I just got out of High school and going to europe for two months. I have some friends to stay with (free room and board) but i'm not going to be with them the whole time...i'll be doing some backpacking around to different countries...
france, ireland, hungary, italy, austria....
(possibly on a eurail flexipass)

what is the best way to save money while backpacking? accomodations? food?
this budget is for one person too!

thanks for the help!!!

Your biggest expense every day will be a room. Hostels are usually the cheapest accomodations, especially in northern Europe. The "Let's Go" travel books have a good listing of hostels in each town. Stick to recommended hostels as the quality of others can vary a lot.

The other major expense is food. You can grab sandwich materials and fruits at a market for a lot less money than a restaurant.

Hi

Yes, hostels are the cheapest way to go if you don't mind dorm rooms. To save money do your own cooking. So make sure the hostel has use of a kitchen. Not all hostels have kitchens.

Good luck.

Book any hostel accommodation in the world through www.hihostels.com which would be the cheapest.

For backpacking style of travel I recommend reading The Thorn Tree at www.lonelyplanet.com which is similar to Fodors but focuses on younger &/or cheaper style.

Let's Go, Rough Guides, Lonely Planet, and somewhat Rick Steves are good guidebooks to reference. See if you can get any of them from your library.

Bunks in a hostel average around 25 euro per night. Food minimum at 20 euro per day still means lots of grocery store picnics or street foods no alcohol. Price of train tickets or rail pass is the hardest to make a guess at, depends how much you will move around. Same for admissions and entertainment, depends where you go, how often you go, if you find free museum days, purchase multi-day passes, etc.