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The best thing you can do for yourself in the new year, especially if you’re trying to save money for travel, is get your finances in order. If you love travel, but aren’t already budgeting for it, doing this can be such a huge difference-maker. Knowing exactly how much money you currently have available for trips helps you figure out not only what you can afford, but also points out ways down the road you can free up more money for travel. It’s simply a must-do if you’re like me, and have limited funds and vacation days each year.
Here are a few simple tips to get you started:
Travel Budget Prep: Start Here
- Open up a savings account solely for travel.
- Start tracking all of your expenses immediately. If you do not know what you are spending money on each month, it will be very difficult to know what extra funds you have available to set aside. Do this for one month.
Create Your Budget
- Once you have a picture of normal monthly expenses, it’s time to figure out what funds you have available for travel. Make a commitment to put a minimum sum of money in your travel savings account each month, even if it’s not very much at the moment. You’ll be glad to have it later.
- If in this exercise you found some areas where you could afford to cut back, try making a commitment to spend less on them each month. It’s worth it to prioritize saving for trips!
- Now that you have a general idea of how much you can save each month, figure out how much you can save in a year (ie. multiply your monthly savings by 12).
Start Planning Your Trips
- Here’s the fun part: determine what types of trips you can afford this year with what you are able to save. If you are only saving a little at the moment, and are not able to do as much as you’d like, fret not. Save that money anyway. It could just be that now is not a good time for you to travel, but maybe next year or the year after that will be! It’s good to be prepared for when that time comes.
- One you determine which trips you can afford, make a detailed budget for said trip. Try to anticipate costs, so you aren’t broke when you get home.
Continue Looking for Ways to Save
- Keep looking into ways to save money on travel, like using credit cards with rewards points. These can help you score some free flights, lodging, etc. I am currently using the Capital One Venture card, but have also just applied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve. You can also check out this post I wrote about saving money on flights to help you budget your trips costs.
- Budgeting is not all about money, but also about allocating those limited PTO days if you are a full time worker like me. I recommend checking out this post for tips on using vacation days as efficiently as possible.
Follow these tips, and you will be getting a great start to saving for travel in the new year. There is no time like the present to fix your finances, and get the ball rolling on your travel savings. Being able to budget is crucial if you are determined to start traveling more, but have limited resources to do so.
Have any travel budgeting suggestions of your own? Share your knowledge in the comments below.
