Trip Alertz For Jetsetters, By Jetsetters
What’s not to love about travelling? We would always argue that one of life’s greatest pleasures is venturing abroad (or even just elsewhere in the UK, for that matter) and indulging in our curiosities about each and every city, country, and culture we encounter.
It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to go on holiday with friends or on your own, but keep in mind that doing it on a regular basis can come with a heavy price tag. That’s why you might need to save a lot of money in order to start planning your future voyage.
Here, then, are five ways to get started with saving money in order to make travelling affordable for you.
1. Create a savings plan
If you are serious about travelling abroad on a regular basis, the first thing you need to do is think about making a savings plan. This savings plan can be a normal document, ‘mind map’ or detailed Excel spreadsheet that shows where and how you are spending your money. It can also document how much money you normally make.
By carefully tracking and considering your savings and earnings, you can find out where you may be spending too much money. For instance, you may be paying too much for your groceries, various presents or weekly trips out with your friends.
Try and keep your savings plan as detailed as possible. You may even want to include a calendar function to keep organised about when you do need to spend money.
Combining this with an Excel spreadsheet, you will find that you can make a better-informed estimate about how much you want to (and realistically can!) save per month. That way, you can have enough money to put to the side to be spent on your future holiday or road trip abroad.
2. Consider your cars and transport
If you are thinking about taking a road trip in order to go travelling, it is important that you do not spend too much on your vehicle and consider your fuel costs.
Should you not yet have a vehicle, you may want to consider car finance rather than paying for a car up front, in order to spread out your costs predictably over time.
You may also want to think about whether you could save money on your fuel costs by walking more, rather than always taking out your car. This could help save money in the future, and you could be helping the environment in the process!
3. Sell some items
It is understandable that you may be struggling to save money if you have high daily expenses. That’s why you might want to consider starting a ‘side hustle’, such as freelancing, or going online to a site like eBay to sell some of your items you do not need any more.
This could help save you some money if you put the earnings you make into your bank account to save. Over time, this should build up until you have enough money to support yourself as you go travelling.
4. Avoid restaurants and bars
Going out to a restaurant for food or a bar for a drink can feel great at the start. After all, you get to reward yourself and have some fun with your friends. But this type of fun can come with a price tag. The money you could be saving for your holiday will unfortunately be spent on a night out.
In some cases, you may even spend your savings on something as simple as a work lunch. The best way to save money here is to factor in your grocery list and make a packed lunch.
You might even decide to invite your friends over for a night at your home, where you can make the dinner and they can bring over the drinks. That way, you can stick to your budget and savings plan, but still have fun and not miss out on spending time with the people that you love.
5. Stop buying inessential items
Honestly, it’s completely understandable that you might feel drawn to buying things like books, make-up, coffee, cigarettes and haircuts. After all, you want to feel and look your best. Sometimes, a book purchase might feel like the ideal thing for cheering yourself up!
However, inessential spending is where a lot of the money you could otherwise have saved for travelling is likely to be frittered away.
So, try to stick to the essentials when you create a budget. This should include your food, drink, utilities, and any medicines you require.
The more you end up saving, thanks to decreasing the amount of money you spend on non-essential items, the likelier it is that you will save a good amount of money to spend on your holiday. And if you really are serious about having the money available to go travelling, making such sacrifices is likely to be something you are thankful for having done.
