Exactly how do you save money to travel the world? Especially if you live in a crazy expensive city, spend over half your monthly salary on rent, and are generally s**t at handling finances? Well, that was precisely my situation and this post is all about exactly how I saved money to travel.
It’s that million-dollar question, how to save money to travel – when you’re eternally broke?
Even travelling in your home country is hard enough if you live somewhere ginormous or expensive, or both (hiiii, Australians). If you have bags of wanderlust but no moneybags, travel can feel completely unattainable. For me personally, figuring out exactly how to save money to travel whilst living in Europe’s most expensive city was a conundrum.
Actually, you don’t need to be rich to travel. Unless you want to travel first class, sleep in hotels, and take lots of tours… then I can’t help you much there.
But if you want to save money to travel as the budget-backpacker-flashpacker sort of hybrid then perhaps my story and tips can help you.
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Table of Contents
The myth of long-term travel
When you think of long-term travel, you automatically start thinking that it’s wildly expensive, extravagant, and only for posh gap yaahhh kids. I definitely did.
Money – my lack of – held me back from long-term travel for a very long time. Although, it certainly didn’t stop me from taking holidays. And I did take some incredible holidays during my twenties which I’m so thankful for and aware that holidays – like any type of travel – are a privilege. But my struggle to save money to travel did block me from my dream of wandering around the world on a one-way ticket.
These holidays always ended up being way over budget. I relied on birthday money and credit cards to fund them and always ended up overspending whilst I was away. And again, these were holidays – so when I was on these trips I was run-down and exhausted. Which in my case has always resulted in whacking things on my credit card – not a clever idea when you want to save money to travel long-term.
After these two-week-maximum trips, I returned to London wishing that I’d just booked a one-way ticket in the first place.
The really ironic thing is that I spent so much more during those holidays than I have in the past three years of long-term travel.
A confession
At the end of the day, I put my hands up and admit that I acted dreadfully with my money the whole time I lived in London. Fact.
Throughout my twenties, I worked a 9-5 in London and dreamed of quitting my job and taking a full year to travel. Although I wanted to take a ‘gap year’ before or just after my university studies, this wasn’t a viable option. But, as I couldn’t fund my travel dreams at either 18 or 21, I was happy to work for a few years to save up. I expected to work in London for a couple of years and get myself established. Then, I figured I could take a career break and either return to London later or find work overseas.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out like that. I worked in book publishing, which isn’t the most lucrative industry if you want to make big money. Again, I didn’t exercise good financial management at all. I would frequently overspend and work myself up into a panic. London rents ain’t cheap, either!
Becoming location independent
It was a close friend from London who introduced me to the mysterious digital nomad world. Exactly like me, she had dreams to travel more deeply and live a different lifestyle but wasn’t bothered about ticking famous sights off a list.
After she told me her plans, I started researching how I could travel as a digital nomad. At first, I was daunted; I didn’t like the sound of dropshipping or trading bitcoin and wasn’t motivated to become an ‘entrepreneur’ or a ‘boss babe’. But making the leap into freelancing made sense, and I knew that I could shift my current job over to a remote trade of some kind.
But, even once I’d committed to becoming location independent, I still needed a healthy stash of cash in the bank. I knew that once I was on the road I would be a thrifty traveller. However, I wanted to leave with some savings so that I wasn’t living entirely hand to mouth in foreign countries. One of my fears about leaving the UK was the risk of getting into financial trouble and needing to ask for help.
Yup, I needed to trim my outgoings and get my finances fit to fly.
Can you save money to travel whilst living in London?
Yes and no. It’s hard work, takes some sacrifices, requires some serious management – but it is possible.
For me personally, this was a big fat no for some time. Those first couple of years that I worked in London, my salary covered my living costs and afforded me a snack-size bite of the London lifestyle. As my wages eventually increased, my living costs were right behind them.
Despite my best intentions, it was hard to put cash aside. Most of my monthly salary was absorbed by rent, transport, bills, health, keeping up with the Joneses, and, of course, buying unnecessary things I didn’t need. Money just seem to evaporate in a city like London, and I simply wasn’t any good at managing my cashflow.
