Saving to Travel: 5 Steps to Fund your Trip

Handling Money Before Traveling

The biggest inhibitor for most people when considering travel is money.  The travel industry, airlines, private jets, high lifestyles and tourism agencies have done their level best to convince the populace that travel is expensive and requires huge money investments to do. It makes the idea of saving to travel daunting.

However, nothing could be further from the truth.  Generally, comfortable travel only costs fifty dollars or less a day, depending on the location.  People traveling on a shoestring budget can even manage it on less.

Saving to travel is wise and doable.  There are only a few basic steps needed to ensure you have enough funds to see the entire world. 

• Budget
• Equate
• Earn
• Save
• Plan

Affiliate Disclosure: Leftfade Trails contains affiliate links, so using services or products through these links supports the website, at no extra cost to the user. All links are to tested services and products designed to aid travelers on their journeys. Some links specifically connect to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate this website earns from qualifying purchases.

Budgeting Expenses

The first step when saving to travel is the most uncomfortable.  Create a list of all your daily expenses.  Calculate the cost of living, rent, car payments, phone plans, utility bills and medicine.  These central necessities likely take up the bulk of your monthly earnings.

Afterwards, calculate out the extraneous expenses.  This includes entertainment, eating out, drinks, cigarettes, idle purchasing and impulse buys.  

The money that’s left over on a month-by-month basis is your baseline net savings.  Unless you earn a large amount and save aggressively, this might not seem like enough to travel on. 

However, with a few changes, this probably is.  

Creating a Travel Budget

The next step involves your upcoming travel budget.  This is done by calculating the flight ticket, lodging and cost of living in a target destination.  You might be surprised to find out that this cost is probably far less than the standard cost of living in a first world country.  The number listed here, along with the time you want to spend traveling is your target goal.

Track your spending as much as possible and make decisions and estimates based on how you use your money.  People who are more aware of spending money tend to be far less willing to spend impulsively.  One trick is to look at spending and earning budgets nightly as part of a before-bed routine.  This system makes impulse buying extremely unlikely, since you’ll have to confront your short-term gratification with a long-term financial effect.  

Piggy Bank Banking

The best way to keep an eye on finances is by opening a separate bank account where money marked for travel goes.  Treat this like a bill, where payments are automatically put into the account and then left untouched.  

When saving to travel, this system allows a person to avoid being fatigued by daily calculations.  This also has the advantage of finding a travel-friendly bank account.

Travel friendly bank accounts are accounts which support travel habits, including cards with travel rewards, savings accounts with high earning rates or banks which don’t charge for ATM withdrawals.  It is also important to avoid banks which charge maintenance fees, which puts an unnecessary drain on finances during the saving process.

The secret to this method of saving is to never break the piggy bank.  If money has gone in, earmarked for travel, don’t touch it.  That money will be worth far more when it’s being used for a Japanese festival, an Australian barbeque or Saudi Arabian desert-bike race.  

Equating

When calculating how much you want to travel, it’s important to value currency spent abroad in comparison to currency at home.  For example, a $100 dollar meal eating out with friends is worth nearly a week of lodging in the mountains of Cost Rica.

Money spent at home is pleasant, but it is usually used for comfort.  The vast majority of funds I’ve spent in the United States are largely not memorable or emotionally important.  However, the twenty five dollars I didn’t spend on eating out got me all the way to Machu Picchu for a three day trek.  The fifty dollars I didn’t spend on streaming services earned me a solid four nights in Paris for Bastille Day.  Generally, people are happier when spending money on experience rather than goods. Experiences while traveling make inherently more interesting and potent memories.

This mentality of equating money at home with adventure is a keystone when it comes to repurposing your wealth.  Always calculate how much more your money is worth abroad and it becomes much easier to reach your savings goal.  

Never forget that travel is something you CAN afford.  While it’s true that lower income might mean a slower savings and a later trip, it remains possible the entire time.  

