Hello fellow wonderlusters! If you’re like me, travelling is an important part of my life. I love how travelling gives me the opportunity to rest, relax, and explore the world.
As we all know, travelling is expensive. If you are not careful you can easily go into debt if you do not take the time to plan out your finances before venturing out and exploring the world. Personally, I’m saving for my trips year-round. I like to save my money over time so it seems as less than a “burden” to me. Below are some simple lifestyle tips that I use diligently to save money for vacations.
1. Ditch coffee shops. I’m an avid coffee drinker. However, I do not purchase my coffee from a shop daily. Once in awhile, yes. Daily – NO! Rather, I prefer to make my coffee at home (or in the office). The seemingly “small” savings of say about $2.00/per day adds up and can be used towards a vacation!
For example, $2/day x 30 in one month = $60. If you save $60 for a period of 6 months you’d end up saving $360 towards your vacation!
2.Limit fast food purchases. I do not eat out often. I try and limit my dinner or drinks out to about 1-2 times a week. Eating out is expensive. From ordering your drinks, to appetizers, an entree, dessert and then the tip you can easily end up spending $100 in a night. With that being said I do believe that it’s important to treat yourself so don’t be stingy! Just keep in mind how often you eat out versus how badly you want to go on vacation.
3.Cut back where you can. Fun fact about me; I don’t have a car and I’m an avid public transportation user. Because I don’t own a vehicle, I don’t have to worry about paying for gas, insurance, car maintenance and the like. I’ve taken the money I would have spent on this and put it towards saving for vacations.
Other areas where I choose to cut back on is on weekly/bi-weekly manicure and pedicures and hair salon visits.
4.Do your research. Google is my friend. Google is your friend. Research, research and do some more research when looking for vacation prices that suit your needs. When you are doing online research, don’t forget to set your screen to incognito or private mode. And definitely make sure you’ve deactivated your cookies so the internet cannot track your online vacation search. If you don’t do this you’re at risk of only coming up with search results that are more expensive than what you’d like because it (the Internet) is aware that you are looking for a specific vacation spot.
5.Save what you can. If you don’t have a large amount of money to save, save what you can! No matter how little. I’m a strong believer in living within your means. Don’t go into debt for something that isn’t a necessity.
6.Have a vacation fund. Having a vacation fund has been a game-changer for me. I purposely budget out my monthly finances for my vacations. Every month! Doing this provides me with less stress when saving for a vacation because it’s so easy to do. Like my rent, cell and Internet services, every month I “bill” myself for vacation.
If you have any tips for that you use for saving for a vacation please let me know in the comment section!
xo,
Eseeri
