This is a very popular topic amongst travel bloggers and inspiring travelers – how exactly do people save up enough money to fund all of their adventures? After all, travel is generally not cheap. First of all, you need to travel to your destination, whether it be by plane, car, train, or boat. Next, you need a place to stay, which is usually some form of hotel room, apartment, or hostel. Then, another big expense – you need to eat! You’ll probably want to try some of the local cuisine, and eating in restaurants can really eat into your travel funds. And at last, you will want to see the sights, which usually requires admission tickets. Plain and simple – traveling all around the world comes at a price!
Thankfully, I have some tips for you to save up money on a daily basis to put towards your travel that won’t be detrimental to your day-to-day life. In fact, these suggestions may be positive changes that will help you to live more minimally, be healthier, and spend quality time with loved ones!
I’m also very fortunate to have some support in this blog post. I’ve gathered up the opinions of many awesome travel bloggers to share their secrets with us. These bloggers have traveled all over the world, so they know what to do (and what not to do) to save money in preparation for their adventures, and while they’re on their journeys. In fact, the response I received from fellow travel bloggers was so overwhelming that this will be a two part series – stay tuned for the second part coming soon!
You might be thinking: I’m not thinking about traveling all around the world for years at a time, does this post even apply to me? Justin and I haven’t quit our day jobs to go traveling around the world (although I definitely admire those who have done this). We are part-time travelers who spend most of our time at our apartment. We work as freelancers, but with mostly full time hours. We plan our vacations in the form of day trips, road trips, weekends/a few days away, and international travel when possible.
These tips for saving money can help you on a daily basis to build a travel fund for whenever you decide to get away!
You might discover that you can save money faster than you thought possible before by making a few simple changes in your life, and soon enough, you’ll be at your dream destination!
Enjoying a Rum Punch in Dominica
Savings Tip #1: Sell Your Stuff
If you are anything like me, you have things that you don’t really need or want anymore. You may have a closet full of clothes that you don’t wear, collections of things that aren’t that important to you anymore, or valuables that you’d rather trade in for a vacation across the world. All you have to do is get organized, decide where you would get the most money for your things, and sell, sell, sell! Here are some places where you can sell your belongings for extra cash:
eBay – Ebay is the most popular place to sell valuables and collectibles, and it’s pretty easy, too. Just upload some high quality photos with good descriptions and list them in an auction or “Buy it now” format. Ebay allows you to list up to 100 items for free each month and you only have to pay a fee that is a percentage of the selling price. Make sure that you have a Paypal account set up so you can collect the payments. If you’re unsure about how to do this, there are many tutorials online that could help you out.
Craigslist or Kijiji – For larger items or things that wouldn’t sell very well on eBay, I would recommend trying your luck at Craigslist. As long as you have great pictures and you’re willing to be flexible on the price, you should have no problem selling that extra old TV you’ve got kicking around, or that piece of furniture that doesn’t match anything in your place. If possible, I would try to meet in a public place if you are contacted, or at least don’t be home by yourself just in case the buyer doesn’t have good intentions.
Trend Trunk – This is one that I’m really excited about that I’m going to be trying out very soon (stay tuned – I’ll write about it more if it’s a success!). Trend Trunk is a site where you can sell your new or slightly used clothing in Canada. There are similar sites in the USA (as listed in this great round-up!)
Have a Garage Sale – Gather up all of the extra items that aren’t valuable enough to sell online and have a yard sale! Put price stickers on all of your items and put signs up around your neighborhood. You can also place a free ad online for your sale on Craigslist and Kijiji. It will be a bit of work lugging all of your things to the curb, but you’ll earn some extra cash while reducing clutter in your living space! Your “trash” could easily be someone else’s treasure.
Donations – For whatever you don’t sell in your garage sale (or if you just have a few items that you’d like to dispose of), you could always donate it to Goodwill or another similar charity. Another idea is using your local Freecycle community to get rid of your extra clutter. You can quickly and easily post an ad that you have something to give away, and there’s a great chance that someone will want it. Another idea that I’ve done in the past after hosting a garage sale? I put the extra stuff at the bottom of the driveway with a giant “Free” sign on it. Then, I placed an article on Freecycle that everything was ready to be hauled away. By the end of the day, everything was gone!
Justin in Grenada
Savings Tip #2: Live Minimally
If you’re planning a round-the-world adventure living out of a backpack, you’re going to be living minimally anyway – you may as well get a head start on that! For the rest of us part-time travelers, it doesn’t hurt to learn how to live with less. My favorite minimalist blog by far is Zen Habits. You should check out that site right now as it is filled with inspiring stories and suggestions for minimalist living (and the author, Leo, is vegan!). If you’re anything like me, you likely have tons of things that you don’t need. You are likely tempted on a daily basis to buy things that you don’t need. If you’ve grown up in a Western culture like I have in Canada, you’ve been raised with the ideas that the more stuff, the better. We work longer hours and have less free time to buy a bigger house, a fancier car, designer clothing, and extensive collections of things. There’s nothing wrong with taking pleasure in owning some beautiful things, but I’m sure there are some things that you can give up. In the process, you’ll save money, won’t have to work overtime to pay the bills, and you’ll be able to travel farther! By making simple cuts to your monthly costs, you’ll be able to enjoy an extra night in a hotel, an extra meal at a faraway restaurant, an extra day sight-seeing in a historic city or more time lounging on a gorgeous beach. Here are some suggestions for living with less and saving more:
Cancel your Cable TV – This is something that we are happily doing this month! Our cable bill was set to rise by quite a bit, and the cable company was refusing to negotiate with us so we could keep our reduced rate. So, we finally ended up thinking…do we really need to subscribe to cable TV? After all, we have Netflix, we can watch many of our favorite shows online for free, and we have so many movies and TV shows on DVD that we haven’t even watched yet! Plus, I feel that without the TV around, we’ll be able to focus more on other things that we enjoy like playing some video games together, or reading a book. This is going to easily save us over a thousand dollars a year, so it definitely adds up. We also really dislike the cable TV company that we were using in Canada, so it gives us great satisfaction to not give them another penny.
Don’t Buy What You Don’t Need - This one is pretty self-explanatory. Before you buy something, think to yourself, do I really need this? If you need it, buy it. If not, you might want to think about passing on it.
Cut Down on Monthly Bills – There are many ways to do this. When we cancelled our cable TV, we also decided to switch Internet Providers. We found a provider called Tek Savvy and it uses exactly the same cable Internet line that we had before, but at way lower rates than what we were paying. There are numerous ISPs like this, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find one in your area. A fast Internet connection is important to us, although we will happily pay less if given the choice. Other options to cut down on your monthly bills: make sure you use less hydro by turning off the lights when you leave a room, or unplugging certain electronic devices when you’re not using them. Be sure to watch your water consumption as well.
Gym Membership – I really like staying in shape and being healthy, so giving up my gym membership isn’t really an option for me. If I lived somewhere where it was warm all of the time, I would not need a gym membership. Throughout the winter months here, it is nearly impossible to exercise outdoors. However, we did find a gym that was a lot cheaper than our old one, and it happens to be closer to our apartment! Together, we save $30 a month by attending our new gym instead of our old one. Justin is actually thinking of cancelling his gym membership completely as he has some weights at the apartment that he likes to lift, so that will save us even more cash.
Reduce Car Usage (If Possible) – This one doesn’t totally apply to us as we both have to commute to get to our jobs. The area where we work isn’t the nicest, so it isn’t really an option to move closer. Plus, our apartment is priced reasonably and if we moved closer to Toronto, the price would increase. I own a Toyota Prius hybrid car, so I save lots of money as I don’t have to fill up my gas tank as often. Justin also owns a smaller car that is good for those long commutes. However, when I’m at home, I like to walk as much as possible, especially for those trips to the grocery store or Farmer’s market. This way, I use my car less and I get some great exercise walking around everywhere.
Reduce Salon or Spa Use – I used to attend the hair salon more frequently, and who doesn’t love getting manicures and pedicures? I do have one hair salon and stylist that I’m partial to seeing, although I go to the salon way less often now. My hair is getting quite long, which I’m enjoying! I only go to the salon twice a year for hair cuts. As for my nails, I don’t paint them very often, but I do it myself at home.
