MYTH: I can’t travel because I’m broke.

Now hear me out, I’m not saying everyone can take a trip to Bora Bora or Paris every month (or even every year), but here’s how to make your travel plans less financially stressful, and how to make the most of your money when planning your vacay.

I do not want you to book a trip on your credit card, and then spend your whole trip thinking about how you’ll need to pay it off, and you probably shouldn’t get that souvenir or postcard because you’re already paying 18% interest for the flight tickets… yikes. 

This is supposed to be fun, relaxing, romantic, or whatever memorable ideal you’d placed as the purpose of the trip. It’s not supposed to make you stress about money. 

Here's how to financially plan your trip:

1) Think of the all places you’d like to go, and narrow it down to decide on your first destination.  

2) Stretch your destinations. Remember, there are some websites who offer multi-city destinations that could actually give you extra destinations in one trip (we like to use www.skyscanner.com for our flights – we have no affiliation with them). 

For example, we looked at the option of buying a flight from Cape Town, South Africa to Sydney, Australia. Then we realized, if we’re going to Australia, we may as well also go to New Zealand. So I searched a flight from Cape Town to Auckland, New Zealand. Some of the cheaper options showed that the layovers would be in Dubai, Thailand, and Australia. I then changed the flight details in their multi-city option, to instead stop in each of these places for a few days (instead of just changing flights and being in the airport for a few hours). And guess how much the flight cost changed? Zero Dollars!!! So now instead of just seeing New Zealand, we have the option to also see Dubai, Thailand, and Australia too. 

3) Figure out the cost of hotels, resorts, Airbnb accommodation, etc., as well as the cost of food and the entertainment/exploring you intend on doing. Dig deep. Is it cheaper to opt for all-inclusive in this destination? Would it work out better to get a place with a kitchen where you can make your own food? Seriously do your research on this! It’ll be so worth it. Have you looked to see if Groupon is an option here? Is off-season cheaper? Do you need to rent a car, get transport to/from your accommodation from the airport, is Uber an option, or should you just get scooters or bikes? Is walking everywhere an option? Get a good idea of what it will likely cost you. 

Now add 10-20% onto this anticipated food/spending budget (this excludes the ticket amount), for unforeseen extra adventures you didn’t know about, or that enticing massage that came up at the hotel. 

4) Now here comes the exciting part. The “putting a plan into action” part….

Once you have the rough figure needed for the whole trip, you’ll know how much needs to be saved. Now, every month (or week, or paycheck), take a chunk of money and put it away. If you’re a visual person, you can get a mason jar or some sort of glass jar and physically put the cash into it. The downside to this is that it’s easily accessible to spend in a bind elsewhere, so only go for this option if you are disciplined around this.  I personally prefer to have a separate savings account labeled “Travel” (I know, I’m so original). 

If you’re planning your trip, say, for in 6 months time, work out how much you’ll need to save per month. But try to have the money saved at least a month or two before to try to avoid higher ticket costs (in fact sooner than that would be better, especially if you are traveling internationally). 

I recommend that once you have enough for your ticket, buy it. Then keep up the savings going for the rest. A cute little free app I found could be helpful, it’s called TripSaver. 

5) Be intentional and gung-ho about your savings. Every time you reach for a treat at the grocery store, think “this could be a pool-side cocktail in Thailand”. Every time you plan to grab takeaways for dinner instead of making your own food, think “this could be a snorkeling experience in the Maldives”. Be deliberate. Be annoyingly persistent. When you’re invited out for drinks, say no, or (seriously) just have one. In the words of Dave Ramsey, “Live like no one else, so you can live and give like no one else”. 

You choose where to spend your money. Every cent counts. 

(See my post about how I save/budget. People laugh… until they realize it works.)

If you save like this before your trip, you will be so much more at peace with it. There’s nothing like a debt-free getaway. It will be so much more enjoyable! Bon Voyage!