Money Tip – How To Save Money For Travel

Saving money for travel is easy! You just need to put your mind to it, follow some simple steps, work out how you could save more money, then do it.

Open Up A Separate Web Bank Account Just For Travel Saving.

Open up a web bank account that receives high interest and call it something like “Do Not Touch” or “Ultimate Travel Adventure” or “This Will Help Change My Life”.

Make sure you do call it something different as then when you look at your account online and you see all the money you have in it, you won't be tempted to use it for anything but travel!

The main point about making sure it is a web account is that you generally do not receive an actual ATM bank card to be able to access your money. It makes it harder to access your account which in turn makes it easier to save.

Have An Idea Of Where You Want To Go And How Much It Will Cost.

Some countries cost more to visit than others. As a rough guide, check out the Budget Your Trip website. It offers example daily budgets for many countries in the world.

Other websites, such as the Lonely Planet or Tripadvisor forums would be able to give you an idea of costings.

Don't forget to chat to your family and friends as they may have been to the place you want to go to before. You can never get enough information.

Make Up A Spreadsheet Of Approximate Costs.

Now that you have an idea of your daily expenditure in a country that you want to visit. Work out how much it will cost. Put it all in a spreadsheet. Round up the amounts also so that you end up with more travel money in the long term!

For example, Airline Tickets: $1000 return; Train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai – $30. Visiting Bed Supper Club in Bangkok just because you want to: $100;

Write down everything you can think of, that you would want to do. Then start saving.

Every time you put some money into that bank account, do a running total, save up enough to pay off one item first. Then move on to the next item.

Put A Percentage Of Your Pay Away Every Pay Day.

Work out exactly how much you could spare. If your outgoings are high, then put away a low amount. Or lower the outgoings.

We generally put away 20% to 30% of our pays straight into the Travel Fund before we even pay our rent or bills or buy food or go out. May seem like a lot when you first start, but will you really miss that amount of money?

Of course, the above is just a guide. Just make sure you put money into your bank account every pay day. It all adds up.

Spend Less (But Still Have A Life)

Locking yourself in your room now is not the way to save for travel or anything else for that matter. When we were saving for our long term trip, we still had a social life.

The most important thing to remember here is to spend less. If you would normally go out every night to eat dinner, you still can. Choosing restaurants that provide $10 steaks instead of $30 steaks means you can pocket that $20 and put it straight into your travel savings account.

Same goes for drinking. Stick with BYO restaurants and pay for the corkage, or only hit the happy hours.

Another way to save money when socialising is with the group coupon buying that is in nearly every country in the world. These days you can get a 3 course meal for 2 people for $29. Buy up and then you can go out to fancy restaurants!

Don't forget to take your own lunch to work too. And drink the free coffee from work. Sure, it may not be as tasty as the $5 freshly made latte from the coffeeshop down the street, but, that is another $5 you can put into your Travel Fund.

If you follow some or all the steps above, changing them to what works for you, saving for travel becomes really easy. We still do it now, even on the road!

Do you have any good suggestions for saving money to travel?