How to save up travel funds for your backpacking trip

Saving up for that dream backpacking trip can be a nightmare, you have to think differently in order to save.

Here are a few tips on how you can alter your everyday spending to save the pennies where it matters:

Food and brands

Changing the way you shop at the supermarket can make a massive difference. Buying Shop brand or budget brand food can make a difference. You might even be surprised to find that it pretty much tastes the same. Rather similar, in fact, you start to wonder why you purchased branded foods in the first place.

Marketing is normally the main reason why items are so expensive and it’s the personal connection with the brand that you have built up since Childhood why you often go for that purchase. Even changing the supermarket you shop at might even have a bigger impact, take Aldi or Lidl for example, the goods are just the same, just more affordable.

Buy in Bulk and cook your food in Bulk.

Buying in bulk and cooking all your weekly meals at once can save you a massive amount of money in the long run. You will quickly notice your weekly shopping bill will become a lot cheaper.

Cooking each meal individually costs a lot, by simply using a Freezer will ensure your food keeps fresh and great to eat once its heated up. Then you can buy large cheaper quantities of items, portion the food up for a week in the freezer and your good to go. Saves a lot of time and washing up as well.

Also invest in a selection of Herbs and spices, they can add a lot of flavour to a meal without little effort or cost and avoid your meals from being bland.

If you want to read more into this alternative budget Cooking option I can highly recommend this ebook full of useful tips: Low Cost Living by John Harrison

Avoid going out or drinking

Eating out, drinking with your friends in the pub or going to the cinema soon adds up. Soon you will be travelling and having a lot of fun and experiences yourself. Don’t worry about putting this on hold for a little while. It will, however, cut into your social life so try and alter and think differently about your entertainment needs, you don’t have to make complete sacrifices.

Maybe invite your friends over to watch a DVD at your place or suggest going for a local walk or chilling in the park, you can still be social and do a lot of fun things for free. Try looking around where you live for free alternative fun days out, you might be surprised what you find and can experience something different for a change.

Buying unnecessary Junk

It can be tempting to buy items such as new clothes, latest video game, just avoid it and remember what you’re trying to achieve. Soon you won’t need these things as the world will be yours to explore.

Instead, add these items to a wish List or write them down and you can come back to buying them in the future, this will help your temptation and in most cases your not want them after all.

If you do still want said item, then there is always Birthday or Christmas around the corner and at least you have really thought a lot about wanting it so this is a great gift suggestion.

Alternative Media Content

The Internet is full of great free content, travel resource websites, blogs, free ebooks to read, out of date Audiobooks, podcasts, Documentaries on YouTube, Sound cloud/radio stations, lots of great legal content online perfectly available for you to download/stream and enjoy.

You won’t get board so make the most out of the endless amount of free content on the web.

Mobile contracts

Monthly bills have to be paid, but some bills can be cut, take your mobile contract, for example, this can cost you a fortune yearly, move to a pay as you go contract and limit your spending in this way.

Skype is free and often miles cheaper for local calls as well, look into this option and see if it can work for you.

This also goes for TV subscriptions, make use out of the endless free resources to stream content online.

You might even want to go for the radical step of removing your Internet subscription as well, this might not be for everyone, but if you have a University library close by or free city wifi you can make use of, then why not? But the Internet is handy at home so it depends on your internet use and situation.

Cutting expensive Coffee

Ordering a daily coffee at a cafe every day can cost you a mountain load. Cutting this out and brewing at home can make a massive difference on saving for your backpacking adventure. You might even want to consider buying a Thermal Flask and bring this along with you in the morning. Coffee tastes just as good brewed at home with a few internet tutorials on how making the perfect brew. You can purchase a cheap bag of coffee and it can last you for a long time compared to buying each cup from a coffee shop.

Subscriptions

Monthly you might pay for a lot of subscriptions, cancel them all. Spotify, Netflix ect, you don’t need it.

Sure, when you’re at home, it’s a joy, but if you want to go backpacking, you won’t be using them regularly any way on your travels so you might as well get used to it now and cancel. Cutting your monthly outgoings in such a way can dramatically help you to achieve your travel funding goal.

Shop around

Make your money go further and don’t just go straight for a purchase. If you’re going to spend your hard earned cash, a little research pre purchase can go a long way. Use site comparison websites to seek out the best deal and look into reviews to see if you can locate a cheaper alternative. Also, different shops have different deals for different items and you might find a bargain with a few searches. Take HUKD for example, a website where people post daily deals they have found as well as Freebies currently on offer. Also use QR scanning apps to find if another store has items for a lower price. Of course it takes time, but your saving much needed travel funds in a very simple way with little effort, as you have a target to reach its not a waste of time at all.

As you may have noticed, the above information might come across as a little harsh or extreme in some cases. Just remember to never lose focus of the end result and embrace this newly adopted frugal lifestyle to gain results.

In reality, if your ideal goal is to travel then you will have to make some cuts and sacrifices to make it happen. The challenges you will put yourself towards will all make sense.

Trust me when I say the future you will be extremely grateful with what you put yourself through.

I wish you all the best of luck towards funding your own Travels, it’s totally worth it. Soon you will enjoy reaping in the benefits later from the actions and steps you take now.

Do you have any more Frugal tips to add to cut spending at home to help fund your travels for the future? Post below in the comment section, thank you for reading!: