How You Can Save Money For Travel – A Guide.

Travel is expensive, right? Actually, it doesn’t have to be! With some dedication and perseverance, you can save enough money to travel. It probably won’t even be as much as you think you will need!

I am a pure saver. I hate spending money. Some people call it being tight I think of it as being careful! We all work hard for our money, so why waste it on something meaningless, save it and use it to travel. In my opinion, it is the best value for money you will ever get!

As a side note, I don’t want to list all the ways of saving that don’t apply to most like renting your spare room out or starting an online business. This is going to be a practical Guide on how to save money for travel and will be easy to implement straight away!

Read on to find out how to save money for travel!

Skip the Nights Out.

Now I don’t mean you have to lock yourself away every weekend. But just be careful with your money, if you’re usually at the pub every weekend go once a fortnight and when you do go, just have a few! I know it’s tempting after being at work all week to go heavy on Friday and Saturday night.

But it will feel better to finish your work week and know you haven’t got to go back for X number of months! I’m not asking you to stop meeting your friends, but suggest activities that don’t involve consuming heavily taxed goods!

Buy a Coin Jar.

Sounds silly I know. But I bought a giant coin jar and put all my high denomination loose change (£1 + £2 coins) in it for my first backpacking trip. You don’t notice the money disappearing in your day to day life and over several months I had around £700 ($1000) saved up.

The best thing is it didn’t even feel like I was saving! You can do this however you like but make sure it’s sealed because you may be tempted to dip in now and again!

Cancel your Subscriptions.

Most of us could live without our Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions. And when you do go travelling you’re barely going to use them anyway!

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices right now to make your dreams achievable. Premium cable TV is also one you should watch out for, there are plenty of good channels that you can get on Freeview. Just question everything you’re subscribed to!

The average cost of a gym membership in the UK is £40 a month! A hostel bed in Bangkok can be as low as £4 a night, so if you work out in your local park instead of the gym you can have 10 days of free accommodation every month (as a matter of perspective). Read my guide on staying at hostels here.

Cook your Own Meals!

Just eat. Deliveroo. Uber eats. I know it’s so easy just to pick up your phone and have dinner delivered to the door these days. But it’s so much more expensive (let alone unhealthy) than cooking at home!

As I said before you don’t need to punish yourself, you can treat yourself to a takeaway or meal out. But you will save a lot of money by planning meals and buying food in the supermarkets. Read about some of my favourite Thai Streetfood that you can cook at home here!

Sell your Old Things.

One mans trash is another mans treasure.

Sell your old things on the Facebook Marketplace or eBay. I prefer the Facebook marketplace as there are no fees and you don’t (usually) need to post anything. If you have any old things lying around that you don’t use or don’t really need, list them online. You can make a decent bit of money getting rid of your old stuff and the memories of travel will be better than keeping your clutter!

Work Overtime.

Pretty obvious but having more income is obviously going to help you to save more money. Ask your boss for some extra hours and put all the extra money aside for your travel fund. Work that little bit extra now and you’ll be ready to go travelling a lot earlier!

Walk!

Don’t drive everywhere or take public transport. Walk to where you’re going and you’ll save money on tickets and fuel. Also your most likely going to be doing a lot of walking when you are travelling so better get the practice in now! It’s also better for the environment!

Track Your Spending.

Tracking your spending helps you keep on top of things. If you notice you’ve been spending a lot on takeaways, you can rein it in. It’s not really a way to save money but it’s a good tool to use to keep on top of your savings goals and correct any errors you have been making!

Shop around.

There are so many retailers all vying for the best deals to attract you, the consumer. Chances are, even though you’re saving for travel you’re still going to need things.

There’s nothing wrong with spending the money you earned!

But please spend it wisely, it makes me shudder when people buy things from the first place they find. Spend a bit of time shopping around! You can save yourself a lot of money by looking at different retailers and finding voucher codes.

Set a budget.

If you do decide to go out make sure you have a budget. And stick to it! Say it’s your friends birthday, sure go out and have fun, but have a budget. I find it helps to withdraw your budget in cash and leave your card in your wallet/purse for emergencies.

This way you know how much you have and what you can spend. With contactless payments, it’s way too easy to tap your card away and realise you’ve blown more than you wanted to. Always have a budget whatever you’re doing and you will soon reap the rewards of being strict with your spending!

Now you are on your way to saving, why not save more and check out my guide to saving money on flights.

Follow these tips and implement them in your daily life and you will soon be on your way! If you slip up with your saving don’t worry about it. Just pick up where you left off and continue! Eventually, you will get there and you won’t regret a minute of the sacrifices you have made!