Tips on How to save Money – making life easier

The formula is simple. Live below your means, and save the rest. However, putting this method into practice is not always simple, being able to become a good saver is an art form in itself, it takes practice and most of all persistence. There are social pressures to consider too, but if you have the discipline, you will crush your financial goal and go on that dream holiday. 

We want to enjoy that dream holiday, but coming back from a holiday in debt is stressful and not enjoyable at all. Below are some ways to save money for the next trip and have you coming back feeling refreshed and not stressed.

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Become financially responsible to save money

Money management is an acquired skill, but most of us don’t fully understand the principles until we’re adults. Saving enough money for travel, a house, a car, or for anything that you desire can be difficult and requires sacrifice, which is why so few people succeed. It’s all about having the appropriate mindset and discipline to achieve what goal you set for yourself! 

Figure out your budget to start saving.

The first thing you will need to determine is figuring out “how much money” you actually need to have that budget or luxury getaway. Depending on the experience you are wanting to have while on holiday this will help you calculate an estimate on how much money you will need to be put aside to start saving.

Think about the things that will add to your expenses while away. Things that you need to consider a budget for are:

• Flight tickets
• Travel insurance
• Visa’s and vaccines (depending on the country) 
• Appropriate luggage (suitcases/ backpacks) 
• Accommodation
• Transport (hire care, bus, train, taxi’s, so on) 
• Phone / internet connection
• Entertainment/ Activities 
• Food and drinks
• Gifts, Souvenirs, a little something for yourself
• Consider fees if using a credit card, or ATM fees.

Start tracking your spending

Tracking your expenses is an important part of figuring out where you can save money or even stop spending altogether. It’s all about being aware. “OK – this is where I am,” you say, staring your financial situation in the face. This is where I need to be.” Developing this level of awareness and keeping track of everything takes time. You don’t change your behavior overnight, that’s the nature of habits.

Things to consider cutting or changing are: 

• Cutting Netflix, Stan, Disney, Foxtel, any cable TV
• Cancel your gym membership and work out at home (be creative, be savvy)
• Cut your take away meals, cook at home, take lunches to work
• Stop the daily coffee run, make your coffee at home
• Ride a bike more often, cutting down your car costs
• Quit smoking or cut your smoking in half, less drinking
• Cutting down on luxuries like massages, nails, hair appointments

Make a visual of your spending and goals 

Take some time and write out your living expenses, having a visual helps to see where your spending is actually going, break it down into sections or get on your online banking and get a breakdown of your expenses. 

You can put your spending into categories like:

• Health
• Retail Shopping
• Home & renovations
• Bills & utilities
• Transport
• Travel
• Eating out & dining
• Groceries 
• Fitness & beauty
• Fees & charges
• Entertainment, and so on. 

This list is only an example of categories, you can list as many as you need depending on your spending habit. 

Once you have written out all your categories total your spending for each category, you will then see where you can start budgeting ruthlessly.  

Making a vision board of the things you want to do on your holiday can be a motivator. 

Time to get serious about saving money

Take a breath- after crunching all the numbers, it can be overwhelming sometimes to see where our money is actually going and I bet you thinking to yourself, “Gee that’s a lot of money I wasted throughout the year”.

I hear ya! I often break down our expenses and think “WOW” we seriously need to sort our finances out, because “if we didn’t spend this, we could have had that” and this goes for the very reason you want to save for a holiday, just imagine if you didn’t spend all that money on the things you wanted but didn’t really need, what that money could have been used for on your holiday. 

Now you have worked out where you can save money by eliminating all the things you really don’t need and you have worked out where all your current income and expenses are going it’s time to get serious and start budgeting and saving.

 Less spending and learning to budget = Epic holiday.

Extra ways to save money

1. Store reward cards – if you don’t already have them, maybe start thinking about signing up for some. I often use store cards to collect points that can convert into money, for example here in Australia we have Woolworths and Coles (food stores) that we can collect points every time we do grocery shopping and when we have enough points we can convert the points into money off our food shopping. 

2. If you are a credit card user, look into options of credit cards that offer points for every dollar you spend, a credit card is only good if you have the discipline not to spend like crazy, after all, you are trying to save money, not have a bigger debt, but maybe a credit card with a low limit may be an option, if using a credit card for point options, be sure to pay off your limits to avoid getting interest charges. 

We choose to live on our credit cards, simply because we are good with our finances and never allow our credit cards to accumulate interest, we do this as we figure for food and essential items we are going to pay for it regardless and feel we may as well get some benefit out of it in the use of vouchers, gifts, money back, and so on. 

** Be aware with point credit cards there are often annual fees, so if going for this type of credit card, be sure you use it enough to make over the fee value.**

Our credit card has an annual fee of $115 which is quite high, but by the end of the year, I generally have made $700 with my points, so that’s a saving of $585.00 I sometimes use at Christmas time to buy gifts or use it at our travel center. 

On the flip side to credit cards, if you already have a credit card and are incurring interest on your amount owing, it may be an idea to use the money you are saving and pay off your credit card, not only will you feel more relaxed having less to no debt, but the money you are saving on paying interest is more money in your savings account. 

3. Talk to your bank and see if they offer a savings account that has a lock on it and cannot have any withdrawals until a certain date that you specify, banks often bring out a special savings account where you can put money away and not touch the amounts until a particular date, maybe they have holiday accounts, often they have Christmas accounts for people to put money into, but cannot be accessed until December, this is a great option especially if you are not very disciplined and tempted by using the money you see in your accounts. 

If you have self-discipline then be sure to put any spare dollars into your savings account as soon as you have paid for all your expenses, such as bills. 

4. Collect all your coins in a money box, or a money jar and cash it in at the bank prior to your holiday, you will be surprised how many coins you actually have. I do this every year, I don’t like carrying around coins, so I put them in my kid’s money box and at the end of the year, we count it all up for fun and we are surprised every time how much the money box can actually hold in the hundreds of dollars.

Options to make your savings go further. 

Opt for Off-Season

This is our number-one tip to cut your expenses.  Airline tickets, accommodation, tours, food, and activities are always higher if you’re traveling during the high season or popular holiday season. 

Book Activities Ahead of Time

If you do your research well, you can get cheaper prices if you plan ahead of time, be sure to be checking different websites to ensure you are getting a good deal, and keep an eye out for deals such as “black Friday”, “end of year sales”, often you can snag yourself a better deal and put extra money in your pockets for your trip.  

Make extra money on the side

Everyone wants to earn more money. Find a “side-hustle” that you can work part-time. It doesn’t have to be a fantastic job! It’s just something to help you supplement your income. Do some research to see what kinds of part-time jobs may be a good fit for your skills and talents.

Earn money as you travel

This is a very helpful shortcut while traveling on a budget. If you can create a side hustle that you can actually generate money from while you travel, this will give your extra $$ while away, there are many different options and some that include turning it into a passive income, below are a few ideas.

• Blogging

• Affiliate Marketing

• Social Media Marketing

• Create digital products

• Freelance Writers

• Virtual Assistant (VA)

• Tutor / Language teacher

This is just a snippet of the thousands of options available to you, you can check out my post for a more detailed list of side hustles. 

Additional options you can look into are:

• Dog walking or pet sitting
• House sitting, saving you costs.
• Complete online surveys that pay you for your opinions and answers, they are free to join, some that I personally use are:
• Pureprofile, SurveyCompare, Survey Junkie, Swagbucks and you can do these all from your phone while sitting at home or on your lunch breaks at work.
• Mystery Shopper- I use FieldAgent here in Australia and you can go into shops or restaurants and complete a review on products or services, even with some visits, they even reimburse you for your purchase.