After checking out traveller blogs on the internet, have you ever wondered? Man!! how did they manage to travel so many places? Do they have separate savings just for travel or how did they manage to book such expensive hotel accommodations, do so many adventures in their trip and all that? Well, you are not alone in this.
After doing some extensive research, getting ideas from friends, we have made up a list of our top tips on how you can travel and still manage to do it in your budget. We hope these tips help you plan your travel efficiently and save money at the same time.
- Always track your spending
If you want to save some money for travelling or for anything for that matter. You need to first understand your expenses. You need to be clear on where your money is going. Make a spreadsheet of all your expenses and you will be definitely surprised to see where your money is going.
We started making expense sheets to track our expenses and we noticed that we could save at least couple of hundred dollars per month by cutting on some unnecessary expenses and use that money to travel instead.
- Cutting on Coffee
We love Starbucks!! Well, who doesn’t? Having coffee everyday at Starbucks will easily add up to 150$ USD per month. Even though we were not drinking coffee everyday, when we started tracking our expenses we noticed that at least 70$ was going per month just by having coffee at a fancy coffee shop.
We cannot start our day without a Coffee. So we decided to get instant coffee powders from India and make it ourselves. You can also get good instant coffee powders in Costco or Target or even Walmart.
- Cook more
We strongly believe you can save lots when you start cooking yourself and plus its more healthier to have home cooked food. We realized we were spending a lot for dining after tracking our expenses. Just by cutting down on eating more at the restaurants helped us save a lot. Even if you are not good in cooking, there are plenty of helpful videos on great and simple recipes which you can make just by watching videos on youtube or even food blogs.
- Drive less and save on gas
Having a car can be very expensive to maintain. Especially when you have premium cars like Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc. With insurance, service maintenance, fuel, etc lot of money can go into just maintaining the car. It is not like we are recommending to get rid of your car, but instead we recommend to try walking more if you can and avoid cars as much as possible. Walking is also good for health and you can also chose public transportation if you want to go for longer distance. We have a friend who doesn’t own a car and it’s been more than a year since he started his first job and he manages just by using public transportation.
The other helpful tip is getting rid of your car and buying an electric car instead and that way you can save a lot on fuel. With the fuel price soaring like crazy, electric cars might be initially expensive but if you calculate your expense on engine oil change, regular servicing, electric cars are much cheaper in the long run. If you need car for longer distances, there is always an option to rent one.
- Open Savings Account
We consider this very helpful. You should always separate some amount from your regular salary and put that into savings account. You only use this account when it’s absolutely necessary. We also recommend keeping aside at least 100 – 200$ USD per month for travel. It will actually be very helpful when you are planning to travel. This will be more like your piggy bank for your travel fund.
- New Credit card
Having a travel credit card can be very helpful for your Hotels and Flights. We personally use Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit card to gather points that can be redeemed for flights and hotel reservations.
- Couchsurfing
This is an amazing idea to save money especially if you are travelling alone. All you need to do is create an account on the website and meet the locals and get free accommodation. This is also a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and fellow travellers.
If you have a place to stay you can also host travelers and that way you build your network as well as it will be very helpful when you are actually looking for a host. You can visit Couchsurfing site for more details.
- Advance Reservations
Always plan ahead and well in advance. Making last minute reservations can cost you a lot. It will only be helpful when others cancel and the chances of you getting that cancelled reservation are still very minimal. Also at the same time if you book way too in advance can cost you a lot as well. So you have to look for all the options before you make your reservation.
- Research more & Plan
Once you decide where to go, make sure you do thorough research on the top attractions, hotel accommodations, flights, restaurants, etc. We always prepare a spreadsheet on where we need to go, how far the destination is, places to eat, etc. Planning this way will not just help you save money but so cover all the top attractions. Look for an accommodation only when you think you will need more than a day to cover top attractions.
- Travel Insurance
Never forget travel insurance when you are travelling especially Internationally. Travel Insurance will protect you against any urgent cancellations, injury, theft or even if you fall sick. There are tons of travel insurance companies available online and you can just chose the ones which works best for you.
We hope these tips were helpful and by following these simple tips, we are confident that you can definitely save hundreds of dollars and make your travel dreams become more of a reality. Always remember to monitor your expenses and make sure you put some money aside every month for your savings from your regular paycheck.
Also don’t forget to check out our Destinations page for more travel guide.
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