Laura from the UK has been lucky to travel the world and always gets asked how she manage to save up for the amazing trips she does. In reality it doesn’t matter whether she’s saving in England, Australia or Thailand it’s the same rules that help her bulk up her savings.
In this article she shares her top advice for how you can do dream holidays and epic backpacking trips, without being rich.
I’m at advantage i guess, because I’m a natural born saver! I’ve always been careful with money, and never really found it hard to save. I just think of the travel!
Here’s a few tips to get your started:
1. Make a budget
It’s obvious but you’d be surprised how many people don’t do it! I always make 2 budgets, one outlining the budget I need for my tip, and one outlining my monthly budget while I’m saving up for my trip. Once you’ve made your budget you will be able to see how long you need to save for and how careful you need to be with your money.
2. Separate your money
Made a budget that allows you X amount per week? Get an online e-savers account and put everything except exactly how much you wish to spend into an account, you can always transfer over abit more if you desperately need it. But seeing the actual amount going down and how much you have left of you budget makes it a lot easier to judge where you’re going over.
3. Use Voucherbox to get discounts
Voucherbox is great not only because it provides awesome travel deals when your booking you travels, but it also provides load of vouchers that can help you save up while you’re still at home! There vouchers for everything from food and entertainment to fashion.
4. Work out what your spending in terms of work hours/what you’ll pay abroad
Just about to pay £8 ($13) on cinema ticket or £20 ($32) on a round at the bar?? Stop, think about how many extra hours you will have to work to add that amount back onto your budget. Or stop and think about what that money will get you once you go abroad, so..
£8 ($13) – One cinema ticket in England
or:
-4 cinema tickets in Thailand.
-7 dishes in a Michelin start restaurant in Hong Kong.
-22.8 bowls of noodles in most Vietnam
£20 ($32) – One round at the bar or:
-10 buckets of whiskey and coke on Khaosan rd
-6 bottles (70cl) of Thai whiskey
-4 lunches in Iceland at Iceland Bar (Islenski Barinn)
5. Alcohol, durh!
Of course this is a big one for most people, yes we all want to let loose on Fridays but I certainly find my spending on alcohol outweighs my spending on almost everything else! It would be great if we could all go cold turkey and give up completely (props to you if you can!) but if not try pre drinking as much as possible, limiting drinking to once a week, decide how much you’re willing to spend and take it out in cash, no cards! If your extra committed try adding a hip flask to your night attire, just don’t get caught!!
Work abroad
Another option, how about instead of spending months living at home saving money, why not just apply to work abroad? There are tons of jobs available all around the world where you can earn money and use this to travel in your spare time. For example, you could find summer work abroad, jobs in Europe, teach English and work in Asia or plan a working holiday to Australia – there are so many opportunities!