When I was thinking about all of the places that I would like to visit around the world this year, I began to strategize how I would be funding such extravagant trips. My first thought was to use my credit card and pay for it later, but I came to the conclusion that there must be a better way.
How can you save for a trip instead of charging it to your credit card? In order to save money for a trip instead of charging it to your credit card, you will need to calculate all of your upcoming expenses while also prioritizing what is necessary. After coming up with a total amount, you will need to come up with a plan of action to reach your goal.
This will include saving money where you can on a daily basis and making more of it as much as possible. You will need to keep a close eye on your savings to push yourself toward hitting the final goal in the allotted amount of time.
Traveling to new places around the world on a consistent basis is something that a lot of us wish we could do. However, the only problem that usually stands between you and the entrance of the airplane is money. Most people would immediately think to pay for the expenses with credit for an immediate solution, but there is a much better way.
Instead of piling up debts and credit card bills just to take a few vacations, you can make a plan to save up the amount of money that you need before you book. If you are eager to cover new territories all around the world without messing up your credit score, keep reading for a full guide on how to save money for a trip.
How To Save Money For a Trip
When it comes to planning out a vacation, there are tons of expenses to consider and plan for. You will need to get a plane ticket to your destination and back, pay for a hotel or some other kind of accommodation, make sure that you have transportation, and purchase everything in between from food to souvenirs.
These expenses can total up to quite a large bill, especially if you will be traveling around the world to a country that is far from your hometown. There is no doubt that you would like to have the full experience of a vacation wherever you choose to go, without sacrificing everything that you wanted to do there.
If you are planning a trip to France or Italy where the authentic cuisine is like nothing else in the world, you wouldn’t want to be forced to stay inside of your vacation rental and cook something yourself just like you would at home.
Similarly, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to go out drinking and dancing in Mexico or spoil yourself with a tropical drink inside of a coconut while you lounge on the beach in Jamaica.
The only thing that really comes between you and everything that you would like to do in all of these places is the amount of money that it will cost to do so. Mostly all activities that you can possibly do during travel will require you to pay, and these numbers can really add up if you’re not careful.
When you are planning to visit a foreign country that you have never seen in person before, nobody wants to have the mindset of being frugal and trying to save money while you are in the moment.
So, instead of trying to be minimal while you are on the actual vacation, you can make certain conscious decisions to save up everything that you will need before you go. This way, you will be able to enjoy the destination of your choice without pinching pennies and worrying about how much you are spending.
Take a look at the list of steps down below to get an idea of the process that you can go through in order to make a plan to save money for your next trip, without having to put everything on your credit card and think about it later.
How To Make a Plan To Save Money For a Trip
- Calculate all of your trip expenses from beginning to end
- Compose both short and long term goals to reach this amount
- Commit to your goal by sacrificing spending in other areas
- Do what you can to earn extra income
- Try to save money whenever possible and make it a habit
- Start a travel savings fund and keep track of it regularly
First and foremost, you will need to sit down and calculate all of your trip expenses from beginning to end. This should include literally everything that you will be doing from the time that you step out of your house to when you step back in when you have returned form your vacation.
This would be the time to be very realistic with yourself and your expectations for your trip. If you are looking at first class flights both ways that will cost you an extra two thousand dollars, you might want to settle for business class or economy seats instead.
It is during this process that you should be paying attention to the numbers that you are adding up. While it is true that you would be able to save any amount of money in a longer period of time, you will want to make sure that it actually makes sense in comparison to what you are making, so you are not saving for ten years.
You should really be prioritizing what is important to you as well, aside from what is realistic for the finances that you have. For example, if you are planning tons of activities to do throughout the day and night in your destination, you might be willing to sacrifice the quality of your hotel room.
After all, if you will not be spending much time there anyways and you know you will just be going there to sleep for a few hours at night, there is really no point in going all out in this aspect.
Instead, you can save the majority of your budget for the experiences that you will be having, from delicious foods to endless drink tabs and adventurous guided tours.
Now that you have prioritized and decided which flights you will be taking, where you will be staying when you land, how much you expect to spend on food every day, and which activities you will be participating in throughout your trip, it is time to make some goals in order to push you to reach this number.
These goals should be a combination of short term and long term goals. An example of a long term goal would be to reach the full amount of your vacation savings within a period of 3 months. A short term goal, on the other hand, would be to start making your coffee at home instead of spending twenty dollars a day at Starbucks.
