I'm still young and broke so I have not travelled the whole world yet, but definitely travelled more than most than people my age. According to popular beliefs, traveling is a very expensive hobby and only those who are rich get to travel the world right? Well, I used to think that way as well.
Here are the frequently asked questions:
1. How did you get to travel so often?
2. Where did you get all the money to travel so often?
3. Are you a rich kid?
4. How much did you spend on your travels?
Here's the truth, I'm definitely not rich, but i'm lucky enough to have my parents supporting me, but that doesn't mean I used my parents' money for travels. Sometimes I even lucky enough to get sponsored or even get paid to travel by tourism boards to places I never been before in exchange of social media postings. However, since I'm a smaller tier content creator, i'm not that lucky enough to always get sponsored to travel. Here's the truth, you don't need to be rich to travel the world, but you definitely need to be smart in budgeting and saving money.
1. TRACK YOUR SPENDING
Yes, we are doing the traditional way. Track your spending!
Understand your priority, do you want spend that $500 on a dress that's gonna last you a year before u got bored of it or $500 air tickets for an experience of a lifetime? If your priority is the later, track every of your spending and make you sure to reserve a little bit of your money for travels.
What I did was, I downloaded this app called "Expense Pocket", basically it's for me to key in every of my spending. After using it for months, I slowly cut down my spending to achieve my ideal budget for travels.
It's definitely a powerful tool to identify the money you wasted on things you don't actually NEED. RECORD EVERYTHING DOWN, You may be surprised on how much money you spent in that period of time. Overtime, you'll slowly pick up the master of tracking your spending, you'll come to realise you have more money to spend on travels than you think you did.
2. CUT DOWN SPENDING ON THINGS YOU DON'T NEED
jeng jeng jeng. We, millienials love to spend on things we don't need, especially things we couldn't afford. The peer pressure of trying to look cool, buying things that's over your budget, is not cool at all! I always live by these words, don't be broke to look rich.
I know I know, the instagram pressure and everyone else have the latest gadgets or latest luxurious bags makes you wanna buy it. If you actually think it through, these "materials" don't last, after a period of time, you'll get bored and you want more, which leads to MORE SPENDING. However, for travels, you will never get bored of the experience you had when you travel, you'll keep looking back at the memories and experience you gained from the trip. No one actually said: " Remember the times I had iphone 5s, i miss that...." lmao. Instead, people actually say:" Omg I miss the times I was in UK, it was fun!"
3. SELL THINGS YOU DON'T NEED
" I dont have anything to sell.." NO, DONT LIE. I'm sure you have a lot of things to sell. I'm sure you have tonnes of clothes that you don't even wear or wore once after years of purchasing it. Sell them at the nearest thrift store or sell it online! There are so many online platform that allows you to sell things online. After you sell your trash online, not only you ease the burden of cluttered space, you have monies to travel too!
4. DO BUDGET TRAVELS
"uh.. i dont wanna do budget travel, I prefer luxurious travel.." So, uhm, then why are you here reading this post? I'm sure you're tight on budget, but have the strong urge to travel, that's why you're here! Am I right or am i right? Your budget travels not necessarily means that you really don't need to spend anything. What I usually do, is wait for air tickets promotion, airlines like Air Asia loves to do promotion and sales, i'm not paid for saying this... I am an frequent flyer of Airasia, so I always wait for promotion to score myself cheap air tickets.
If AirAsia is not exactly that cheap and you wish to find a cheaper alternative, you can use Wego. Apps like Wego scanned through flights around the world and project the best options in terms of price range for you.
Another way to budget your travels is to not splurge on accommodation, if you wish to explore the city, I really don't see the point of you trying to book a 5 star hotel, you're only in hotel for sleep and shower anyway, most of the time you'll be out of the Hotel. So for me, I would suggest getting yourself a cheaper rate of accommodation from online platform like Airbnb, if you would like to save even more, go for alternative like staying in a hostel. Some people may like, "uh what hostels?" well, Hostels are not exactly that bad, when I travelled alone to Taiwan, i stayed in a hostels living with different people in a room, the hostels are clean and people are friendly, you'll make friends along the way too, also it saves you tonnes of money for to explore the city! You can find hostels in Hostel world.
If you're not sure what's your budget for certain destination, you can always use this platform call Budget Your Trip to roughly know the budget of your ideal trip, it may not be accurate, so always do research of places you want to go, opt for free places to visit! What I usually do is I will not shop for anything, until the last 2 days of my trip, but that is solely depends on urself and I'm not a heavy shopper anyway!
If you're not sure what's your budget for certain destination, you can always use this platform call Budget Your Trip to roughly know the budget of your ideal trip, it may not be accurate, so always do research of places you want to go, opt for free places to visit! What I usually do is I will not shop for anything, until the last 2 days of my trip, but that is solely depends on urself and I'm not a heavy shopper anyway!
5. EARN SOME MONEY AS YOU TRAVEL
If you have the ability to earn money as you travel, great! you don't need the hassle to save that much. I personally does travel blogging, sometimes, I do earn a little money when I travel, for example, I do a hotel review in certain country or states, in exchange of marketing, they can either give free-stays, or both free-stays and monetary remuneration. Things like that. If you're not a blogger yourself and wish to earn as you travel, try doing work and travel programme. You get to work in certain country for up to 4 months and travel for a month, Infinity Abroad is one of the agency who helps you to secure the programme, you can check them out! I don't know what skills you may have, but i'm sure there are options.
So I guess that is all, saving money may not be easy, but if you set your priority right, you'll find in a little less difficult to save than yesterday. Try in small steps, sooner or later, you'll be better at it.
That's it, happy travels!
Love,
Alvy
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