Saving to Travel Around The World

These are my first thoughts on saving money to travel around the world. I have given this some thought after looking at a couple of other blogs for tips about saving, there are so many which talk through ways to save money with coupons etc. There are not so many which talk about not spending money, not impulse buying and only buy what you cant live without.

Saving involves not spending

Savings with Sadie has some interesting money saving tips for you Americans out there. How I save money has some great tips on budgeting and saving long term which is also well worth a read. Fantastic, we learn how to save money when we go out and buy our groceries, toiletries and every thing else we need. For me what so many of these blogs do not address are the impulses that we have (apologies if I have not delved deep enough), I’m not talking about the things we need – I’m talking about the things we WANT. How do we overcome these impulses? How do we use the budget that we have effectively on a day to day basis to manage our spending and save more money. I think about what I really want, I really want to go backpacking around the world!! There are so many ways of implementing the budgets we make, most are simple, some more complex and each person will go about it differently! I am not the most organised person so I have to find ways of controlling my impulse spending using simple reminders of what I really want.

Take time to think about your long term goal

One of the things that really helps me is working on this blog. I spend between 10 and 20 hours a week writing posts, researching and developing my blog. For a start I am not out spending during this time but more than that it’s a thought process. This post alone is making me think about the things which I do to help me save money, it gives me an understand of where my money goes and how to save more. It enables me to stay focused on my long goal, to travel around the world. Focusing on that for a few hours a day means I never forget that I need to watch how much I spend. You do not have to write a blog, simply planning your next backpacking trip, reading other travel blogs and books will keep you thinking about your wanderlust.

I am also writing my travel blog as a diary, a place I can think through my journey around the world. During the research I am doing I am writing posts about my plan, my journey and the places which excite me. While I am planning my trip around the world I am finding out snippets of information which I can use on a daily basis to help stop me spending. For example, the traditional fish and chips which I had yesterday because I did not make a sandwich before I left the house cost around £5. That same £5 could be just over a day on the road in Vietnam or Cambodia, did I really need those fish & Chips yesterday? Suddenly I don’t remember them tasting that good!! The £80 on petrol which I have spent in the last few days driving around the UK could be a a good contribution to Bungee jump in Australia or New Zealand. Have not quite decided where I want to do my first Bungee Jump, all I know is i want it to be BIG. Taking the time to think about the money I am spending now in comparison to what it could get me in a year is a real eye opener and makes you think twice about spending it.  Just think of the stories and the memories that money could give you, there are endless possibilities.

Find a way to pay off your dept as quickly as possible

If your anything like me, a 25 year old graduate then you may have also enjoyed the banks throwing money at you while you where at university, thanks banks I ad a great time but you are delaying my travel. Credit and saving are interconnected. There is little point in saving money when you have dept. You are paying more money on your dept than you are making on your savings so it makes sense to get our dept paid off as quickly as possible and save later. This is painful, you feel like your money is going no where, the truth is it has already gone somewhere but it really doesn’t feel like it. I try not to think about what I have done in the past but what I can do in the future as soon as that dept has gone. I am in the process of clearing my dept, I have moved it to 0% and I am saving my self about £50 a month. I am travelling in a year so that £600 saving could be an extra internal flight in South America, or an extra month on the road in Asia or . . . . .  well, you get the idea. When it comes to dept, think about the future.

If your going to save make it fun!

Lets face it saving sucks, you spend most of your time working hard to save. You then put it into the bank and watch grow, ok that bits kinda fun i suppose!! You cant go out and do things apart from the one treat a month you have allowed your self. Your thinking, how can I make saving fun? You make it fun by making it hard core, spend as little money as possible, work out how much money you actually need to survive (remember there is a mental aspect to survival too!). How cheap can we make the weekly shop? What can we do that doesn’t cost anything?

Weird moment – Climbing tree’s has just popped into my head. I’m 25!! But I recon this could be an afternoon well spent! You have to find a tree which is suitable and you like the look of, work out a route, then get down and get home safe. That sounds like an afternoon gone to me, could be quite fun too.

Set your self mini targets with mini rewards. If your going to hit it hard core but you like to eat well my guess is you will have a shopping budget of around £20/$33 per week for food. If you only spend £10-12/$15-20 a week for 2 weeks you are able to go out for a nice meal. Something like this is a great tip and will keep you sane when you are saving long term.

Dont buy anything you could live without

Make sure everything you buy you can use long term. Basicaly dont spend any money on something which is going to stay at home collecting dust for a year while you are travelling around the world. If its only six months until you travel and you need some new trainers, don’t spend £100 on some top runners, why not buy some good quality walking trainer/shoes which can go everywhere with you. Simple ain’t it?!

Sure you can quite easily over complicate saving. Big extensive budgets which tell you you can only spend 2 pence a minute or not go out for a month. Don’t get me wrong there is always a place for a budget. I find that its best to make it simple day to day,  try and make your life as cheap as possible, keep a record of your spending and just stop spending when you spend to much. Simple . . . . . ?

Saving to travel is not hard

For me impulse spending will never go away, I just try to manage it. Saving is not hard if you really want the money for something important, its not about what you cant have while your saving its about what you can have after, your future and the life you want to live.

Travelogue has some more tips for saving money when travelling, interestingly he has some very simular veiws to me. There is also alot more on his site too as he has been travelling for nearly 10 years, I will be taking some time to have a look around for sure.

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