It is very important that you take the process of making goals seriously and that you actually follow through with them. While it is nice to dream about things that you would like to do, you will never achieve them unless you create a plan of action and execute it accordingly.
In order to commit to your savings goals even further, it is recommended that you try to save money in other areas, adding those extra funds to what you have accumulated. Without a doubt, this method will help you get to your target amount much faster than if you were sticking to your old ways.
The best way to come up with a plan to cut down on your monthly spending is to lay out all of your bills and expenses that you are obligated to pay. Obviously your rent and car payments will not be optional, but there are some other things that you can sacrifice for the greater good.
For instance, if you are spending two hundred dollars a week on organic and gourmet groceries from Whole Foods, you can make the decision to save an extra six hundred dollars every month toward your vacation by strategically planning out your grocery shopping with a much smaller budget.
There are plenty of videos and articles online that will give you some great ideas for making delicious budget meals. Additionally, you can choose to shop at a grocery store with lower prices and sales, or even go to a wholesaler like Costco to save in bulk.
Along with spending less on your groceries, you can cut down on eating out if you do so frequently. This tends to be one of the biggest expenses for the average person, and so much money can be saved on a daily basis if you are willing to roll up your sleeves and make your own meals at home.
Some other ways to save money in your daily life include limiting some of the luxuries you enjoy, such as getting your hair or nails done, or getting a massage at the spa. If you are willing to let go of these comfortable habits for the duration of your savings goals, you will be rewarded ten times on your lavish vacation when it’s all over.
If you are able to put a hold on your gym membership and other recurring expenses that are not absolutely necessary for your survival, that will help too. Borrow things where you can instead of buying them, and if you can sacrifice driving you will save by walking or sharing a ride.
Apart from the food and relaxation expenses that you will be incurring throughout the month, you can make a solid effort to reduce the amount that you will see on your utility bills.
While it is true that you don’t have the option to really save money on your rent or mortgage payments, you can try to do everything you can in order to keep them as low as possible.
The main expenses when it comes to utility bills are your heat and air conditioning usages. Whenever possible, you should keep it very low or even off. If you will be leaving the house every day for work, there is no reason why your air conditioner should be running on full blast when no one is there to even feel it.
The same thing goes for all of the lights in your house, as well. When you are not home or when you are in another room, it is best to keep all of the lights off in these areas to avoid paying for something that is not really necessary.
When you are taking showers or washing your hands, try to keep it as short as possible to avoid letting the water run up your bill. While brushing your teeth, it helps to get in the habit of keeping the water off until you need to use it.
By establishing just a few simple habits around the house on a daily basis, your travel savings fund will certainly thank you, even if you have to walk around in a bubble jacket for a few months in the winter to avoid blasting your heater unit.
In addition to saving money where you can and not spending unnecessary funds throughout your daily life, you should also be doing what you can in order to earn more money to add to your savings.
There are so many side hustles to make money for travel, without doing much for it, either. For example, if you have piles of clothes in your closet that you haven’t worn for years, you can start listing them online to bring in some extra cash.
Websites like Craigslist or selling apps such as OfferUp will help you to get rid of all of that dead weight quicker than you would think, and the money that you get can go straight into your vacation fund.
To save money while you are actually on your vacation, you can consider renting out your own place to someone else on a secure site like Airbnb. This way, you will be able to have money coming in, almost reimbursing you for the costs that you are racking up during travel.
You will reach your goal much faster when you are able to not only save money in your daily life, but make it a habit to be frugal. Throughout your journey of saving for your next vacation, you should make it a regular thing to reach for the value packs at the supermarket or avoid the Starbucks line on your way to work.
Throughout all of your efforts to spend less, cut down on bills, and make some extra money on the side, you should have a dedicated travel savings fund. Depending on where you will be saving the money, this could be a savings account with your bank or a jar inside of a safe that is full of cash and change.
Either way, it is best to keep all of it in one place, instead of scattering it around. This will help you to be able to better track what you are saving and how much you have left to go.
For instance, if you have a thousand dollars in cash in the back of your closet, but the rest of your savings are in a savings account that you can access from your phone, you are more likely to get confused about how much you really have.
However, if everything is in the same place, you can go back to it and count it every time you add more funds to it. While you are checking your amounts periodically, you will want to keep a record of what you have saved so far, as well as what you have left.
Being on top of where you are going and how much progress you have been making when it comes to your financial goals will help you to push yourself further toward the target amount that you have set in the beginning of this process.
How Much Should You Save For Traveling?
