How to Save Money for Travel

This article could easily be called, “How to save money for a snow mobile,” or sky diving lessons, or a down payment on a house. Because we are travel lovers we’re talking about how to save money for travel, however the principles are the same no matter what motivates your purchases.

My co-worker once asked me, “How do you afford to do all this travel?” I started naming all the ways we save money and I watched the light bulb come on in his head.

So, maybe the light bulb goes off for you, or maybe you’re already doing these things. Hopefully one of these concepts will ring true and you’ll be on your way to saving more money for travel.

Thanks for reading!

1. Have the Right Job

Perhaps this is too obvious. Nonetheless, what’s more integral to travel than time and money?

Select a career that will pay you enough to cover your bills, save for retirement, and squirrel away thousands of dollars for travel.

Moreover, make sure your job provides a fair amount of vacation time per year. We would recommend at least one month of annual time off to allow for unhurried international travel.

Nursing has worked well for us, especially travel nursing. It checks all the boxes. We’ll never get rich doing it… or will we?

2. Dump the Expensive Hobbies

Hobbies don’t have to cost a lot of money. Many are essentially free. Learn to embrace affordable hobbies so the extra cash can go toward your new favorite hobby: Travel.

If you are into off-roading, motorcycles, etc., that’s a pretty big cash investment. For those who love to buy designer hand-bags, you’re spending a lot of extra cheddar to impress your girlfriends.

And if you happen to be one of those sad people who lose money at casinos, lift your head and celebrate! Your travel savings are sitting right in front of you! All you have to do is tackle an insidious habit that completely owns you.

Hobbies are not bills. We can allot the extra money however we want. If you want to travel more, divert the money from the expensive hobbies to the best hobby.

Related Article: 10 Travel Mistakes to Stop Making Today

3. Shop at Thrift Stores and Garage Sales

In case you were unaware, thrift stores sell nice threads at about 10-20% retail cost. On any given day, 50-75% of my outfit was purchased at a thrift store. And I’m wearing Diesel and Lucky jeans and $100 shirts. Some of my pants and shirts were purchased 15 years ago for $7 and they still look good!

For some people the challenge of finding worthy clothing amidst the sweat-stained K-Mart fodder is too much to bear. To others it is the hobby to end all hobbies.

We suggest you embrace the treasure hunt and save thousands of dollars per year at thrift stores. Our dishes come from thrift stores. 25% of our furniture does as well.

Now sit down cause we’re going to blow your mind. Garage Sales sell stuff even cheaper! Garage sale season is from April through June. Make it an annual thing, especially if you have kids that need new clothing every year.

4. Eliminate Subscriptions

The modern world is a subscription-based world. We suggest you opt out.

At the risk of sounding like a scold, why do we need 4 different TV subscriptions? Soda subscriptions at the circle K? Music subscriptions? The answer is we don’t.

The goal is to lower monthly outflow. Our family gets by with two television subscriptions; we spend $20 total for TV (and get free shipping with Prime). Advertisements on music apps are a bummer, but last time we checked we can still fog a mirror.

Cut the cord and cut the crap. Reduce the subscriptions to a bare minimum and be proud of your self when you do.

5. Don’t Eat Out — How to Save Money for Travel

Groceries are more expensive than ever, therefore restaurants prices are out of control. While I feel for the plight of small business owners, our family is gonna cook our own food and Taco Bell can figure it out.

How much does it cost for two people to dine out these days? $30? $40? $50? And we’re just talking about lunch! I figure we can put an extra $200 a month into the travel budget this way.

By the way, we hardly ever take the kids out to eat. Why would we drop $100 or more on an average meal? It’s absurd. We’ll do it on birthdays and when we’re traveling, but never as a casual expenditure.

A final thought: Starbucks is a profligate tax. Reconsider Maxwell House and go cool places instead of the drive-thru.

If you love to travel, we have something we would like to give you. It is our professionally designed e-book and it is FREE of charge. We think it’s pretty great, and we’re hopeful you’ll like it, too. It’s called, “Cultivating a Lifetime of Travel”. Click HERE. and we’ll send it on over!

6. Buy Used Cars and Drive Them Until They Die

I’m going to sound like somebody’s father here.

