When I planned my route and worked out my budget I did so remembering that the exchange rate can fluctuate on a daily basis (by quite a bit at times) so when working on my figures I bore this in mind and worked everything out on a worst-case-scenario exchange rate.

I set mine to £1 = $1.20 (when I've been stateside in the past I've got $1.46 and $1.64). Because of this I thought $1.20 might be really low but today (after the UK election) we currently stand at $1.26 and there's talk of it dropping further so it would appear my planning may not have been far off.

Of course by the time I get to go it could have jumped to $2.00 (a few years back this did happen). In that case I'd get everything a bit cheaper which would give us a few more $ to spend whilst out there; anything not spent would be donated to a local cancer charity upon our return; for their sake I hope it rises.

The reason I point this out is because to some of you the figures I need to raise may seem exceptionally high; in reality they may be just about right - or could even be higher.