Saving for a world trip is not always easy. We managed to save a lot with simple adjustments in our daily lives. These are our tips to save for a world trip.
1. Set a budget for the trip
This is the commitment. The budget is fixed, and preferably you name a departure date directly. When we had set our budget and had calculated how much we still had to save, we immediately felt like doing something economical. That may sound crazy, but suddenly 'the higher goal', the journey, feels very close. We realised we were finally going to do it. There is no better motivation to save and to live economically.
2. Choose a good savings rate and put aside a fixed amount every month
After you have calculated the required travel budget, you immediately know how much you still have to save. Therefore, every month, immediately after your salary has been deposited, put a fixed amount in a savings account with a good interest rate.
3. Follow the progress
Evidence that you are doing well. A good savings app which charts your progress will be very helpful. This upward trend was a great motivation for saving well in the coming month.
4. Stop buying
This applies to virtually everything (except the items you need for the trip): Avoid the shopping routes and shopping malls. Are you still in your clothing collection?
Then clean up your wardrobe. You will be amazed at what new combinations you will encounter in your closet without forking out for more clothes.
5. Cook your meals at home
Eating out every day is, of course, expensive (and not particularly conducive to your figure). Budget travellers know better than anyone how much they can save by cooking themselves.
That advantage is extra when you cook together with your house or hostel mates. And shopping at a foreign market or supermarket is an adventure in itself!
6. Become a digital nomad
Freelancers or people with experience as online tutoring, graphic design, programming, consultancy, translation or photography are lucky: if they have a laptop, they can probably work anywhere in the world.
Travelers who do this are called 'digital nomads'. The advantages are many: you are not only assured of an income during your trip, but you can also determine your working hours!
7. Take a part-time job
Has the digital nomad movement got nothing for you? Maybe you are the ideal candidate for a simple job! The possibilities for a job abroad are endless: go behind the bar, teach English, give diving lessons, pick fruit, make coffee, do promotion and sales work, and so on. Special agencies can help you find a job and apply for a visa. After arrival, self-assured travellers can of course also look for a job with their CV in their hand.
8. Do groceries with a list
This will prevent you from buying useless things in a hungry mood and will eventually eat healthier.
For example, we noticed that we wrote cookies and chocolate less often on the shopping list, while we usually threw it into the basket when we had no list to guide us. Do not always choose the 'convenience store'.
9. Hang on the couch
Okay, this sounds very dull. We only want to say that we saved a lot of money by going out less. Watch a movie at home instead of in the cinema, invite friends home instead of the pub and skip the expensive festivals. A festival day (ticket, food and drinks) will cost you 100 euros. There are many free alternatives.
10. Get rid of the cable television
Cable television (or digital TV) turned out to be superfluous for us. We are not real TV viewers yet and the programs that were not much fun.
11. Choose a budget-friendly travel style
Forget about those hotels and organised tours: go backpacking! Budget-conscious backpackers do not take much (logically, it has to fit in a backpack) and opt for cheap accommodation along the way. They also often eat the same as the locals, they stay away longer, and they travel long distances in a relatively short period. If you go backpacking in the low season, you are travelling cheaper. From flights to accommodation and even sights: almost everything costs less.
12. Save your battle with cheap flights
Do not book your flight directly from the first Google search results, but choose consciously and focus on budget airlines. In Europe, you can travel from A to B with a large number of 'budgeted' budget airlines for very little money.
How about, for example, going to Rome, Athens and Istanbul via Malta? Or to start in Berlin and travel to Prague, Budapest and Riga? Or maybe backpacking to Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon is more your style?
13. Go to cheap destinations
Some places in the world are not exactly cheap (hello London, New York and Paris!) But that does not mean that it is so expensive everywhere. Smart budget travellers take the exchange rate into account when planning their trip. And Southeast Asia (think of Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and India) has always been an interesting region for backpackers and budget travellers. Many countries in Latin America are also fantastic with cheap options.
14. Stay away longer
Although it may sound illogical, a longer trip is relatively much cheaper than a short trip. Why? Well, if you have a 'home base' at a particular destination, as a traveller you do not have to pay for transport again and again, and you can benefit from short-term rent instead of single overnight stays in hostels. Moreover, such travellers would like to get to know the culture by doing what the locals do. And these are not expensive tours and day trips, but that means shopping in the local supermarket, cooking and maybe working.
