Decide where you want to go and conduct research
This should be your first step because you need to have an idea of how much you need to travel to that particular destination. Once you have an idea then start planning and budgeting.
Budgeting
This sounds really obvious but I can't stress how important it is to make sure you put aside a certain sum of money each money on the day you get paid. Consistency is key in budgeting and saving up. If you want to go away in one year from the day you start saving and put away £200 each month that is £2400 in one year of saving! This will allow you to go on a backpacking trip round southeast Asia for about one to two months. Budgeting is all about being reasonable about your fiances and your spending habits. I understand it is not easy to do. You need to be realistic and review your spending habits to see how much disposable income you have left. Your disposable income is money you have left after taxes but also I like to consider it after taking out expenditures towards essentials such as rent and bills. So if I get paid £1500 and pay £500 for rent and £100 on bills, my disposable income will be £900 per month.
It is also important to note that you should always put aside a certain amount of money into your normal saving as you never when you need it! It is very easy to get overly-excited (I'm guilty of this myself) and put ALL your disposable income towards travelling, but unfortunately your travels will end at some point and you want to come back to some money! I have created a quick guide to help you understand how much you can save, if you budget based on 12 months of saving.
£100 per month in 12 months will be £1200
£120 per month in 12 months will be £1440
£150 per month in 12 months will be £1800
£180 per month in 12 months will be £2160
£200 per month in 12 months will be £2400
£250 per month in 12 months will be £3000
£300 per month in 12 months will be £3600
£350 per month in 12 months will be £4200
£400 per month in 12 months will be £4800
£450 per month in 12 months will be £5400
If you don't have 12 months then check out this budgeting plan for 6 months of saving:
£200 per month in 6 months will be £1200
£250 per month in 6 months will be £1500
£300 per month in 6 months will be £1800
£350 per month in 6 months will be £2100
£400 per month in 6 months will be £2400 £450 per month in 6 months will be £2700
£500 per month in 6 months will be £3000
I'm not saying it is not possible to save enough for a travel trip if you have less than 6 months to save, however if you want to be reasonable about it then the best way forward is to have more time.
Bank account
Having a separate bank account purely for your travel savings and use is the way forward. I personally have an account with Starling Bank which was really easy to set up and all done online. Starling is a great bank because it allows you to see how much money you spend each month on various things e.g. food, shopping, fuel and travel so it will allow you to understand your spending habits meaning you can budget better as well. Furthermore, Starling also offer free cash withdrawals abroad in hundreds of countries!
Cut down on eating out and alcohol
This has personally been a big factor in how I have previously managed to save enough to travel. I was spending about £150-200 a month on drinking and eating out. I decided to cut down on this and at most only eat out once a month and not drink alcohol unless it was a special occasion. Especially if you want to be socialising this can be a tough one to do but I recommend letting your friends know in advance that you are saving towards a trip and may not be going out as often in the coming future so you do not have to awkwardly turn down every social invitation!
Shopping
This is definitely the hardest part for me and the biggest culprit in stopping me from saving. I could easily spend anywhere between £200-£400 a month on makeup, clothes, accessories and skincare! Not ideal if I'm trying to save for a travelling trip! So although very hard to do I gave myself a budget of £80 a month to spend on any necessary essentials mentioned above. This meant I had saved between £150-£350 each month. This is something which will be dependent on your normal expenditure. I recommend cutting your spending down to 40% of usual expenditure. Just to give you an example of what I mean, if you normally spend £100 a month, you would cut down to £40 a month and if you normally spend £500 then cut down to £300 a month.
Make homemade lunches for work
I think this one is pretty self-explanatory but so so significant in making a small difference! If you spend £5 on lunch for work each day five times a week that's £25 a week or £100 a month! This is something that can easily be avoided by making your own work lunch. One way I like to save time making lunch for work is to food prep in advance and make my lunches for the next 3 working days meaning I do not have to spend time making it each evening or morning.
Work Work Work
Work as many hours as you can in the time that you are saving up for your travels and cover colleagues for extra overtime. If you cannot work extra in your place of work consider getting a temporary second job and any earnings you make from this go towards your travel. If your work offers pay for any unused annual leave then make sure you leave these until the end of the year so you get the pay for it instead.
If all else fails...
If you find you are unable to do the above for any personal reason, that does not mean you cannot travel for long periods of time. I recommend looking into a travel and work programme. This means that you work in exchange for accommodation, food and pay. There are hundreds of programmes that you can look into but some of the ones that I have recommend looking into are Camp America, Au Pairing, Workaway, Camp Thailand , Camp Canada and Backpacker job board for Australia. This way you can spend your days off traveling around that country but also you get to meet great people through the programme!
Comments