Eventually, I gave myself a deadline that I would formulate a plan to aggressively save money to travel. Around my 29th birthday, I committed to being overseas before my 30th. That meant handing in my notice at the end of summer. That meant, summer was going to be a prudent one – my commitment to save money to travel was on.
And, sure enough – cutting back on necessities and luxuries made long-term travel a possibility.
7 ways I saved money to travel whilst living in London
Now, I don’t regret any of the memories London gave me. Morning raves, immersive theatre, music festivals, endless art exhibitions and prosecco brunches shaped my time in the city. I even learned to sail during my time in London (humble dinghies sans engine, not superyachts). I didn’t move to the capital city to spend my twenties sitting in a grotty flatshare.
It dawned on me that needed to inject some fun into my ‘save money to travel’ efforts. I decided to turn the process of saving money to travel into a part of my adventure.
Once I put my mind to it, I realised there are plenty of creative ways to save money to travel but still enjoy London Life – albeit on a budget. So here are a couple of ways I managed to bank some cash in a short space of time, whilst still enjoying my final months in London.
How to save money for travel? These are some of the luxuries I cut for my final year living in London.
Save money to travel #1… cut public transport costs
For my final year living in London I swapped the Tube for tires and purchased a year’s access to London’s bike hire scheme, Santander Cycles. This saved me a tonne of cash each month. Annual membership cost me £90 in place of the £138.70 I usually handed over for my monthly travelcard.
Once enrolled I took unlimited journeys up to 30 minutes for no extra cost. If my journey exceeded 30 minutes I would incur small extra charges. So, I’d dock before my half-hour was up, then reinsert my key and complete my journey. Why did I do this rather than buy my own bike? Punctures, flat tires, faulty lights, high risk of theft – no thanks.
Another thing I loved about this is that cycling is FUN, and it gave me the opportunity to explore new parts of London. My morning ride put me in a much more cheerful state of mind on my morning commute. Crucially, it helped me keep fit after save money for travel #2…
Money saved: £138.70 per month
(£1,575 per year once I paid for Santander Cycles!!! That’s almost what I paid for my campervan in New Zealand!)
Save money to travel #2… quit the gym
An obvious one. Although, this was a hard one for me as exercise is the main way I keep my mental health in check. Plus, I genuinely enjoy going to the gym and mine, in particular, was wonderful due to all the classes I had access to. But, I figured there are plenty of ways to keep in shape for free and the money saved would come in handy.
Besides running; I dislike running with a passion. If you can tolerate running, I applaud you.
Instead, I practised yoga in my bedroom (I am a devout user of the Down Dog app) and did home workouts with kettlebells and dumbbells. If you don’t have those – lift whatever you have lying around – a bottle of wine, your cat, housemate, etc. And cycling the frantic streets of London helped me keep my heart pumping in more ways than one!
Money saved: £32 per month
Save money to travel #3… cancel Netflix
No more Netflix binges! Swapping those reruns of Friends shaved a small but noticeable saving off my expenditure, and boosted my productivity. I used the time to tune into travel vlogs and stream podcasts.
Listening to podcasts like Travel Like a Boss and Travel Stories helped me to keep my focus on what was most important to me.
Money saved: £8.99 per month
Save money to travel #4… no more big screen
Another luxury item on my list that got the axe was visiting the cinema. Because seeing a film in London is now astronomical (I really feel for anyone who has kids in London), I’d taken out a subscription which worked out cheaper.
During my year of thrifty living, the cinema and I parted ways.
Money saved: £16.99 per month
Save money to travel #5… switch to SIM-only
As I was already paying for home internet and had Wi-Fi in my office, I really didn’t need to pay excessive amounts for mobile data.
I cancelled my monthly tariff, paid off the outstanding balance on my handset and went all risky business by terminating my phone insurance.
Instead, I took out a SIM card only deal and ended up paying £5 per month for a frugal amount of data and texts. Depending on where you are based, you should be able to reduce your phone bill. If you are based in the UK – I recommend checking out GiffGaff for a SIM-only deal.
