When you first decide that you can't put off the urge to go travelling any longer, one of the first things you need to think about is how you are going to fund your travels.
Here are our tips and what we personally done to save both before we left and then whilst travelling.
I like to think I am a hard worker and in addition to my cabin crew job I also worked part time in a restaurant. If you can mange even just a few hours each week, then we recommend getting yourself a second job. Just keep the wages separate and save it. When it comes to booking flights, visas and accommodation you can start using those wages.
Shannon didn't get a second job but he did ask to work more hours and earn overtime and worked as many hours as possible, at the time he was working as ground staff at the airport.
Start to think about selling your possessions, household items and car/ bike. You want to time it well so you aren't left stranded but you don't want to wait until the last minute and then end up selling things in a rush for less that the asking price.
Then start to sell your clothes that you won't be taking (remember fashions change so if you are going away for a while/ indefinitely then just sell your clothes and replace them when you come back). We went to car boot sales and also sold clothes, books, CDs etc on local Facebook buy and sell pages.
You will need to cut back on nights out, whist you will want to spend time with loved ones/ friends before departing, don't go crazy spending all your money. You will meet new friends whilst travelling and don't want to decline nights out then just to sit in your dorm alone.
We also saved a ton of money by putting it inside piggy banks or tins that you couldn't easily open. We waited until it was full then took it to the bank. We put all our loose change inside but also bank notes, we ended up saving so much, and didn't even notice the money disappearing.
My family were also very kind, since they knew we were going travelling they would gift us foreign currency for our Birthdays and Christmas. It was an excellent idea as we couldn't spend it before we left and it was a lovely treat when we arrived in each place to have a bit of currency to kick things off, if we wanted to treat ourselves whilst away we would have my parents to thank.
We also booked things in stages this would make the overall spend seem less daunting and made us more aware of how much money we had going out.
We moved out of our rented accommodation and into Shannon's family's house in the final few months before leaving, saving on rent helped us greatly.
And if you are going on a working holiday visa, then plan when you are going to find work versus how much time travelling/ backpacking around you want. Both times we went on a WHV we chose to have a month or two travelling followed by a big stint of working, then travelling again. We spent some of what we had saved then by working we topped up our funds for travelling again.
Both times we went on our WHV we came back to the UK with money still in our banks.
Do you have any top tips for saving?
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