I love to travel. I love to travel so, so much. My husband loves to travel (that was, by the way, a requirement for us getting married). I love road trips — even long ones — and I love flying halfway around the world to explore new countries.
I love everything about travel. The food, the people, the different cultures. I’ve been to seven different countries, and 25 different states, but hope that, ten years from now, those numbers will be much, much higher. We have a dream we talk about often, of getting an RV and loading our family up and just going. Maybe out to the west coast, maybe up the Atlantic seaboard — or maybe just driving wherever we feel like going.
I don’t think money on travel is ever a waste. A couple years ago, I interviewed a sibling trio. One of the band members, who was in her mid-20s, said she quit her job because she realized she took the well-paying job because she wanted to travel, but the job limited her time to travel to two weeks of vacation time. Two weeks. So she made a life switch and is now a musician full-time, giving her freedom and flexibility to do what she wants.
Yes, travel can be costly, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s amazing what we can do without, in order to do the thing we want to do the most. Over and over again, I hear people lamenting that they want to go to the beach, to that foreign country, to anywhere, but they can’t afford it.
Much like with our adoption, I think much of it comes down to how we choose to spend our money. One of the things we (gladly) gave up to afford the adoption was eating out. I was OK with not having the over-priced chicken, because my mind was on our little girl, and getting her out of the orphanage was infinitely more important than any $15 entree.
There are so, so many ways to save money, and this list really just scratches the surface. But below are a few ways we’ve discovered, or are discovering, how to make the most out of our money as possible.
1. Skip Starbucks (or whatever coffee shop you like)
Truth: if I could afford it, I would go to Starbucks every. single. day. I love everything about Starbucks — the coffee, the atmosphere, the smells — everything. But, a grande (medium) latte is around $4.00, without adding anything extra. Trust me, I know this; my standard drink is a grande, non-fat, extra-hot latte. Do that every day during the work week, and there’s $20. Do that for a year, and that’s $1040. (And that’s assuming you didn’t get sucked into the pastries or $3 bottle of water also.)
If you really need your latte, you can get an affordable espresso latte machine on Amazon* for $36, or a fancy one for around $88 on Amazon (which would also save you the inevitable long lines).
2. Skip eating out.
Or, at least limit eating out. Pack your lunch. Invite friends over for dinner. Make eating out a special thing, not a regular thing.
When I don’t have time to go home between work events, I usually eat at Panera downtown, because I can work while I eat, and it’s affordable (and, miraculously, still has free parking, which is becoming a rarity in Nashville). But even that lunch averages about $10. Do that three times a week, and there’s $30. Do that three times a week for a year, and that’s $1560.
Add in dinner out one night a week, which is about $75, more if you have to pay a sitter. That comes to $3900 a year. Whew.
(But when you do eat out, read this first to find out how to save up to 50%, or more, eating out).
3. Give up the manicure/pedicure/monthly hair treatment.
OK, I’ll be honest: This one is easy for me to give up, because I’m too hard on my hands to get my nails done, I hate hate HATE having anyone touch my feet, and my hair is super low-maintenance. So for those of you who love manicures, pedicures, or trips to the salon, my deepest apologies. But suppose you get a manicure OR pedicure, twice a month. That’s probably about $70/month. Which means, it’s $840 a year. Same with a blowout, color touch-up, etc. Those little things seem insignificant, but they add up.
So, all of that together, the coffee, eating out and nail or hair treatment comes to — wait for it — an astonishing $7340. $7340!!
I was inspired to write this by stumbling upon an article, by a woman,, Gloria Atanmo, who travels full-time (and is my hero). You can read it here, but her point was how many people spend money on things that add little if any intrinsic value to their life — a latte or a dinner out, for example — that feeds our need for instant gratification, but doesn’t leave us with an experience. And plenty of people are fortunate enough to be able to stop at Starbucks, eat out for lunch and dinner, and get their nails and hair done, and that’s GREAT for them (and I’ll try not to be jealous over here). But for some of us (raising my hand high), we have to choose and prioritize what we want. Do we want the mediocre steak and potatoes? Or do we want to eat bisteca and patate while dining in Rome?
I’m going to work on a blog on how to travel cheap (a situation I know allll too well), but with over $7000, that’s enough to buy airline tickets for a family, and still have money for food and a nice hotel (or use Airbnb for more space for less money). Or, you can drive a few hours away, and travel several weekends throughout the year (and no judgement to my friends who are parents and want to spend a few of those weekends kid-free).
With over $7000 in extra money, there is a lot of traveling that can be done in a year. A lot.
Some are (surely) going to be different than me, and really want their daily coffee and dinners out, and that’s GREAT. It makes them happy, and that’s what matters. They should use their money to what brings them joy. It all comes down to putting our money towards what we value. I, personally, don’t value coffee I purchase but can make at home nearly as much as I value my toes in the sand, or a great meal in a foreign country, or even spending a glorious week at my sister’s house. Some people don’t enjoy travel, and for them, their daily dose of happy is so worth it, and then, by all means, they should do it!
For me, figuring out where our money goes, which began when we realized we needed about $40,000 to adopt our sweet girl, has been instrumental in helping us determine how to accomplish the things we really want to do. If I want to take a vacation, then I, personally, need to be willing to give up some things that don’t add value to my life, to be able to do the things I want to do.
If you have any ideas on how to travel cheap, I would love to hear them, and maybe even include them in a future blog!
*The Gayle Thompson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