Money saved: £60 per month
Save money to travel #6… no more partying
Wild nights out in London were put to rest in my final months as a Londoner. I actually grimace when I think of all the money I used to spend on over-priced glasses of wine, late-night McDonalds, and Uber journeys home.
Whilst saving money to travel, I would take my Oyster card with enough credit to get me home on the night bus after a night out. Plus, I’d only take a small amount of cash to buy one or two drinks at the bar. Canny, ey?
I generally pushed back on going out; declining post-work drinks and avoiding impromptu weekends out (you’ll find out what I did with my weekends instead below). Which is challenging in a city where partying and drinking feels like the very essence of the culture.
Money saved: enough to see an alarming change in my bank balance!
Save money to travel #7… scale back on eating habits
To be honest, eating out wasn’t something I did all that often when I lived in London. Unless it was a work thing that I wouldn’t have to pay for myself.
Throughout my time in the city, I always took a packed lunch to the office. That made cutting out restaurants and cafes full stop a piece of cake because it wasn’t really a habit of mine anyway. If I did eat out, I knew one course would fill me up so I didn’t order starters or desert for the sake of it.
To reduce my grocery bills, I batch-cooked big veggie dishes like curry and pasta which would last me a few days. Eggs and potatoes are cheap everywhere and became a staple of many of my meals. I’m not a devout vegetarian but I do keep my meat and dairy consumption low. Cutting it out reduced my spending too.
Another tip – get to know the reduced aisle in the supermarket! At the end of the day you can often find heavily discounted products which are perfectly edible.
Money saved: Hard to say exactly. But, I would say that by being careful I could get by on an average of £50 per week for food
3 Other Ways I Saved Money to Travel
Cutting back on spending is great, but there’s only so much it can do when you live in an expensive city.
Also, when you start cutting things out you end up with extra time on your hands that you’re not sure how to use. Once I’d handed my notice in on my full-time job and stopped doing some of the things above, I took on a couple of side-gigs to save extra money for travel. But as they say, all work and no play is no fun, so I was selective about my side hustles.
1. A second job
To bulk up my travel piggyback, I started working a second job on weekends. As I intended to apply for the New Zealand working holiday visa, I decided that working in a bar would be handy as it might help me find this type of work whilst down under. And in fact it did – I worked as a bartender in the Bay of Islands for three months.
As I already had a full-time office job, I needed some flexibility. So I signed up with an on-demand staffing agency called Catapult. They operate in London, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham and place temporary staff in hospitality and retail roles. It’s great if you need to juggle shifts around a full-time job or other commitments.
To register with Catapult, you are required to attend a screening with basic training, during which you will record a brief video CV. Once approved you apply for shifts via their app. If Catapult isn’t in your city, there might be a similar platform that you can use.
Catapult gave me regular (rowdy) shifts in a rugby bar by Twickenham Rugby Stadium. Additionally, I served mulled wine and festive cocktails at a Christmas market in south London. Come Monday at the office, I was drained but saving money to travel kept me motivated.
TaskRabbit is a legitimate site and is available in a number of destinations around the world. There are sites such as GumTree where you can pick up ad hoc work.
You can always drop a CV off at a couple of bars, cafes, shops, etc. If you’re transparent and explain it is a second job, they might be able to offer you some flexibility.
2. A third job
Once I was on the lengthy notice period from my 9-5, there was nothing to stop me waltzing out of the door at home time. And right into Job Number 3.
In my final months in London, I worked a few evenings a week hosting events for an entertainment company called Funzing. They host a series of events around the city – ranging from talks about serial killers, insomnia and psychedelic drugs to craft workshops and life drawing classes.
My job was to oversee the evening talks and ensure that everything ran smoothly for the speaker. I’d set up the tech, introduce the expert, handle the guestlist, steward guests towards the bar, oversee any general questions, break up brawls, and so on.
A huge benefit of this job was that I got to sit in on all these fabulous talks – for free.
I actually found this job via a Facebook group in London for freelance and casual workers. I even found some jobs in Christchurch this way later when I lived in New Zealand. If you work full-time already, find a second job that you can adapt to suit your schedule. Delivering leaflets, dog-walking, childminding, gardening or doing deliveries are all other options. And Facebook – for its sins – is a great place to find work opportunities.
