How to save money to travel

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Money!Money!Money!
Money!Money!Money!

Saving money is not that easy, especially when your taste goes to expensive things. Said that: How to save money to travel?

We’ve never been rich. Actually I came from a simple family and my mom always had to work hard to raise me. My first job was as a trainee in a jewelry shop, I was 14 years old and I’ve never stopped working since that. Rob’s parents also worked hard to give him and his brother access to good schools. Rob’s first job was as a trainee at the school library. When he was 19th he started to work with shipping and, with years and lots of determination, we achieved a nice lifestyle.

Since 2009 I was working 13 hours a day, from Monday to Saturday. Not an easy schedule but I was able to get my car, build a house with Rob and spend on some guilty pleasure like dinners out, wine, and parties. But as soon as we decided to travel we had to cut all the expenses and started the project: How to save money to travel!

First of all, I started taking notes of everything that I bought or paid. We checked all our bills and money we spend on food, house, and leisure.

– House and Bills: electricity, water supply, gas and food.

– Car: insurance, maintenance and fuel.

– Leisure: dinners out, parties, and small trips around our town.

We became more conscious about using electricity and water, and after a month we could see the decrease in our bill. We stopped buying superfluous things and kept an eye on the promotions and seasons deals, easily we started spending less on groceries. If you look carefully at your shop list you can save money just by making wise choices. Also cooking at home is MUCH cheaper than having lunch and dinner out.

The difficult part was to cut down on leisure: we love going out, have some drinks and dance. So the strategy was: we are allowed to go out once a month and on a budget (free entrance and low-cost drinks). And we had so much fun… We were waiting anxiously for our monthly night out and we enjoyed it like it was the last one of our lives.

We also discovered that cooking dinner at home and inviting friends over was another cheap and fun way to enjoy the weekends. We shared the costs of dinner and booze, had a great laugh and some dancing in the middle of the living room. Our friends that are reading this post know what I’m talking about!!!!

By the end of six months, we saw our savings grow and it gave us a boost to keep the belt tightened. Also, we checked all the bank fees.

We choose the bank and credit card that offered the best deal for us and cut all the services we didn’t need and used to pay for.

Since September 2013 we stopped shopping. We allowed ourselves to buy just books that could help in our Love and Road project. We didn’t spend much money even at Christmas. Santa brought to Rob a nice second-hand book, The Bold Man of the Sea, and I got three helpful books: How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, Vagabonding, Delaying the Real World. Rob always spoils me :-))

On Easter, no gifts at all. You might think this is sad, cutting down on presents, parties… But the truth is that I didn’t mind it at all! I was so focused and thrilled about our trip that parties and clothes were on second plan. And I think for Rob was the same, some nights we’d rather stay in organizing our travel plans while sipping a nice wine than go clubbing. And we are talking about two people who love clubbing… Well, sometimes things can change for a while.

During the process, we discovered another way to earn money. Our house and shelves were packed with nice and pretty new clothes, dishes, equipment. Lots of items that we would not need anymore and could easily be sold. March was the beginning of the sale season: we started our Online Garage Sale and opened the house for some buyers! It was a profitable and fun strategy, read our this story here!

Suddenly April arrived and was time to leave our house and rent it. We also sold the car and moved to Rob’s parents’ house. In the last 24 days in Brazil we lived with Rob’s mom and dad, we saved money and spent precious time with family. Nice way to prepared ourselves to say “Good-Bye”.

Planing a trip or a journey around the globe, then read:

Are you trying to save money to travel? Do you have any tips on how to save money? Please share them with us!

17 thoughts on “How to save money to travel”

  1. Parabéns!
    Todos nós temos objetivos, né? O grande problema é conseguir traçar planos para alcançar as metas. E vcs conseguiram!

    Reply
    • Obrigada Bruna!!
      É preciso acreditar que sonhos são possíveis e devem se realizados. Nunca é fácil sair da zona de conforto e começar algo novo. Mas quando você vence a barreira do medo percebe que tomou a melhor decisão da sua vida!!! Tudo de melhor para vc!!! Continue seguindo a gente!!!
      😉

      Reply
  2. Cadore e Esposa!

    Parabéns por essa conquista de liberdade, mesmo que temporária, um sonho realizado é um passo dado.

    Reply
  3. Olá, Natalie! Estou acompanhando as suas aventuras pelo mundo. Adorei seu post. Muito esclarecedor e para mim serviu como fonte de encorajamento para planejar as viagens dos meus sonhos. Mas eu ainda sinto um certo medinho. Você poderia relatar sua primeira vez (kkk)? Estou do lado de cá, quietinha, acompanhando seus passeios, e admirando sua coragem de encarar o mundo, sem medo de ser feliz. Continue compartilhando suas experiências, viu? Um beijão!

    Reply
    • OI Dani!!!

      Que bom que curtiu o post, economia é só o primeiro passo da corrida atrás da tão sonhada viagem. E a primeira vez sempre é mais difícil..rsrsrrsrs. A primeira viagem as vezes é melhor organizar com uma agência se vc não se sente tão confiante sobre como reservar e agendar tudo. Mas a verdade é que não tem segredo! Hoje online vc encontra informação para tudo e sobre tudo. No post anterior (https://loveandroad.com/pt/where-want-go-how-can-get-there-2/) tem algumas dicas sobre compra de passagem, e nos próximos texto vamos falar de como organizar o dinheiro durante a viagem, e depois como foi nossa primeira experiência no exterior quando mudamos para Irlanda.
      Continue acompanhando nossa história, prometo que tem muito coisa legal por vir.
      Beijos!!!

      Reply
  4. What language are you speaking here ? I am of Portuguese decent and would love to travel to Portugal from the USA and also maybe sell everything and move there.
    I’m looking to find where my grandparents migrated from and also try to find relatives that I’ve nwver met or even heard of. This may or may not sound odd to you, but I’m not getting any younger and the only foreign country that I’ve been to is Mexico.
    I’ve read that it’s not really expensive for a 16 day trip to Portugal and it can be even less expensive if I stay at a Airbnb.
    That would be my choice, because I can meet a family and learn the ins and outs of the country a lot easier than staying in a hotel, which would be a lot more expensive for someone that is not a rich man.
    I read an article about visiting Portugal and I seen that the crime rate is very low compared to the USA ! Especially crimes like murder, rape and all of the other major crimes that happen on a daily basis here in the USA.
    Hopefully you can read English, so I’ll end it here and not get too much into my travel plans until I know that you understand me. Yes, I did see that your article was written in English, but all of the comments were foreign. I didn’t try to copy and paste into google to try to find out what language was being written, but I will do that now to try to find out.

    Thank you
    Anthony

    Reply

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