Before You Pack Your Dreams Into Your Suitcase! Saving Money Before You Start Traveling
Saving money is the name of the game now, and when we are doing our best to conserve our finances, whether it’s trying to save money on presents or make our money go a little bit further, going to another country, for most, is not on the cards. For most people trying to save money, they wouldn’t consider going on vacation at all. But for those people that are looking to start traveling but feel the almighty stress of having to save a massive financial chunk, what can you do?
Be Savvy With The Exchange Rates
When you are thinking about going in a year or so, look at the exchange rates. Most people feel that it’s easier to sort out the money just before they leave. But when you look at exchange rates, you don’t always get enough bang for your buck! But if you prepare early enough and look at the CAD-USD conversion rates, you could get a lot more. Saving money is all well and good, but when you start to think about the exchange rates, you might not have to save as much as you think!
Set A Financial Goal
It sounds simple, but when people think about saving money for a vacation or traveling they need to have a specific figure in their heads. But saving towards this usually means having to make a few compromises. A lot of people aren’t prepared to change their lifestyle for the sake of a certain amount of money. But by setting a real financial goal that doesn’t waiver can keep you focused. This gives you a far better opportunity to look at your lifestyle and budget accordingly. Budgeting yourself is all well and good but if you don’t know how much you need to save, this means that when you’re feeling a bit down about saving money, you might decide to have a financial blowout, but this means you are setting yourself back which could take even longer to recover from. Always have that goal in mind.
Pick Up New Money-Saving Habits
Once you know where you want to go and you’ve got the goals in place, it’s about making money saving a habit. There are things that everybody can do to cut corners. Rather than eating meals out, you can cook meals at home and batch cook food, so it goes even further. There are plenty of guides out there to make meals for under $5, and it’s essential that you get a handful of recipes under your belt. It can be depressing to feel that you are eating soup all of the time, but when you eat meals that are tasty and indulgent but still cheap, it doesn’t feel like you’re wasting money! It’s also important that before you go on a vacation that you sell a few things. If you’re going traveling, it’s a perfect opportunity to embrace the minimalist mindset. If you’re going to go traveling for a while, consider this a good starting point to getting used to living with just a handful of items.
Saving money is hard at the best of times, which is why you’ve got to make massive changes to your lifestyle. By having a strict financial goal, this can help keep you on track, but it also helps to have a few money-saving habits in your back pocket.