Maximize Your Travel Fund with Simple Lifestyle Changes to Travel More

Ever wondered how to turn your travel dreams into reality without breaking the bank? Discover the secrets to frequent travel through minimalist living and savvy financial strategies! We share our personal stories and effective tips, from tracking daily expenses to cutting out non-essentials like cable TV and car payments. Learn how making small changes, like brewing your coffee at home and whipping up meals instead of dining out, can accumulate significant savings. We even dive into the hunt for cheaper cell phone plans to maximize your travel fund.

But that's not all! Explore creative ways to boost your travel budget with side gigs like pet sitting or house sitting. Downsizing your lifestyle and funneling those savings into a dedicated travel account can open up a world of adventure. With a focus on conscious financial choices and practical steps, we empower you to prioritize travel while maintaining financial flexibility. Tune in and get ready to unlock the freedom to explore the world, one smart financial move at a time!

Facebook community: Solo Travel for Women Over 50

Send me a message or share your solo travel story with me.
https://www.speakpipe.com/SoloTravelAdventures

Leave a review:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solo-travel-adventures-safe-travel-for-women-preparing-for-a-trip-overcoming-fear-travel-tips/id1650161410

Chapters

• 0:00 Tips for Saving Money to Travel
• 10:04 Travel Savings With a Side Gig

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:41

Hello sister travelers. Well, I often get asked how do I afford to travel as much as I do? And so I'm going to share some of my tips of how I save money so that I can't afford to travel as much as I'd like and, you know, go places I've been dreaming of going. Now I will have to preface this. I live a very simplified life, a very minimalist life, so some of these recommendations you might not be ready for. Most people don't quite want to give up some of these things. But the other thing I'd like to mention too is that I'm able to do all this and save money because I only work part-time, so it gives me that flexibility to do these trips and things like that. So the first thing you'd want to do for sure is start. Number one is track your spending, kind of see where you're spending a lot of money. So once you start tracking all that you're spending on your day to day, you can decipher where all your money's going and how to pull back. Maybe you find yourself spending too much on eating out, buying coffee, which we're going to get to in some of those points. So some things that um. Well, first of all, I will have to also say I have have found inexpensive rent, which I know is really hard to find. I do rent, I don't own, um, that does again give me some flexibility and home, and so that's also a nice extra. It's an extra cost that we often don't consider. You know, maybe you get an emergency where your AC goes out and so that's a pretty big bill to have to be paying. So I don't have those kinds of concerns or those monetary commitments. So keep that in mind. Also, my vehicle is completely paid off, so I don't have a car payment. So already I've some of those high dollar value budget lines I don't have. But outside of that, these are some few things that I have also cut back on, because for me traveling is more a priority than some of these items.

Speaker 1: 3:15

So first thing is, obviously most people have already gotten rid of the cable, no TV. You might have an inexpensive streaming service. I actually don't pay for any streaming service. I get my Netflix for free through my phone service, so, meaning that it was, it was free, I don't pay extra at all, even through my phone service. So, um, but you know, occasionally if there's something I want to watch on a different streaming channel, a lot of times I might do that. I have multiple email addresses, but I might do that free trial for a week and watch what I need to watch. Or, if I'm at somebody else's house and they happen to have it, maybe ask to watch it. So I don't pay for any TV or streaming services.

Speaker 1: 4:07

Ditch the coffee. Many of us spend so much money getting coffee out. One way you can reduce that is obviously making your coffee at home. But I recently ditched it altogether because I did add up. Even if I buy my mold-free coffee my creamer it was adding up. Even if I buy my mold-free coffee my creamer it was adding up, and even though I was doing it at home. So that's going to save me. I figured, doing the coffee at home, getting rid of all that, I'm going to save probably about I don't know $70 or so a month. But if you drink your coffee out, it is way more than that. If you calculate, um, maybe a daily Starbucks you know being five to $7 these days, right, or more.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Um, next thing is stop drinking alcohol. Now you might think, oh, I'm just a party pooper, I'm not drinking alcohol. I still do on occasion. It's not something I ever buy for myself, unless maybe I'm going to a party and I bring a bottle of wine, right. If I'm traveling, I might have a drink or so, but it's not. I don't drink to get drunk, I don't over drink. So it is definitely a cost saver. If you add up all your alcohol that you buy, whether it's you tend to buy a six pack or a bottle of wine every week, that can certainly add up and, honestly, I feel physically better without drinking alcohol. So that was another reason why I pulled back on that.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Next thing is stop eating out as much. Now, this is something I fluctuate with depending on how well I have prepared for the week, but I do know if I eat at home. I've learned to cook over these past few years. Sometimes it's challenging to cook as a single person, but I know I'm getting the ingredients that I can handle. I have a lot of allergies, but it also saves me so much money. Oh my gosh. You can't even go out to eat without spending at least $15 for a meal. That's like a grab and go kind of meal, right? I mean, if you do a real sit down, you're talking probably $25 or more ahead, right? Depending on if you get appetizers or not. So eating out definitely a big money suck. I know it is for me, so something I've been working on.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Another thing you could do is look for cheaper cell phone service. You know, downgrade a little bit if you have something that you really don't need, I will share with you. There are companies, since many of you that are listening are 50 years or older. There are some companies, for example, ift Mobile that gives a discounted rate for folks that are actually 55 and up, and there's probably a couple other cell phone services that do that. I've been fine with my T-Mobile. I love it because it does include international data and texting for free, and that's the cell service that I get my free Netflix streaming from, and so for me I pay only $35 a line, so really inexpensive. So you might want to consider that, because cell service just is a lot. The other thing I do is I only carry a reusable water bottle. I have a LifeStraw and some other stainless steel bottles that I might carry with me so that I don't have to buy bottled water. Plus, it saves on plastic use for me, and so that's another way to save money because you know, buying water bottles, especially when you travel can be a little expensive, something to earn money.

