Affording Long-Term Travel | Our Strategies

Throughout our RTW trip, we have received a lot of positive feedback about our decision to travel long-term. Many people think what we’re doing is awesome; so awesome, in fact, they say they wish they could do it themselves. I cannot tell you how many times we have heard statements like: “I would love to travel… if only I had the money,” or “I’ll never be able to do that because I’m not rich.” The words are a little different every time, but the message is always the same: it must cost a ton of money to travel for so long… right?

I understand how they could be confused. I know we look like fancy people, what with our dirty Chacos and rotating three outfits of functional outdoor travel clothing, but I have a little secret to share with everyone: we’re not rich either! We don’t have secret trust funds, we didn’t win the lottery, and we’re not selling ourselves on foreign streets to continue traveling. We don’t even make money with this website (yet!), as many long-term travelers do.

How, then, can we possibly afford long-term travel? Well it’s pretty simple, really. It takes a little diligence and some sacrifices, but the payoff has been priceless. I’ve broken down our strategy into two parts: what we did to save before we left, and how we travel on a budget to make the money we have last.

Sometimes we feel rich! Brian holding 6000 Thai Baht, equivalent to $192

Pre-trip savings and money-making techniques: 

Spend less and cut out extraneous expenditures: This sounds pretty straight-forward, but I know from experience it’s much easier said than done. Those beers at the bar add up, and so do meals out, new clothes, and other random purchases. Before you know it, you’re digging in your pockets only to find them empty. How did that happen?! In the year or so before we left, Brian and I had a dry-erase board where we would write everything we wanted to buy (with the exceptions of necessities like food and toiletries, of course). We would let it sit there until the end of each month, then we would look over the list and decide what we really needed. Generally, we didn’t end up purchasing the things on our list. There is a blurry line between “need” and “want” in our culture, one we began to become very aware of from this exercise.

Sell your stuff: Once we decided we wanted to travel long-term, we began weeding through our stuff, deciding what we wanted to store for our return and what we didn’t need to hang on to. For a year (more or less) on the road, it didn’t make sense for us to keep things like furniture, decorative knick-knacks, and certain appliances. After donating fifteen garbage bags full of random stuff to the Habitat Home Store (more on our revelations about living simply and acquiring less in a later post), we kept our only our wedding gifts and things with sentimental value. We used Craigslist to sell some items, including both of our cars and a few pieces of furniture. For the remaining items, we had a more fun way to ditch our things and make a few bucks. Our lovely friends and neighbors helped us set up an auction where people bid on items they wanted. Not only did they get what they wanted, but we knew our beloved things ended up in a good home and we were left with a good bit of cash in our pocket.

Pick up extra income: If you have a job and are used to living on your income, why not work a little more to help make your dream come true that much faster? I worked at a residential boarding school during the day and on some weekends. I had weeknights and a few weekends free, so I decided to get involved with a catering company to earn extra money. After each shift, I always made sure to put my earnings directly into the savings account as to not spend it accidentally. Additionally, we did house and yard work for family and babysat for friends and acquaintances. There are many ways to earn extra money if you look for them.

Put your student loans on forbearance or deferment: Some of you might disagree with me here. Maybe this isn’t the smartest financial decision I’ve ever made, but if we always make decisions from the more logical, financially-oriented parts of our brains we never follow through with making our dreams a reality. I can guarantee my loans will be there, waiting to greet me when I get home, but I can’t guarantee I’ll ever have the opportunity to travel around the world again.

Staying on a budget while traveling: 

Make a budget: Step one: you must have a budget to stay on your budget. No matter how much money you’re leaving with, it’s important to decide what your budget is. We have a set daily budget because it is easier for us to keep track of. Keep in mind that each new place you travel to will vary in cost, so do your research and set your budget(s) realistically. It will only leave you frustrated and detract from your travels if you have try to live on an unrealistic budget. It’s better to travel for a shorter, quality-filled amount of time than to try to travel longer and spend your entire trip money-stressing.

Write every expense down: If there is only one thing you take away from this post, this should be it. We tediously write down every single expense on this trip and enter it in an Excel spreadsheet. As much of a nuisance as it can be, it keeps us honest and allows us to calculate our average daily/weekly/monthly expenses so we know how we’re doing and whether or not we’re on target with our budget.

Find a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign exchange/conversion fees: After a lot of research, we settled on our local bank in New York for our travel credit cards because they do not charge any fees associated with foreign travel. Many credit cards will charge around 3% or more for all overseas purchases, so be careful to ask when applying for cards. We learned this lesson the hard way when we booked our flights to Europe on an old credit card.

