Let’s get you saving more money today to travel more this year!
Here are five tiny saving habits we used to build up $62,000 to pay off debt and go travel the world.
For 18 months, we saved half of our income to pay off $16K in debt, save a $15K emergency fund, and build up $31K to travel the world with, all while only making $80K/year. Since 2014, we’ve had world-wide #nuventures campervanning New Zealand and Scandinavia, backpacking Southeast Asia and Europe, and RVing the USA and Canada. Our dream of long-term travel became reality by practicing savings habits like the five we list below. We believe your travel dreams can come true, too!
Which savings habit do you want to try today?
5 Tips to Save Money Today to Travel More This Year!
1. MAKE COFFEE AT HOME.
Savings per year: $960
The day after we got back from our honeymoon, Adam a CPA, sat us down to figure out our budget. We decided to only get $20 a month for each of us to spend personally. With that small budget for myself, I had to curb my $4 daily morning runs to the coffee shop. Pretty quickly, I learned by just transitioning to making a cup of coffee at home every morning saved us $20 a week, $80 a month, and $960 a year! Almost $1,000 savings just with coffee!
Where could you travel with $1,000 this year? This is a small start that can make a huge difference in the long run!
2. PACK YOUR LUNCH.
Savings per year: $2,900
I also needed to change my habit of eating out at lunch with only having $20 a month to spend for myself. I didn’t realize it, but before marrying Adam, I would consistently wake up late and not have enough time to pack my lunch. I’d go to the café next door to my office for lunch and get a salad. Every time I did this, it was between $8 and $12 depending on if I’d get an afternoon coffee with it. Spending $12 a day on lunch, meant I spent $60 a week, and $240 a month! That’s adds up to almost $2,900 a year! What traveling could you do with $2,900 extra this year?
To change my habits, I learned to either pack my lunch the night before or wake up early to have time to make my lunch in the morning. Remember, you don’t have to pack your lunch every day. It’s fun to go out with coworkers sometimes. What if you just made a small change two days a week. You’ll still be saving money. This is an easy way to do it!
3. SHARE MEALS AT RESTAURANTS.
Savings per year: $960
We started this habit to save money and we noticed it kept our waistlines in check, too. Have you ever noticed you always eat way too much when you go out to eat? And you leave feeling stuffed and uncomfortable? We decided to start sharing our meals and we realized we stopped overeating when going out. By sharing, we save about $20 on each bill. We go out at least once a week, so $20 savings a week is $80 a month, and again another $960 a year!
Realistically, this habit can provide challenges. As a couple or if you’re with your friends, you have to agree on the same meal together. If you have a hard time agreeing all the time, you can take turns on who chooses the meal each time you go out. Also, at the beginning we were worried about still being hungry if we shared an entree. To stick to sharing, we always say that if one entree's not enough to fill us up, we can order something else. In the many years of practicing this, there’s only been a few occasions where we’ve ordered a second dish.
4. UNPLUG AND TURN OFF ELECTRONICS YOU’RE NOT USING.
Savings per powerbill: 5- 10%
We took this advice from our utility company and we try to be diligent about this. When we’re not in a room or using something, we turn off and unplug everything from the lights, the television, to chargers for our devices. We even unplug the microwave, hairdryer, coffee maker, curling iron, clothes iron, and washer and dryer when we're not using them. When these items are plugged in but not being used, they still use electricity. Why pay for the electricity when you’re not using it?
5. MAKE A GAME OF SPENDING $0 A DAY.
This trick comes from Round the World Couple. It’s brilliant! One way they saved for their world travels was to make a game out of saving money. They challenged themselves to days where they spent $0. We’ve tried it and it’s a fun challenge! It’ll get your creative juices going with figuring out fun and free things to do like going for a hike or getting creative with the food you already have in your cabinets and even taking it somewhere for a fun picnic!
WHICH ONE DO YOU WANT TO TRY TODAY?
Give one of these five ideas a try today! Each one of these is a tiny change you can make in your daily and weekly routine to save a bit of money to put towards more travels. If saving feels good, keep the habit going to save even more money to travel more!
Make It Easier to Save!
1. Pin this post to use later here.
2. And, download these tips to post on your fridge so you can be reminded and inspired to save more today to travel more this year!
Get our Game:
501 Questions: A Travel Game!
Get 501 more awesome conversation starters in our new game 501 Questions: A Travel Game! Have a blast with these on all of your adventures!
"Such great conversation starters!" -Tracy K., TheMoneySmartNomad.com
