Adventures are amazingly fun. Travel is terrific is for the soul. Sadly these things cost money. Somewhere along the line you need to pay. Short trips, long trips, road trips. It all costs the dollars. We do subside our wanderlust when at home by doing shorter road trips around and urban adventures. Still we need to pay for petrol/train fares, food, coffee and wine.
To help you Travel More, Explore More in 2017 here are our top 5 ways to help you save money for traveling (or beer. We won’t judge you).
1- Knowledge is power.
Where is your money going? Maybe it’s rushing out of your wallet without you knowing. Your first step is rather boring but it is necessary. Find your money, know it’s weakness and gain control. #bossbitch moment.
Look for outdated direct debits, over spending issues and generally where your money is going. Do you really use that gym membership? The simplest way to do this is to put your money in vs your money out on a spread sheet. Or use an App to do that for you. Because you’re too busy planning your next big adventure.
YNAB is getting great reviews for just this. “You Need a Budget’ app goes beyond just showing you what you spend money on, it aims to change your habits and behaviors. It’s a per month fee but you can trial the app for 34 days. Which is what I’m doing.
2- It makes Cents. Save your coins.
We have two jars. One is locked down tighter then Alcatrez. This jar gets all our fancy fun loving gold coins. A second loose lided jar gets the silver coins. Once a month this silver coin jar gets deposited into the bank and whatever funds are in here goes directly into our super secret saving account (secret from our daily spending)
At the end of every day the wallets, pockets and backpacks receive a complimentary strip search and any coin contraband is removed and allocated to the correct prison jar. We use these funds to pay for fun things like beer and wine when we are on the road.
How much can you save? Well it depends on your coinage and jar prison. In gold coins we commonly end up with $400-500AU. Silver coins I tend to pilfer for coffee emergencies.
3 – Stripper Tips
I know even exotic dancer needs their tips. It’s a sacrifice that we’ve somewhat willing made. $5 notes are the smallest note in Australia. This is another action where we elect to put these aside in a special place to be used at a time when needed. The funds quickly add up when you use notes. By using the lowest note in your local currency you don’t feel like you are stashing away loads of cash and missing out on important purchases like ice cream. Or exotic dancers.
4- Automatic Savings
This is a great way to have money leave your account before you are even aware of it. There are a few options. You maybe able to opt to have your employee split your pay into multiple accounts.
Automatic savings from your wage – Via employer or bank
Automatic savings app like the below.
Acorn * – Investing is no walk in the park, but Acorns makes it easy peasy. This app invests your spare change by rounding up your expenses to the nearest dollar and invests the extra into a diversified portfolio. It’s a lot of fun watching your little portfolia grow.
* This is a referral link. If you sign up I get a whopping $2.50! Woo hoo.
5 – Don’t give up on life.
Saving is unsexy. It’s not fun. It means that somewhere along the line you are sacrificing something for the greater good. Very few of your friends will actually accept this part of your life. Those same friends will also be the ones who complain about how “lucky” you are to travel.
One of the big things we actively do is not give up on life. We don’t lock ourselves away and refuse to spend a single penny. We still go out and get coffee. We still live or lives and have a lot of fun. There’s no use sitting at home moping and being miserable while you’re trying to save. That’s the perfect way for you to break your saving plans and go on a splurge.
So there you have it. Some really simple, life changing ways for you to start saving money for travel without sacrificing your sanity. On this final note we also have a super secret squirrel account. This is an account that we don’t touch and use for our flights, tour bookings, accommodation etc. Going on the mantra that money not seen is money not missed.
If you have any amazing, mind blowing money saving tips & tricks let us know in the comments below.
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Just a little FYI- this article was written in partnership with me and me! Any and all views and opinions expressed are entirely my own based on personal experiences when traveling and are honest and factual without any bias. There are no spammy whore affiliate links here. Any links to websites are for your help only.
Jeanette
Founder, Principal Blogger & Coffee Drinker
Coffee Lover | Travel Blogger | Horse Rider | Adventure Racer | Donut Dame. Generally nice lady-enjoys wine, indie movies & random dance parties in my tent.
Nice list of ‘saving tips’. I’ve always been a good saver but spend a little too much money on good food. jars for saving up shrapnel I will give a try. Thanks for sharing! Safe travels!
I feel you – as much as I would want to travel the world full-time, I just can’t. Money is and will always be an issue. But as you pointed out here, there are plenty of ways to save and set aside funds for travel. It is not fun but if you are truly dedicated to traveling, you can find ways to ensure that you are setting aside money. That automatic savings option is a great idea because sometimes, we might forget to allot the money we need for travel. Trying to look for extra sources of income can be of help too!
This is a great list! I normally do automatic savings on my debit card so that with each purchase, a small amount is added to my savings and that’s helped me a lot. I definitely need to check out YNAB though…especially since it has a free trial! I’m trying to save up for a trip this summer, so this is perfect.
I’ve used acorn before and it’s a great way to save money without even knowing you’re doing it! Which reminds me, actually, that I should go check how much I have saved right now 🙂 I’d be interested in checking out the YNAB app as well, but to me it doesn’t make much sense to pay for something that’s going to help me spend less.
It’s the tool you’re paying for. It has great analytics, helpfup tips & tricks etc. It’s a really indepth program.
These are all so great!! I’ll definitely be checking out the Acorn app website to read more about it!
I should be more careful while I am travelling not to spend my money. Before I left I sacrificed going out to save. I never had a money jar but that is a great idea 🙂
Great post! I did so many of these before I left. I especially love the saving $5 notes. i did it with £2 coins and have over £500 in my jar in the end.
Nice list of ‘saving tips’. I’ve always been a good saver but spend a little too much money on good food. But I don’t drink, so make lots of savings that way. I’ve got jars for saving up my shrapnel (coins) too. Thanks for sharing! Safe travels!
Great tips. My family once took a trip together paid for entirely from a coin jar so it’s definitely worth doing! I agree, saving is boring but the automatic one can be fun when you forget how much you’ve been saving!
These are some fantastic tips, thank you for sharing 🙂 I need to actually learn how to save! Coin jars are always helpful and we opt for nights in with a cheap bottle of wine – still important to enjoy life!
Great attitude for saving money. The stripper tip jar is a riot! We also keep a change jar, amazing how quickly that adds up! Travel is a priority for our time and money.
Some great tips. With three kids we seem to haemorrhage money! I like the sound of the apps – will check those out.
I spend all my money on plane tickets rather than clothes LOL! I like to think I’m pretty good at saving. We have some coin jars at home and I keep telling my boyfriend that there’s got to be at least one night in a hotel in vietnam in that jar LOL
You have some good tips there, I love the jar idea. I have jars full of coins but I have them separated by currencies. But I might take your idea and create one for a travel fund. Every penny counts!!!! We are lucky, we have a very fancy coffee machine in our house but we do still go out for a cheeky wine 🙂
With everything I purchase, I think: do I need it? If I would travel for a year, would I take it or even keep it? Usually the answer is no and I do not buy it. It also helped me a lot to finally get good insight into my spending pattern and to know exactly how much everything costs. I hope your tips will help others too!
Whilst you’re sitting at home hiding away and not spending money, you could be writing your blog! I’m going to check for saving apps right now, see if they can help me save for my next trip!
We don’t sit at home and hide!