Traveling: How I Raise Money for My Passion?

As I have previously mentioned I am in love with traveling while having a 9to5 job ( more like an 8:30 to 6:30 job if I include the commute) and raising money for my passion is one of the struggles that I am facing, therefore I would like to give you a few hints on how you can save some $$ while still living a full life.

Even if it’s tempting to put all your money for traveling, not long after you go through this harsh diet you will realize that you are only spending around 10-15% of your time on vacations and the rest of your time is at home, where life is happening. So don’t fall in the trap of only saving and counting every penny, that will not last long. The first rule of spending would be to find a balance between what is doable for you and what you would like to achieve. For that, you would first need to know how much you spent and on what.

1. Know your limits

I have been keeping a book of my spendings on and off ever since I got a job and I advise you to do the same. Knowledge is power, so you first need to know what are your spending habits, how much do you spend monthly and see what can be improved. Another thing you need to know is how much you save and whether you can increase that amount.

For this, you can use excel sheets, mobile applications, pen, and paper, whatever makes you be consistent with writing down what you brought. An application can help you visualize the areas of spending, like food, clothes, entertainment, etc. There are cards that also give you that report such as Revolut.

2. Spending habits 

Now that you have a list of expenses you can tackle them and see what needs to be adjusted. In my case, the major expenses are food and shopping, therefore I try to be sure that I need specific items before I buy them and that I will be using them. When it comes to food, sometimes I find myself buying more than I will be able to cook and that throwing food is not something that I want to be throwing, therefore I try to only buy what I will cook in the next days and when I am out of ingredients I try to get creative so I don’t have to waste any.

As for shopping, this is still a work in progress area, where I try to only buy what I absolutely need or if I do indulge in something I will try to cut from a different area to keep myself withing the budget ( have to admit that I am not successful in this 100% of the time).

3. Divide and conquer 

Let’s say that you know your limits and you know your habits, on average you spent around 1200$ per month and you want to decrease to 1000$. The easiest way of doing this is by dividing your finances into a weekly budget. If there are 5 weeks in a month you would get 200$ per week and you need to stick to it. For me, it’s easier to work with cash since it’s real if I just swipe the card I don’t get to see the money and if those do not exist I will spend them like crazy. Other people feel the exact opposite of this, if they have the money in the wallet they will just spend it right away, so you need to find your way.

While of the topic of division, one thing that can be done is to add the money left at the end of the week to the savings account. If you do this or not is optional, what is important is not to spend the next week’s money.

4. Roundup your transactions 

One of the options that I love about Revolut card is the fact that you can use Vaults to add some extra savings just by rounding the amount spent per transaction. Here you can also choose to increase the amount by putting the x2, x3 or x4 options.

Since I already said that I am a big fan of cash, I also add in a different type of savings anything under 1$, you will be surprised the amount of money you will get at the end of a month or year. Those types of savings are the easier ones since you don’t get to feel the amount that is leaving your account.

5. The deposit money is locked and cannot be tampered with 

When I get my monthly income I first add the money that I want to save in a deposit or a different account than the one that I am using and I do not use that money unless is absolutely necessary (car breaks down or medical issue pops). I have to admit that is tempting to buy something just because you have the money and you can do it, but you need to fight this urge and walk away. If you use deposits than you already know that you will lose the interest rate, so don’t do that.

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