Using our travel binoculars, we could make out the president, security staged on the roof and in all corners of the property, and a getaway helicopter.

• Progress: 3 countries; 7 cities
• Places visited: Manaus, the Amazon Jungle, Salvador, Rio, and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Active clients: 3
• Hours worked per week: 5

I picked up one new freelance writing client and my husband, who is a tourism and hospitality professional, began remotely managing a rental property on Airbnb and other booking sites.

• Progress: 3 countries, 11 cities
• Places visited: Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, El Calafate, El Chalten, Puerto Blest, Bariloche, and Mendoza, Argentina; Colonia and Montevideo, Uruguay; Puerto Natales and Puerto Varas, Chile

• Active clients: 4
• Hours worked per week: 12 hours

Uruguay was one of the countries where we spent the least on attractions ($0 a day) because we spent so much time sightseeing outside, as we did in Colonia — a beautiful place to catch the sunset, where locals gather for a half hour or more to appreciate the priceless (and free) view.

By now I learned that some of the best freelancing gigs were to be found in Facebook networking groups, as opposed to traditional job sites like LinkedIn or Indeed. My new client came via a Facebook posting from early May — I applied that same day, and followed up not once but twice. By June, I found myself busy with the kind of assignments I could do on my own schedule without any calls — best for my unpredictable schedule and Wi-Fi.

• Progress: 4 countries; 5 cities
• Places visited: Mendoza, Argentina; Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile; Greater San Salvador, El Salvador; and New York City, NY, US

• Active clients: 2
• Hours worked per week: 5

I've heard July is notoriously slow for freelancers, which was true and just as well for me. Winter had arrived and we were losing daylight and energy — sleeping in about 59 different beds over six months was catching up.

I had ambitions of reaching the remote Easter Island, but the thought of spending about $1,000 and six hours to fly there made me refocus my goal on appreciating the highlights we saw, including the extremes of urban Valparaiso and majestic Torres del Paine.

The big question from our friends, family, and ourselves is: Now that we have more or less broken even from working part-time remotely while traveling, will we keep traveling or settle down? For now, the answer is yes and yes.

The next chapter will involve finding a place to call home, while having the confidence to pick (and pack) up and continue our working and traveling lives the next time we get the urge to see more of the world once again.

A graduate of NYU with a BA in journalism and Baruch College Zicklin School of Business with an MBA in marketing, Mary Kearl is a professional writer and digital marketer with over 11 years of experience. She's written for AOL, Forbes, HuffPost, Target, Zillow, and many other publications, websites, and brands. As a digital and social marketer, she's worked for Adobe, the New York City Marathon, and other startups and small businesses. Follow her remote work/travel life on Instagram @SeetheWorldParents. Learn more on her website and feel free to connect on Twitter @marykearl and LinkedIn.