How to save mone for travelling: The ability to save, and spend, your money wisely directly affects your ability to be a savvy traveller. Once you realise that crisp $10 bill in your hand is better off spent at a tapas bar in Madrid then on a cheap pair of leggings, you’ll make your travel alter ego a much happier camper – or hotel guest, if you manage to save enough. Saving is a skill that has to be learnt, and if you master it now you could be setting yourself up for a lifetime of happy travels.
One of the easiest ways to stop overspending and start saving is to cut out those small purchases you think aren’t hurting your piggy bank, but are in fact detrimental to the health and happiness of little Babe.
Below, we have highlighted some common daily vices whose absence could go a long way in helping you afford that airfare. Here’s our top tips to save money for travelling.
- Stop buying coffee – make it yourself
Sure we all love our morning pick-me-up, but wouldn’t that $3 be better spent on a couple of pastries in Paris? The instant coffee in your office might not be quite as appealing as java with a side of bad customer service served by a university student, but it will give the same results without making a dent in your coin purse.
- Take a packed lunch
If you buy lunch out every day, you’re spending a lot of money on meals that could be saved toward more exciting food options on the streets of Bangkok or on shady east London streets populated by curry houses.
- Tone down the drinks altogether
Just because you’re saving for a trip doesn’t mean life needs to stop completely, but socialising usually comes at a literal cost. Luckily, there are ways to reduce that cost. One easy tip to apply is to ease up on the drinks – and we’re not talking about alcohol. Drinks are such an easy way to throw away small change that we barely realise we’re doing it, but that Iced Tea from the corner store is doing more damage to your bank account than you think.
- Examine your transport options
Do you drive to work every day? Maybe along a toll road that requires an overly-generous, forced donation for every tire that crosses its bitumen? Or perhaps you take some form of underground train network, be it a subway, Tube or metro, when you could walk from home to work.
Removing or reducing your transport costs by walking, biking, or taking public transport instead of driving, is a great way to trim the fat from your expenditure.
Oh the places you’ll go without that daily cup of coffee..
- Tighten your budget on making your body beautiful
Some very reputable surveys we consulted in the writing of this article found that the typical woman spends approximately $15,000 on makeup products in their lifetime. How many extra trips to Hawaii could you afford with that kind of money?
Maybe your beauty vice is not makeup, but we bet there’s something. If you cut your makeup, shampoo or loofah purchases down to the bare essentials you’ll be amazed how much you save as a result. Buy at-home wax kits instead of paying someone to do it, pluck your eyebrows yourself instead of getting them shaped, or dye your hair at home (insert disclaimer here…)
We all need to allow ourselves a guilty pleasure here and there, we’re just saying you could rethink whether or not you need three different flavours of bath salts.
- Socialise at home
It turns out pretty much everything you pay people to do when you go out to eat can be done yourself. Cook a meal together, or spoil your friends with a candlelit dinner of your own making. Opening a bottle of wine from the store – much more purse-friendly than paying to witness a waiter do it – and watching a movie or three on your own TV, snuggling with your fellow yoga-pant wearing friends, is infinitely more cosy than fighting for arm rest space and spending time shhh-ing those teenage girls behind you rudely interrupting your Channing Tatum time.
- Look for deals on Groupon
You can still do super fun things without breaking your budget. Take a look at Groupon and other deal sites to see what’s going on in your area – activities, meals and courses can serve as great entertainment and if you get them 2 for 1, so much the better!
That way, you can have your fun at home and go on a trip too.
Author Bio: Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC.
