If we had it our way, we’d be travelling 24/7 and living our best life, but we are probably going to have to win Lotto be able to do that. If you’re looking at planning your next overseas adventure but you’re a bit light in the money department, we’ve put together some hacks we live by to help us head overseas whenever we get the chance.
Set a budget for where you’re going
Before you do anything, you need to do two things: 1) pick a location and 2) set a budget.
Figuring out the costs for flights, accomodation, food, activities, transport, spending and anything else you want to ticket off your bucket list will help you nail down how much you need to save. Once you have a rough budget, you can start looking at where the money for your trip is going to come from.
Open a separate savings account
Setting up a savings account strictly for travel is one of the best ways to keep your money separate. Look at your weekly budget and decide what you can afford to put away each week, then set up an automatic-payment so you can mindlessly deposit money into the account.
Have a spare $20? Over a year, that quickly amounts to just over $1,000 with $30 totalling $1,500. No matter how little or how much you can put in each week, before you know it you’ll have a nice lump sum to put towards your trip.
Give yourself enough time
Time is key. When you aren’t made of money, one of the best ways to make sure you actually get to take that trip is to plan it a year or so out so you have enough time to save.
This is a great way to save if you are planning on taking an expensive trip, want to add some luxury or you’re travelling for an extended period of time. It is friendly on the wallet and you won’t need to worry about any unexpected life costs derailing your savings.
Cut your costs
You know what that means – it’s time to cut down on buying lunch, coffee, clothes and anything else you’ve deemed a ‘necessity’.
The average coffee costs $5 and if you’re getting one a day to make it through the work week, that is well over $1,000 a year you could be stashing away for your trip to Italy. We know its hard, but cutting back to only purchasing your ‘necessities’ twice a week will help keep you and your bank account happy.
Do some research
Research, research, research. Be sure to compare flights and accomodation costs across a few different websites and if you’re booking through a travel agent, it is a good idea to enquire with two or three to see what deals they are able to offer. If you’re taking a solo trip, group tours are a great way to cut down on costs and meet new people. Companies like G Adventures, Topdeck & Contiki offer awesome tours around the world so you’re sure to find something to your liking.
We also recommend checking out STA Travel who offer layby options on certain flights, accomodation and tours.
Carry cash
This tip works for some and not for others, but the base of it is to look at your spending. If you don’t look at your balance after your bills have gone out, then carrying cash and using it as your ‘entertainment/eating out/need coffee to survive’ budget will force you to keep an eye on the funds.
One of our Her World staffers lives by this rule and jets overseas every year because of it. Her trick is to try and leave a certain amount (whatever your budget allows) on your eftpos card so when your next pay comes in, you can allocate any overflow to your travel fund. What might be $50 into your savings one week could be $100 the next.
Take a friend
So technically this isn’t a tip to help you with your savings, but travelling with a like-minded buddy can save you money in the long run.
Accomodation, food, transport and activities can be a lot cheaper with two people because you are essentially cutting the costs down the middle. In some cases, places offer discounts if you are booking for three or more people at once. Planning with a friend will also help keep your budget in-line if you both set deadlines for when you need to book your trip.
We say its the perfect time to start planning that girls trip!
How do you save when you’re planning your next adventure?
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Written by Emily Blake
The source of our #fomo, Emily is constantly jetting overseas. A coffee aficionado, you’ll most likely find her swiping right on Tinder and daydreaming about her next adventure.
Favourite karaoke song: Wonderwall by Oasis
Honestly makes me want to jump on a plane right now. I love travelling and even did a travel and tourism course when I finished high school, pretty much for the fun of it. Made me want to go everywhere.
These are some great tips.
What fantastic very do-able ideas… We have never been on a holiday let alone overseas and it’s always been based on “can’t afford it” but now after reading this article… It is do able… It’ll take abit but it’s like a goal and I love goals and hate not achieving then so drives me more do make it happen. Would love to take my family to Samoa and do see good sales for island trips so will do abit of homework now… I esp liked the idea of carrying cash I do this in everyday life to help stick to budget so doing it for a holiday Is a brillant idea esp when in the moment of being in holiday mode and care free
My husband and I have never been overseas together but have been talking about doing it FOREVER!!! We are going to have to bite the bullet and save!!
I so need to stop spending. I save an amount but then I end up dipping at the end of the month. I might try that cash only trick.
I have opened a separate bank account at another bank, not my usual, with no eftpos card etc. This has by far been my greatest way to save for our overseas holiday next year.
love the separate bank account idea – then you can easily see how far you have come and how much closer you are to your dream holiday 🙂
Great tips – we definitely need to get away overseas for a holiday. Saving is really difficult at the mo due to being on 1 wage BUT I have started to squirrel away a little into a separate savings account so will see how we go! 🙂
We try and go away every second year so saving in between is the thing we do most but also researching like this article says as may be cheaper to book yourself instead of a travel agent.
Our family have planned for two overseas holidays in the next two years so this article could not have come at a better time! So far we have really only decided on a location for both trips…but now we will be able to set the rest of the plan into motion 🙂