When your new car leaves the dealership for the first time it depreciates $5-10K instantly. If you didn’t make a large down payment you are now financially upside-down in your new purchase for the next six years. That means if you try to sell the car you’ll owe more than it’s worth.

The lesson to learn is this: Buy a used car that is six years old because the significant depreciation has taken place. Find a clean one with low miles and you’ve got your new car!

We recommend you drive it until it dies, but if you really want another car you’ll be sitting right financially to not lose money on the transaction.

7. Use Credit Cards for Miles and Points

If I have a $20 bill in my wallet it typically sits there for months because I always use my credit cards. You see, if I spend the cash I get nothing in addition to the purchase.

But if I use my Alaska Airlines Visa, Hilton Honors AmEx, or IHG Mastercard, I get points toward travel and lodging for no additional monies!

Make every purchase possible with your credit cards to rack up points for future travels. Even if it’s a Big Gulp at 7-11 and costs $0.99! Most cards give 3x or 6x points on purchases, which adds up fast. Just be sure to pay the cards off every month to avoid interest.

Each card also has a nice selection of annual perks that include cheap companion air fare tickets, or free nights at nice hotels.

8. Sobriety — How to Save Money for Travel

If you spend $200/month on alcohol — which I once did — that’s enough for an annual vacation. You probably aren’t going to Paris, but you can bounce stateside with $2400.

Every drink you buy, whether at Costco or a trendy club, is quite literally money flushed down the drain.

I’ve been sober for 20 years. That’s enough money saved to put a $50K down payment on a rental house, buy a new truck, or take a cruise around the world, on alcohol savings alone!

My life has never been better, so there’s more to it than a couple grand in annual savings. As far as I’m concerned, sobriety is the only way to go.

Related Article: 10 Guiding Principles on the Road

9. Pay Tithes and Offerings

Obviously if you don’t participate in organized religion this is unlikely to be your avenue to a rewarding world of travel. But bear with us for a moment.

Malachi 3:10: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

We have tested this and it works. Every month we pay 10% of our income as a tithe, as well as an offering, to our Lord via the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Of all the problems we’ve endured in life, money has never been one of them. Our cars have run well. We’ve avoided injury and calamity. Jobs and bonuses have presented themselves like clockwork. We fully attribute this to paying our tithe.

Heavenly Father loves blessing those who pay a full, joyfully tithe.

10. Live Debt Free

Honestly, all of these ideas are designed to help you live without debt. That’s the goal here. You will have more choices and less stress if every dollar you earn is yours to spend freely (after taxes, of course).

Speaking of taxes, interest is nothing more than a tax on the intemperate. There is only one thing in life that should require us to make interest payments and that is a home mortgage. On occasion a small auto loan could be utilized if paid off quickly. Beyond that not a single dime should slip from your account in the name of interest.

We recommend you get out of debt as fast as you can. When we made this choice we sold two nice cars with reasonable car notes and purchased a pair of $2,000 beaters. We were deeply humbled, but it was well worth it.

Look at it like this: A $100 interest payment every month equals a pair of airline tickets to Hawaii, Costa Rica, or Europe by year’s end. Now why the hell would you send your creditors to Hawaii and not yourselves?

An Honest Conclusion: How to Save Money for Travel

So there you have it, kids — Dad’s rant about finances that you didn’t ask for (but you kinda did).

The way we see it, traveling is much more enjoyable when the entire experience is paid for far in advance of disembarkation.

Being debt free goes a long ways to creating a happy life. Think of all the exotic places you could visit with the money otherwise squandered on wine, Pandora, and other stupid shite you don’t need.

We’ll name a few: Cape Town, South Africa. Kyoto, Japan. South Island, New Zealand.

Those are the places we plan to visit over the next three years using the money we save by dressing in thrift store clothing, driving 10 year old cars, and drinking tap water.

We look forward to seeing you there in your 2007 North Face jacket. It looks just as good as the day you pulled it off the rack in 2011.

Thank you for stopping by our website! We are the Hoffmann family, a full-time RV family that has split residence in Seattle, Washington and San Antonio, Texas. We have special needs children that we homeschool, and work travel assignments for the Veteran Affairs Hospital. If you would like to learn more about us, check out our Start Here and Biography pages. In the meantime, God bless and travel happy!

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