By the way, if you live in London, Manchester, Singapore or Tel Aviv check Funzing out. My link gives you £5 credit towards a Funzing talk or experience of your choice!
3. Volunteer
Although I was cutting back on my spending I didn’t want to completely miss out on the things about London that I loved.
Yes, I wanted to save money to travel, but I didn’t want to completely give up Having A Life. Because, YOLO. So, I looked into volunteering opportunities. I figured this would be an interesting way to use my time whilst I was cutting back on my spending.
And, it turned out there are a lot of options in London! The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, runs a programme called Team London. Thanks to that scheme, I earned myself a place on the Royal Academy volunteer team. Working specifically on their Lates programme, I’d help out at these immersive events. Activities ranged from life drawing, collage making, immersive drama, gin tastings and live music.
In exchange for my time helping, I had a pass which gave me free entry to exhibitions at museums and galleries across London. Which was perfect for me as it meant that I didn’t need to sacrifice my museum Sundays!
Even without that little perk, using my spare time to volunteer was something I wholly enjoyed – whilst living in London and since I’ve been travelling as well. You won’t make money out of volunteering, but you should save money that you might otherwise be spending.
5 tips on how to save money for travel
There are so many other ways that you can save money for travel. Or in general – maybe you’ve got your eye on a house or want to invest your cash elsewhere.
These are just five quick tips on how to save money for travel.
1. Open your bank statements
Obviously, the areas that I saved money on are very specific to me. Some of the things that I stopped spending money on might not be relevant to you. I recommend downloading your bank statements and assessing exactly what you’re spending money on each month. Then figure out what expenditures you are prepared to sacrifice*.
Maybe you can move in with a friend or your family to save on rent or rent out your spare bedroom. Perhaps you can switch energy providers. If you buy lunch every day, take a packed lunch to work four days out of the week. Order your groceries online if you can – roaming the aisles with a rumbling tummy always leads to excess shopping.
*If sacrifice sounds a bit heavy – think more along the lines of what you are prepared to forfeit in exchange to travel.
2. Get savvy about your finances
One regret of mine is that I didn’t think about my general finances earlier in my twenties. Money was a huge white elephant in my life that I ignored.
Personal finance is so important yet so under-taught and such a taboo discussion topic. I read a book last year which helped me understand what I should have been doing with my money and has helped me implement some changes now. It’s not one of those dreadful ‘get rich quick’ books but is a practical guide that helps you understand things like pensions, taxes, national insurance, and the impact of money on your mental health.
The book is Money: A User’s Guide by Laura Whately. This one is very specific to British tax residents and I’d say is written with women in mind specifically. If that doesn’t apply to you, I’d recommend finding something similar in your local bookshop or online.
3. Create a savings pot
If you put the money that you are saving for travel out of reach, you’re less likely to accidentally spend it. Create a dedicated savings account and shove all your money in there. I did this and called it my ‘Big Trip’ so that I wouldn’t touch, drink, or eat it.
Interest rates are whack these days but if you can invest it in a short-term account that has some interest, there’s a bonus!
Plus, in the UK you might want to check out Chip and Moneybox to make other little savings.
4. Find a budget style that suits you
It’s good to assess how much money you want to save to travel and how much you expect to put aside per month. This will help you stick to your sacrifices and plan your adventure!
I’m dreadful at budgeting and can’t work spreadsheets at all, but one simple hack that did help me save money for travel was this.
On a Sunday, I would take out £140 from the cashpoint. Each day, I would carry £20 in my wallet – and leave my debit card at home. That way I had access to emergency cash, but I couldn’t be lured out for a spontaneous cocktail night or buy random things at lunch.
Whatever was left the following Sunday would go towards my groceries or other planned expenses for the next week.
5. Delete your social media
If cutting back and missing out on things is making you feel glum, then quit your social media. There’s nothing more depressing than sitting at home with your kettlebells and your reduced-aisle cauliflower and seeing all your pals out at parties or riding horses on the beach or whatever.
Eliminate that window into what you’re missing out on and you’ll feel more positive. Plus – as you start to save money to travel – you’ll feel way better!
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