It is no doubt that having a travel addiction is a costly hobby. Even if you are traveling on a strict budget, you will know that the costs can quickly add up. So we thought we would share with you a few ways that we save a bit of extra cash leading up to a holiday…

Tip #1: Declutter

A great way to make a bit of extra money for your travels is to sell unnecessary or unwanted possessions. We all have things around our house that we look at and realise ‘I probably didn’t need to buy that’ or ‘this isn’t really my style anymore.’ Before you throw these things out or let them sit there collecting more dusts, try to sell them!

When Ben and I were going to move to a new apartment which was much smaller than our previous place, I decided to start selling things on Facebook marketplace. We made over $2000 within a few weeks of selling random bits and pieces that probably would have ended up in landfill otherwise. It was amazing the things that we were able to sell, for very minimal effort. I even managed to sell a bunch of semi-burned candles! Every little profit counts and it really add up when we put it all together.

For the sake of a few minutes to take some pictures and uploaded them online, it is a fantastic way to save some extra money.

Tip #2: Reduce Eating Out

I will be the first to acknowledge that this tip isn’t exact a fun one. We LOVE eating out at restaurants and trying new foods. Food is ingrained in our society and is a huge part of a social identity. However, it can also be one of our biggest expenses if we are treating ourselves too much.

Making the choice to have dinner in can save you a lot of money of the course of a few months. Now we are not saying to not eat out at all! There is no point in making yourself sad and miserable in an attempt to save money.

Instead, what we would suggest, is coming up with a schedule to treat yourself. Maybe that means every Friday night you go out to dinner or get takeaway. Or Sunday is your day to splurge on brunch with the girls. Or maybe a picnic will satisfy your itch. This is where you figure out what works for you.

Another great benefit to doing this is that it actually makes those times that you do treat yourself feel better and more enjoyable. It also nice to think that this small sacrifice you are making now, will allow you some extra freedom to splurge on that holiday you are saving for!

Tip #3: Share Your Goals With Your Friends And Family

Unknowingly, your friends and family can make it really hard to save money at times. “how about we go out to eat?”, “hey, do you want to go and see a movie?”, “let’s do drinks on Friday!” and so on. This can be really hard because we do want to do these things or hang out with our friends and family. A lot of people also don’t want to say no to these offers because they don’t want to seem rude or like they don’t want to spend time with their friends.

So, a great way to overcome this issue is to actually share your goals and aspirations with your loved ones. You don’t have to go into depth about your finances, but letting them know that you are trying really hard to save money at the moment and want to avoid as many unnecessary costs as possible allows them to support you in achieving this. They can then understand where you are coming from and you can arrange cheaper alternatives. “How about we make homemade pizzas for dinner?’, ‘why don’t you come over to my place and we can have a movie night?’, ‘how about we grab some snack from the grocery store and go for a picnic?”

Doing this will allow you to still have some great times with your friends and family, but at a much lower cost.

Tip #4: Have Nights In

Having nights in with your partner or friends is another great way to save some money. Going to to see movies, eat at restaurants and buying drinks can easily add up to over $100 per night out. If you are doing this once or twice a week, this can add up to hundreds of dollars a month, and thousands per year.

Most of the time, you can still achieve a lot of what you fancy on these nights out at home. Here is a blog post we wrote about some great night in ideas: 8 Ideas for A Great (and Cheap!) Night In

Tip #5: Automate Your Savings

One of the best ways we have found to actually put money aside for a holiday is to automate the savings. By this, we mean setting up an automatic payment with your bank into a separate savings account for your holiday. By doing this, you take a lot of the work out of putting money aside for your trip. Once you take the initial steps to set this up, you don’t have to think about it. Another great part about doing this is that you set the goals. Maybe you only want to put away a little more spending money for your trip, so a $10 a week payment will be plenty. Or maybe you are needing to save a lot more money to cover your flights or accommodation, so you need to be saving $50-100 per week. It is completely up to you. And, you can change this whenever you like. I had a direct payment set up for $100 per week last year, however, when it got to December I was spending a lot more money on buying Christmas presents for people, and catching up with people over the summer holidays. So, during this period I reduced the payments down to $20 for a few weeks, which gave me enough flexibility for my other expenses at this time.

The great part was that at all times, I was putting money into my savings. Even when the payments were reduced I managed to add another $100 to my savings account over the month. This tip is great for anyone, but particularly if you would not consider yourself great at budgeting and saving. And, it can usually be done with ease over your banking app.

Doing this puts the money in your savings before you have the chance to spend it on something else. It is a great way to take a lot of the thought out of saving, and provides you with encouragement to see your travel account growing each week!