Europe Bound!

I do not claim to be an expert in money, but I do know I don’t make very much as a social worker and I went on a three week tour to Europe. So this somehow makes me qualified to give some sort of advice… I think.

 

1. Prioritize what’s important to you in life. Because we have limited income we can’t have everything we want so we put our money where it matters most. One of those things being travel. We can’t afford nice cars, a house, nice things and travel. So we start with travel and go from there.

2. Save where you can. If travel is a priority to you then you learn to save in other areas. Mike and I have been married for 7 years and for our entire marriage we have lived somewhere with reduced rent. We either helped with yard work, were managers, or helped elderly take care of their house. All of these things were huge contributors to us being able to save for travel. Some would not prefer this route because they prefer the luxury of picking where they live or things such as that. Because travel is a priority we sacrifice where we can.

3. Use smart money sense. Whenever possible Mike and I avoid paying interest. When we needed a new car we rode our bikes, walked, took the bus, and drove our crappy car around so that we could save and pay cash for a car. Because we were able to do that we have been able to save hundreds of dollars in interest.

4. Use structural supports to make saving easier. From the get go Mike and I set up an extra savings account. As soon as I got paid I budgeted the money out for the rest of the month and on that day I transferred the budgeted amount to our Europe savings account. Seeing my Europe bank account grow kept me motivated to keep saving. It eventually became fun and kind of addictive. There is a very good book about behavior change. If you feel you really struggle to do the behaviors you want to in life I recommend this book: "Change Anything" by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillian, Switzler. I have read this book several times and feel it has really helped me to save for Europe (among other things).

5. Save money on the little things because it adds up! We have this idea that travel is a really big deal and we have to save a ton to make it happen. You’d be surprised how much money you can let slip through your fingers that could go to travel. Mike and I don’t spend tons of money on eating out, movies, clothes, etc. because we want travel more than we want those things. Even if you were to decrease the amount of times you went out to eat by half travel will be much more possible.

6. Work two jobs. My husband doesn’t necessarily agree with this one, but I believe if travel is a priority and you feel you are able it might be worth it to work two jobs. Since graduate school I have worked two jobs, mostly so I could pay for the extras (travel) in life that I wanted.

7. Plan ahead. Mike and I knew we were going to go to Europe four years before we actually did. Because of that we had plenty of time to save. I took a look at what we needed and how much we were able to save each month and made a budget. Because we were saving over the course of time we were able to afford the tour without using credit cards.

8. Look for travel deals. There are blogs upon blogs about how to travel cheap so I will leave most of the content up to those, but keep your eye open for travel deals. Because we knew far in advance we were going on the tour we were able to take advantage of the $100 discount offered through Rick Steves when signing up for the tour early. We also were able to keep our eyes on airline tickets for quite a while and get tickets for a relatively good price.

9. Find ways to save while traveling. Mike and I were able to be fairly frugal with our money in Europe. We brought water bottles so we never had to buy those or extra drinks. We often shared treats that we wanted to try. Additionally, we planned our splurges so that we wouldn’t feel deprived and so that we wouldn’t be splurging all the time. For example, we didn’t eat at nice sit down restaurants every time we were hungry. We had some meals set aside to experience the culinary side of travel. Other times we would grab a cheap durum doner (became one of our faves!) and be on our way. I don’t feel that my travel experience was hindered at all because of this. We also didn’t spend tons on souvenirs. It would be easy to spend a lot of money on souvenirs but we got a few items that reminded us of the places we were (glass cup from Venice, scarf from Florence, chocolate and cow bell (I got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell!) from Switzerland, etc.), and that’s about it.