Earning

There are countless ways to earn money.  Everyone has a job which aids in their financial stability and survival.  When saving to travel, your main source of income is your best and primary tool.  If possible, maximize your earnings in this time period.

Extra Income

One way to increase earning rates for a short time is by picking up an extra job.  This can include working overtime, doing online side-work, taking on some extra shifts or finding online work.  In all these cases, money tends to start piling up much faster.

Selling Goods

Many long term travelers forgo their bulky earthly possessions.  While this might seem unthinkable for some, the reality is that humans don’t need much to survive and thrive.  There’s a good chance that selling furniture, electronics and other goods online through Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, Estate Agencies, Ebay or bidding sites will net a tidy profit.  All these earnings can be put towards your saving to travel fund.

This strategy has the secondary advantage of minimizing storage costs.  While friends and family are probably willing to store a few boxes, it’s an unnecessary drain to pay for storage facilities.  Selling unneeded items simplifies life, cuts down on the cost of storage, also decreases the cost of repairing worn goods, makes it easier to travel with minimal luggage and earns a fair bit of money.  

Remote Work

In the modern age, people can work remotely for a large part of their lives.  This is extremely helpful for those who adopt travel as a lifestyle.  Even for people just getting started, it might be wise to find remote work starting at home which you eventually take on the road. This ensures your final budget can continue to have earnings added to it, even after the adventure begins.

Saving

While Earning is the primary factor in obtaining money, most people tend to struggle far more with saving money.  This is due to many reasons, the chief among them is constant advertisements, the ease of online spending, the gradual promotion of impulse buying and unexpected expenses.

However, if a person can learn how to effectively save money, they can be ready for their trip much sooner.  Saving to travel requires some discipline, but mostly involves developing conscious habits.

Don’t Eat Out

This is where people tend to lose the vast majority of disposable money.  For the average American, eating out costs the price of transport (gas), the cost of the food and potentially a tip.

Eating out is an enormous, often instinctive expense.  It is one of the areas where people can save the most.  A nice dinner out once a month is fine, but nightly meals out add up significantly.  

This goes double for coffee.  Coffee at home is a miniscule effort and expense.  It takes someone with a water boiler only a couple of minutes to make a Cup of Joe.  But drip-coffee at cafes are a sinfully high expense.  When saving to travel, get your caffeine from the kitchen.

Home Meals

Not only is this financially beneficial, it also tends to be better for health.  By cooking at home, people tend to save large amounts of money, especially when making healthy foods such as meats, vegetables, beans and rice. 

If you’re not a terribly skilled cook, now is an excellent time to learn.  Cooking is a wonderful and handy skill to have, which will transition into life on the road.  I’ve cooked in every country I’ve lived and always been happy with the foods I’ve created.  I tend to make bulk meals, meaning one cooking session usually makes four or five meals for the week

For people just learning, there are cooking tutorials online.  I recommend looking specifically for recipes that only require twenty minutes or so.  Anything further becomes a difficult time investment for busy people.

Free Entertainment

Disney +, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock Premium, Philo, HBO Max, Sling TV and a dozen other minor players have started a major entertainment war on the marketplace.  

Absolutely none of it is necessary.  Youtube travel vlogs and a library card will entertain a person for a few months at almost no cost.  

So binge whatever shows you’re interested in before you cancel your service.  Streaming will still be showing plenty of high-quality TV shows when you get back, but there’s no reason to be losing money to them right before a big trip.

Don’t Drive

Cars are one of the most impressively expensive parts of a modern human’s life.  Between paying for the car itself, gas, car insurance, maintenance and parking, a single vehicle racks up a hefty toll.

Realistically, many people need a car to function in society.  It may be hard to work without a personal vehicle available.  But if a car can be sold, this is one of the absolute best ways to save thousands of dollars almost overnight.  

Phone Plans

Phone plans are another bill which has steadily grown over the years.  People spend hundreds of dollars yearly on phone plans without a large difference in coverage or internet speed.

