Travel tips & tricks

Who doesn’t like to travel now a days? We all want to explore new places, try new meals, discover new cultures… but we also want the latest iPhone, a sushi dinner, and tickets for the best summer festivals. I quite confidently can say that we’re masters in saving money without missing out on anything. So here are a few tips on how to save money for a world trip.

1. Buy food at local markets

Most towns and cities have a local market with fresh goods. Most of the times, the quality of those is better than at the supermarkets, have less plastic and waste, and are much cheaper. Since we started buying fruits and vegetables at the market, we save easily 20€ per week. An added bonus is that we also eat much healthier and a lower amount of meat. And we actually really enjoy walking around the market, comparing offers, speaking with the vendors… it’s a much more rewarding experience than the supermarket! Explore the markets of your town or city and start saving and enjoying more your food!

2. Drink less alcohol!

If you’re like me, this is no issue at all. I’m very glad I barely like any alcoholic drinks, and the smell of a beer makes me get a weird face. But I know most people love a cold beer in the sun, and I completely understand it. Never give up on that one!

However… if you’re going out for a dinner, how many drinks will you order? If you’re like me, probably one. Did you notice that if you order two or three drinks during a dinner your spending on drinks around the same as on food? Try to cut on drinks a bit and you’ll see the amount on your receipts becoming much lower.

3. Buy second hand!

Another great thing to do for so many reasons! First of all, it’s cheap! You also help reduce waste and give a second life to an item that would otherwise become trash. You’ll also find unique items that no one else is wearing, and every now and then you’ll get your hands on a design piece for a bargain. And this goes not only for clothes, but also for household items.

I barely have anything brand new in my home, and I think I can say it’s a nice-looking cosy home. Look on the Facebook marketplace or on your local second hand websites and find everything you need! We have second hand washing machine, sofa, table, oven, kitchenware, lamps, plants, closets… I mean, everything!

4. Think twice before you buy

This is probably the most important tip to help you save money for a world trip. With so many platforms where advertisers can place their products in front of you, it’s hard to not fall into their traps. But stay strong, don’t click buy, or at least not just yet! When I feel like I want to buy something new (or second hand), I wait for a few days. If I kept thinking about it, and I wished I had it several times, it’s more likely that I kind of need it. So, I will allow myself to buy it.

But, in most cases, I only wanted it when it was in front of me – either on the screen or on the shop- and then I forgot about it. So, I didn’t really need it. Always give yourself some time before making the decision of buying something!

5. Sell what you don’t need!

Same as you can buy second hand products, you can also sell your things on a second hand (online) market! Look at your closet, in your living room, on those boxes that you haven’t opened in a while… I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of things you didn’t even remember that you had! All those are nominated to leave the house.  We’ve sold our old lamp, table, laptop, fridge… everything we didn’t need anymore or that became obsolete for us. Little by little, you get to save more money for a world trip!

6. Buy bulk when on discount

Besides going to the market, we do go to the supermarket to buy the rest of the food (other than veggies, fruit or meat and fish). I always look at the offers, and try to buy those long lasting products when they are on offer, like milk, canned food, frozen food, etc. We normally buy meat at the butcher, as it’s better and cheaper. But I always have a look at the supermarket in case there’s anything discounted that I can buy and freeze as well. To give you an idea, I’ve never ever bought the canned tuna for the standard 1’70€. I know that every few weeks it will be on offer for 0’99€ and then I’ll buy a lot of them!

7. Every euro counts to save for a world trip!

If you think doing all this won’t help you save money, try it for a while and let me know. It’s really not a big effort, I actually enjoy doing all these and I feel very rewarded every time I find a great deal. We don’t live suffering and saving every cent, not at all. But we find much joy in the simple things and don’t need to go out for dinner every weekend or buy the latest technology gadgets.

Before going on our world trip, I flew home an average of 5 times per year, and visited my sister another 3 or 4 times. So you can see, I still had some extra spending and never gave up on what I wanted. But I have this mindset of always thinking if what I’m doing is cost efficient.

To top it up!

Now, if you want to go the extra mile (and for this one I will accept it if you call me crazy), check your electricity plan and look at what times the electricity is the cheapest. In our case, it’s every day after 11pm and on the weekends. So I always put the dishwasher on before we sleep, and do the laundry on the weekend. It changes nothing on my routine, and saves a bit at the end of the month!

If you want to know how much we actually spent during our world trip, check out this post! These tips will work for saving in general, but having a motivation always helps. So keep your next trip in mind while doing all this, and soon you’ll be a ninja saver like we are!

If you have any other good tips, or you want to hear more from us, leave a comment below!