Speaker 1: 8:19

A way to earn money is maybe try to sell some of your stuff. Do you have things that you're not using, whether it's, you know, an old TV, books, clothes that you don't want, some furniture that's just not being used, or anything that might be in your attic or basement or garage that is just sitting there collecting dust, and you could earn some money. I've been doing a lot of that lately, clearing out my storage unit. And then this last one is something I would love to be able to do, but I haven't quite been able to, you know, wrap my head around it, because I do live in a rather metropolitan city and where having a car is pretty necessary.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Now, if I ever were to move, you know maybe where, somewhere I could walk or use public transportation or a close knit town, then maybe I would be able to ditch my car. Save on car insurance, gas maintenance tolls are astronomical around here in the Dallas area. You really can't go anywhere without paying tolls. So I was recently talking to my son about that and we agreed that it's a huge expenditure that we wish we could get rid of, because, man, what I could do with that kind of money every month, and if you have a car payment on top of that, that's even more. I don't have that, luckily, but maybe someday if I move to a city or a country that you know. Maybe it's not necessary, but in the US I do like having the availability to jump in my car and take a road trip. So that is one reason why, at this moment moment, I will keep my car.

Speaker 1: 10:05

But there's other ways you could also earn money besides selling your stuff. Have a side gig. I have a side gig where I pet sit, I house sit, I pet sit. Yes, some of them are free through, you know, house sitting agencies, but I actually have my own sort of dog sitting and cat sitting business where I go to people's homes and they pay me, which is lovely. It's not much, but it's a little something extra which is certainly helping with my travel expenses. So for me, this is why I have downsized my lifestyle, so that I could do more travel and have that freedom to do so and not feel tied to whether it's, you know, a mortgage or something you know. You have this expensive rent that you're paying as well I mean things like that or have all these additional expenses that I could kind of funnel that money towards travel to, which is what, essentially, I have chosen to do. And so I think how we spend our money in general is definitely a choice, a choice in how we want to live our lifestyle, what's important to us. So something to consider.

Speaker 1: 11:27

If you are really wanting to travel more, but you keep coming up financially short and you're not sure how you're going to, you know, be able to afford to go because, as we know things, prices keep increasing and so it's a little harder, maybe, to afford a trip these days, and so it's a little harder, maybe, to afford a trip these days, then think about some of these things that I mentioned and see if there's something one or two of these items that you could essentially cut back on and then funnel that money. That's part of the thing, though. If you decide to. For example, you've tracked your money, you've seen where it's going and you've noticed that I don't know, you're spending $200 a month on buying coffee out, right? Well, instead of just allowing that $200 to be absorbed in your regular budget or your daily budgeting, you need to funnel that money into a separate account, create a separate travel savings account for yourself and take that money that you would have spent on those items and put it into that account, okay, don't let it be absorbed with other expenses, right?

Speaker 1: 12:38

So consider those ideas, because I would love to see all of you get out there and travel more and not have the excuse that you don't have the money or you're just financially everything's tight. I get it, but there are ways to do it. I am living proof of that. I don't live with much and I'm much happier not keeping all that stuff kind of looming over my head and having to kind of be the caretaker of it and then having to shell out all these payments. So for me, putting that money towards travel is really what brings me joy. So I hope some of these tips help you and that you could get yourself on track to saving for that next trip. All right, sisters, get out there and have an adventure.