One of the trickiest parts of planning a long trip away is getting to grips with your travel budget. Before you jet off, you want to be sure that you have enough money to keep you afloat so that you can have the absolute time of your life while you’re there. Many people struggle with knowing how to save up money for travelling around the world, but it really just means being sensible and making cutbacks on silly purchases you probably didn’t need. Here are 7 useful tips on how to save money for an around the world trip, just know that it may literally mean saving your pennies…
START A TRAVEL FUND
It’s all good putting cash aside to save for travels, but the temptation will still be there to take a note here and there when payday is just a few days too far away… That’s where a travel fund is seriously handy. If you set up a separate savers account with your bank, dedicated solely to your travel money, you’ll be way less tempted to take from it when you can see exactly how much is there. Plus it makes it much more effort to take money out.
Set up a realistic target of how much money you can transfer into your savings account each month, but it’s better to be on the generous side to begin with. If you realise early on that putting X amount of money into your travel account really doesn’t leave you with enough to live off, you can cut it down bit by bit until you discover a happy medium.
DECIDE HOW MUCH YOU NEED TO SAVE
Once you start saving (or even before then) you’ll need to figure out an estimate of how much money you really will need in your travel fund by the time you set off. This will really depend on what cities or countries are on your itinerary - a 6 month trip across Europe will cost a lot more than 6 months in Asia, for example.
Do your research into roughly how much each city will cost you regarding accommodation, food, attractions, tours and transport. Then, the big one, flights. If you’re planning a fairly specific itinerary, it might be worth meeting with a few different travel companies to get quotes on flights between countries or cities. If you’re keeping your plans loose, have a look into the cost of your outbound flight and try to get that one paid off ASAP.
As soon as you have a good idea of how much money you need to save up, and how much time you have left to do it, your mind will (hopefully) be at ease!
FIGURE OUT WHERE YOUR MONEY IS GOING
Have a look into your bank statements to work out where you could potentially make cutbacks. Do you eat out a lot? Do you take taxis when you could really take the bus? Do you make a lot of random Amazon purchases you really don’t need?
Sometimes a little reality can really put you into check. Cut back on the fancy stuff you could buy for way cheaper, or cut them out altogether. Make yourself cheap but tasty packed lunches, stop buying random stuff and take the bus and put the taxi money you would’ve spent straight into your travel fund! Breaking old habits is hard but it’ll be oh so worth it when you see that travel fund balance getting higher and higher.
BUY SECOND HAND
Need a new outfit for a big event coming up? It’s really not necessary to buy everything brand new. Charity shops and flea markets are always full of hidden gems, it might just take a little patience to find them. Sift through the goodies in your local charity shops, or have a look around a flea market. Finding past-loved goodies can be really therapeutic, especially when you fall in love with an item that barely costs a thing!
SELL SOME THINGS
Make use of living in the 21st century and sell a load of your belongings online. There are loads of apps that can do this now - snap a photo of the item, upload it with a price and caption and voila, hopefully, it’ll get some hits. Dig around your wardrobe for clothes you may have forgotten about, or sell the clothes you bought a year ago that still have the price tag. You’ll feel great giving it all to a new loving home!
MAKE THE MOST OF FREE THINGS
Meet up with your friends as much as you can before you jet off and make the most of the free things to do on your doorstep. Whether it’s a walk in your local park or heading to your nearest city to a free museum, just spend the transport money and enjoy the company of your friends. Don’t be one of those people that refuses to do anything “because I’ve got to save for travels”. Having said that…
DON’T GIVE INTO FOMO
As we just discussed, seeing your friends doesn’t have to mean splashing all the cash. FOMO is the Fear of Missing Out. Instead of letting your pals convince you to go out for a pricey meal or a big night out every week, why not all pitch in for a fajita night? Or have a boozy picnic in the park? There are so many options where you’ll pay a fraction of the price of eating or drinking out, and saving your money will be so much easier.
Booked your trip and want to know what to pack? Check out our article on