In reality, this isn’t necessary.  Though I use a phone number linked to an online account, I haven’t paid a phone bill since 2015.  

It is possible to move to a much cheaper phone plan, but it might be better to cancel it entirely.  Your current plan likely doesn’t have coverage abroad without extreme charges anyway.  

For times when I do need data internet connections, I simply purchase pay-as-you-go SIM cards.  These are very helpful for international  communication when necessary.  Likewise, using WIFI and messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram allows me to stay in touch with people across the world.

If you are concerned about keeping your current number, it is possible to Port your number to Google Voice for a fee of 20 dollars.  The number will remain connected to your Gmail account and keep ported back for an additional fee, possibly years later.  

An important side note: Make sure to avoid putting your phone in “roaming” mode while abroad, or your phone company may charge you substantially.  

Second Hand Goods

The reality of travel is tough.  That is, traveling is tough on goods.  Backpacks and clothing generally take a dusty beating at one point or another, after going through different parts of the world.  

With this in mind, it’s best not to wear exceptionally fine or flimsy fabrics.  Designer brands tend to attract unwanted attention while abroad and they don’t hold up well to the rigors of travel.

Buying the necessary second-hand goods for your trip allows a person to have attire and gear that can take a beating without quality diminishment.  Also, traveling with second hand goods decreases the value lost if anything is broken or stolen.  Of course, second-hand goods in general are outright cheaper than things that are bought new.

The only exception to this is your backpack or suitcase.  I always recommend buying these new from trusted brands, since they tend to take a beating on the road.  A sturdy, secure bag is a huge relief while abroad.  

Drinking, Smoking and Snacking

During my graduation year in University, I worked a night job at a plastic recycling factory from 11 PM to 3 AM.  

Every shift was loud, hot and dangerous, but it paid extremely well.  I was packing away considerable money, but stressing myself out enormously in the process.  During breaks, I went through unhealthy snacks, a few cigarettes and a couple of beers with my coworkers.  

I kept doing that until one of my coworkers pointed out that I would reach my financial goal in just two weeks if I quit all my vices.  

I ran the numbers and found out he was wrong.  If I stopped everything unhealthy, cold turkey, I would reach my financial goal in just eleven days.

So I did.  And while it was an unpleasant eleven days, I was gratified to have so much more money packed away at the end. I was even happier to earn back considerable time in my life while saving to travel.

Travel Rewards Card

One of the extremely good ways to utilize money while traveling is through Travel Reward Cards.  These cards provide cash-back bonuses for travel-oriented purchases, most especially flights.  Travel cards also have the advantage of not charging for different currency transfers.  It takes some time to shop around for a proper travel-rewards card, but doing so can save incredible amounts of money.  

It is likely your current bank has a Travel Rewards Card, so be sure to check with them.  But also don’t be afraid to shop around and look for a different banking service working harder to earn your business. 

Plan Cheap

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, travel isn’t expensive.  It’s supremely affordable.

The absolute best way to travel cheaply is by planning cheap trips.  

Build a network of people for lodging advice to lower the cost of lodging, look at couchsurfer programs, check out lodging volunteer opportunities, buy plane tickets in advance or through special promotions and be ready to make your own food while living abroad.  

During my time in Macedonia, I stayed with a family who only asked me to provide weekly cleaning services.  In exchange, I had a balcony view apartment overlooking Lake Ohrid.  I ate out like a glutton for that entire month.  But by the end, my total expenses only amounted to $203.09 USD.

After Saving to Travel

Overall, traveling doesn’t cost much.  It is inevitable that a person must find a place to stay, a method of transport and food to eat.  But all these expenses can be minimized while savings and earnings at home can be compiled.  Travel is not for the rich.  Experience is not just for the wealthy.  Both belong to the intrepid and willing. 

Read about firsthand, slightly-impoverished travel experiences on the Leftfade Trails Travel Blog

Try using these resources for cheaper flights, accommodations and more.