Stay tuned for our next blog post where we’ll bring you Part 2 of Tips for Saving Money for Travel, with many more suggestions for putting your hard-earned cash towards your adventures and journeys! Now, let’s hear from some fellow travel bloggers. We asked them to provide us with one important tip for saving money for travel, or while traveling. Here’s what they said:
Kristin of Be My Travel Muse
Kristin of Be My Travel Muse in Thailand
Kristin says: Simplify your life. What I mean by that is reduce the bills. Move home if you can (I know it sucks but it’s only temporary), stop buying anything not essential and if you make any purchases, promise yourself they must only be related to your upcoming trip. Keep a log of every penny you save to make the sacrifices more gratifying.
Sam and Zab of Indefinite Adventure
Sam and Zab of Indefinite Adventure in Bolivia
Sam says: First, research how much things you’ll want to do on your trip roughly cost. Then every time you spend money while you’re saving for your trip, think about what the amount you’re spending could buy you in the place you want to travel. Say you’re planning a trip to Bolivia, and then imagine you go out for dinner in your home town and spend $40 on yourself. That could pay for two nights accommodation in a private room with your own bathroom in a basic but clean hostel in many parts of Bolivia. And that $5 coffee you buy on your way to work every day? You wouldn’t be stretching yourself to buy a two course lunch with a drink for two people in Bolivia for that. Suddenly, with the aim of saving for your trip, your money holds an entirely new value, and you’ll find yourself wanting to spend less on unnecessary things at home in order to be able to afford more on your trip.
Taylor of World Trippin It
Taylor of World Trippin It
Taylor says: Ask yourself do you “want” or “need” whatever you’re about to spend your money on. If the answer is that you want it, you should probably not buy it. Most people spend their money on useless things that they’ll probably only use a few times. Secondly, pay of your necessary bills (car, rent, credit cards, etc.) and if you have money left over, save 70% of it and use the other 30% for play money. Usually, this would give me enough to go out with friends three or four times a month.
Dale and Franca of Angloitalian Follow Us
Dale and Franca of Angloitalian Follow Us
Dale says: If it wasn’t for one question there’s no way we could have pushed our years travel budget to reach our two year travelersary and we asked it of ourselves every day before we travelled, and that was – ‘Do We Really Need This?’. It could be applied to buying new clothes, deciding which quality of coffee to buy on our shopping list to the size of the apartment we were renting. We found that by holding out on clothes and other such material purchases paired with cutting down our coffee intake and downgrading our apartment for a one bedroom place above a shop saved us hundreds per month, not to mention the money saved on local taxes for a smaller property.
Agness and Cez of eTramping
Agness and Cez of eTramping on local bus to Alona Beach
Agness says: If you read our blog on eTramping.com, you should already know that we’re not rich people and we have been travelling the world with a tight budget of $25 a day. Let me tell you that saving money is a slog, but you can do it if you set your mind to it. Yes, that’s right – you have to set your dreams first and make saving for future travels your priority. You should never forget why you are doing this and let your friends and family members remind you that every single day. If you are tempted to spend money on drinks and cocktails on Saturday evening, picture yourself on a beautiful beach somewhere in Thailand drinking some fresh coconut juice and getting a lovely tan while chatting with fellow travelers. If you feel like buying another pair of shoes or trousers, imagine yourself hiking the stunning Zhangjiajie Mountains in China and I bet you’ll leave the shop immediately!
I always put a picture on my wall, or a map with pins and strings for constant revalidation. I try to reduce my expenditure and simplify my life because every single cent matters when you are on the road. This way I was able to save up to $18.000 a year teaching English in China while travelling. If I could do it, you can this is as well!
Audrey of That Back Packer
Audrey of That Back Packer in Chiang Mai
Audrey says: One of my biggest tips for saving when you travel is to watch where you eat! Aside from transportation and accommodations, meals are one of the biggest travel expenses – especially if you like to eat more than 3 times a day like I do. While it can be easy to think, “Oh, I’m on vacation. I can eat wherever I want”, this attitude will put a pretty big dent in your travel budget. When you’re overseas, restaurants that specialize in Western food tend to be pricier because they’re trying to draw in a foreign clientele. However, if you opt for smaller establishments specializing in local cuisine, you’ll likely find that the prices are much lower since they target a local crowd. Also, don’t be afraid to try eating out in food markets! It’s a great way to become better acquainted with local dishes while also saving your hard earned money, which in turn will help you travel longer.
Thank you so much to everyone who provided such helpful tips – stay tuned for part 2! Do you have any ways of saving money for travel?
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