Bring only what you need, in carry-on sized luggage: Speaking of learning things the hard way, did you read our post about bringing too much stuff? Budget airlines all over the world are waiting for you to make the same rookie mistake we did. You’ll find a great fare on a flight, only to find that checking bags is twice as much as the fare. Before you know it, you may find yourself shoving a backpack frame down your pants before boarding a Ryanair flight to save 40 euros. Not only do you pay more to check bags, but you also have to haul all that stuff around on your back everywhere you go. I mean it, take only what you need!

Prioritize your expenses: Decide what is important to you when you travel. Are you more interested in trying new and different foods, or are you yearning to ride in a hot air balloon or take boat trips to exotic islands? Whatever your passion is, allocate your money to allow you to do the things you really want and spend less on things you don’t care as much about. For example, if you don’t mind sharing rooms with strangers, save money by sleeping in hostels. If you would rather go to a museum than have a sit-down lunch, eat from the grocery store instead going to a restaurant. Basically, don’t try to have it all. Decide what makes you happiest and make sacrifices in other areas to compensate.

Travel slowly: One of, if not the, biggest expenses of travel is getting around. Trains, planes, and automobiles all cost money, and the more you move the more you pay. We’re big proponents of getting to know a place well rather than stopping in new places for a couple of days before moving on. Travel isn’t a race, and you can’t see everything. If you try, you’ll likely run out of money much quicker than you anticipate.

Volunteer!: For us, the experience of volunteering has been priceless and deserves a hundred more exclamation points, but since I’m not a middle school girl, I’ll just stick to one. There are numerous organizations which provide volunteer opportunities overseas. We use Help Exchange, but other programs like WWOOF and workaway all provide volunteer listings for a minimal fee. Brian and I paid $29 USD for a two-year membership as a couple to helpx.net, which gives us access to the entire global database of hosts. So far, we have worked at a guesthouse and a music festival in England, and on an organic farm in Belgium. Saving money is only one small perk of volunteering.

CouchSurf: If you’re willing to put yourself out there and want to meet new people, CouchSurfing may be the perfect resource for you. It is a world-wide database of surfers and hosts who are interested in a common goal: cultural immersion through home-stays. Much like volunteering, saving money should not be the main motivation behind signing up for CouchSurfing, but it is an added perk. It’s pretty awesome that travel-enriching experiences have money-saving side effects, isn’t it?

Apply for a work visa: Think you’ll need to make money at some point during your travels? We did too. That’s why we applied for working holiday visas in New Zealand. Ours are valid for one year after our entry date and allow us to get paid work once we get there. Similar visas are available for many countries depending on your age and nationality.

Shop locally: The best way we have found to save money (particularly on food) is to shop at local markets and buy locally-sourced products. We understand the feeling of craving familiar foods from home (in our case it is almost always black bean burritos), but the more you try to purchase things that are not part of the local cuisine, the more you’re going to spend. Farmer’s markets are an excellent way to support the local economy and save yourself money on restaurant and grocery bills. Once again, a mutually beneficial relationship; are you catching onto the reoccurring theme here?

Spread out your time between expensive and less expensive destinations: Our expenses balance out depending on where we’re traveling. Yes, Switzerland is outrageously expensive, but it was one of the best adventures we had in Europe. Thailand, on the other hand, falls on the other end of the cost spectrum. Don’t decide not to visit countries simply because they’re notoriously expensive, just be careful while you’re there and balance it out when you’re traveling in inexpensive places.

Watch airfare prices before booking: We set up price alerts on flights we’re interested in months in advance. Search engines like kayak.com will send you a weekly email with the current price and how much it has gone up or dropped over time. Check multiple websites before booking to make sure you get the best fare.

Last but not least, don’t let money get in between you and your dreams. 

If traveling around the globe is your dream, I’m here to tell you it isn’t money that is stopping you. Heck, no matter what your dream is, money can only stop you from achieving it if you let it. Maybe you can’t amass the cash to live your dream immediately, but the old adage applies here: nothing worth doing is easy. A wise professor always told us to “start small, go slow, but go,” and I encourage you to do the same. Take small steps, make small changes, and believe that if you want something badly enough, you can make it happen. Whatever your dream is, I hope you don’t let money be your excuse to keep putting it off.

Comment below: what tips, tricks, and strategies would you add to this list?

About the author: Kaitlin

Kaitlin is one of the two backpacks currently galavanting her way around the globe with her husband Brian. She loves adventures of any kind (especially if they involve getting into the wilderness), exploring vegetarian foods in different cultures, and meeting people from around the globe. Her goal in writing for this site is to inspire people to take risks, define their own life rules, and be happy and healthy while doing it.

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