The world will open up again. It will happen. And when it does, we need to be ready. Wanting to head off on vacation and travel the world is one thing, but actually having the cash to do so is an entirely different ballgame. I cashed my coin in the other day with every intention to put whatever total I got into my travel jar. I was feeling pretty confident about the total because it has been a while since the Coinstar and I had last spoken. $14.83 is what my two years of coin collecting totaled. That is literally a dozen donuts I was able to afford with that. I couldn't help but be baffled by this. Coin jars used to be pots of GOLD!
Then it hit me. I use plastic for pretty much everything.
How am I supposed to put money in my jar if I don't ever actually handle money? I had to come up with a new system because unless I have a huge pot of cash stashed away somewhere, I'm going to need to save up what I need and fill my travel fund. When money is tight this can seem practically impossible, but here are five things we all can do to make it easier.
Open A Travel Savings Account
As a general rule, when you want to save up cash for something, regardless of what it is, you need to give it it’s own dedicated savings account. If you keep your travel money in your personal account, chances are, you’ll end up spending more money than you actually have, which means you’ll struggle to save up enough. You should make it easy to transfer money over, but be sure you only take cash out when you need to pay for something vacation related. Invest in this and take out the minimum amount required to start an account and move money over as you go. It's kind of fun to see your account grow too.
Create A Realistic Savings Plan
In the words of Lil Dicky, "Save Dat Money." Once you’ve opened up your travel savings account, you have to work out exactly how much you need to save up for your trip. Make sure you do plenty of research and use online tools, like http://www.budgetyourtrip.com, to help you out. When you have this completed, you should create a realistic savings plan and decide how much money you can afford to put aside each week or month. Don’t be too ambitious here or you won’t have enough cash to cover your day to day expenses. Your trip to India isn't due on the first but your rent is.
Cut Down Your Monthly Expenses
There are lots of things that you need to pay for each month, but how many of them are really necessary? If you want to fill your travel fund faster, then you need to cut out these unnecessary purchases, like your morning coffee and work lunches. You should also find ways to save on your bills. WHAT?! Yeah. For example, consolidating your debt can help you cut costs. Using a site like https://debtconsolidation.co will allow you to list all of your monthly costs and figure out how to cut them down.
Find Ways To Make Extra
Cutting your monthly costs is a crucial first step, but, if things are still tight after this, then you may need to find ways to make extra money each month. Thankfully, there are plenty of ideas to choose from, like taking on a weekend job, selling off some of your unwanted belongings (Poshmark is a booming business), rent your home out on Air BnB and stay with a friend while vacationers stay at your place, or start a GoFundMe. Please don't actually do that, leave that for the real issues at hand. Look into options where you can make money on your own time so you don't affect your work-life balance too much. This may require some sacrifice, but, if it gets you somewhere sandy and sunny, it will be worth it.
Earn Rewards When You Shop
Whether you like it or not, there are some things you can’t avoid buying for your household, like food, cleaning supplies (when you can find it), and clothing (the ACTUAL necessities) and more. That being said, there are ways to turn these purchases into money for your travels. By using reward credit cards, you can earn points that can then be converted into airline miles or cash off accommodations. Some also give you cash for signing up. Just be sure that, if you do use a credit card, you can pay it back.
Despite what many people say, travel isn’t just for the rich and wealthy. With some planning and responsible money management, you can fill your travel fund and head off on amazing adventures. Do you have any travel fund savings ideas?! Let's chat below!
Daily Cup of JOJO is a part of some affiliate programs, meaning if you click and/or make a purchase from this site I may make a commission from it which I will use to buy unnecessary wall art, my Netflix subscription, and add to my scotch collection I haven’t started yet.
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