So, now that you’ve gotten a pretty detailed explanation on the process that you should go through in order to adequately save money for your vacation plans, you might be wondering how much you really need to save for traveling.
While the exact amount will obviously vary between each individual trip depending on where you are going and what you will be doing, there are a few general guidelines that you can use in order to make these determinations while you are creating your plan of action for how you will save.
How Much To Save For Traveling:
- Calculate the total spending amount for the entire trip
- Come up with a daily budget
- Overestimate your total budget
- Save enough to meet your budget with some additional funds
Before you can decide how much you should save before you head out onto your trip, you will need to come up with the total amount that you will spend during the entire vacation.
In doing this, it helps to try to calculate a daily budget. This can be done by researching your destination and finding out what the average prices for food are. If you are able to find a travel blogger who has been to the place where you are going, they might have made a post with a suggestion for that location.
Depending on where you go, you can spend as little as 50 dollars a day on food, drinks, activities, and more.
Once you have figured out how much your budget will be, it is best to overestimate the total amount that you have come up with, just to give yourself some extra room for unexpected costs.
For instance, if you calculate a total trip budget of two thousand dollars for your week long vacation in Greece, you might want to go with a total of two thousand five hundred just in case.
The last thing that you will want to do is sacrifice your day to day living at home just to go on a vacation where you do not have enough money to do everything that you wanted to do.
Aside from additional activities that you might come across in your destination, there are so many factors that can influence what your experience is. Especially when you will be traveling around the world to unfamiliar places, you never know what could happen.
In the event that there is an emergency, you will want to have enough additional funds to be able to cover any expenses or make extra purchases that you didn’t account for. After all, you wouldn’t want to sacrifice your meals for the next two days after something goes wrong and you have to cover a bill.
When you have decided what your overestimated budget will be, you will want to target that amount instead, even with a little bit of extra funds on top of that to be even more safe, if it is possible for you achieve.
It is always beneficial to have more than what you need, so that you will be prepared for anything that might happen, and maybe even splurge on a few extra things along the way that you didn’t account for.
Think about being at home planning out your vacation in Cuba and accounting for twenty dollars of food for each day, and saving that exact amount. If you arrived to your destination and discovered dozens of unique food carts with snacks and desserts, you wouldn’t have enough to get both.
Overall, it is always better to be safe than sorry, and this should always be kept in mind when you are planning your vacation travel fund.
How Can I Save Money During My Trip?
So, once you have effectively come up with a plan on how you will save money to make sure that you are comfortable on your upcoming vacation, you might be wondering how you can save even more money during your trip.
For the extra frugal people who are concerned about how much they will spend while they are actually on the trip, I have put together a short list of tips and tricks that you can follow in order to do so.
How To Save Money During Your Trip:
- Prioritize your activities and expenses
- Find flight deals
- Try to find cheap or free accommodations
- Eat in where you can
The first thing to do while trying to save money on vacation is to prioritize your activities and expenses. For example, if there is a guided tour of a Hawaiian volcano for 50 dollars, but the same trail is open for you to hike on your own, you might be able to skip out on the first experience.
Prioritizing your expenses goes hand in hand with finding cheap flights or even free accommodations. It is not as difficult as it seems to find a low cost flight when you look thoroughly and in the right places online. Even finding the best day to buy plane tickets will save you money.
For the flexible travelers, there are some last minute deals that are offered the same day or if you are willing to rearrange your travel dates.
If you are willing to sacrifice staying in a five star hotel, you can try staying at hostels or even look for a simple place to sleep on a local couch surfing website.
Another great way to find a free place to stay is to locate a house sitting gig online before you get there. This will allow you to stay in someone else’s home while they are gone, taking care of some small responsibilities in return for comfortable accommodations at no extra cost.
You can always stay with family, friends, or distant relatives if you know anyone in the area, but these recommendations were given under the circumstances of traveling out of the country.
While it might not be the most desirable option, you should try to eat in whenever you can during your trip. This is not to say that you shouldn’t go out and experience everything that is authentic to your destination, but you can save some big bucks by staying in for a couple nights out of the week.
In conclusion, there are so many ways that you can save money for your upcoming travel instead of resulting to swiping your credit card.
Although the steps outlined in this article will require sacrifices in some areas, it will definitely be worth it in the end.
With the correct planning process and enough determination to put action behind your goals, you will be able to enjoy your next vacation, knowing that everything is paid for with real money and you will not be taxed for it later down the road.