But first, let me clear a couple of things up:
1) Yes, it is fucking expensive.
2) I can afford to not work for a year because I've spend the majority of the last couple of years doing NAFF ALL and putting away about 75% of what I earn each month, just so I can one day go on a trip like this.
In short, saving this much money in a relatively short period of time (I'm considering one to two years a short period of time here btw) isn't a barrel of laughs. It will be shit. There will be times when you just think "fuck it" and nearly withdraw all of your savings and spunk them up the wall on new clothes and nights out in the same shit area you grew up in, but then you'll think WAIT, I'm no quitter and go back to sitting in watching Netflix on a Friday night with nothing but an oven pizza and some bargain bin alcohol to boost your spirits.
And that's just the start.
Still want to go on a round the world trip?
Okay, great. I'll continue.
How much do I need to save?
Like with a lot of things in life, travel can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be (or as is more often the case, as cheap or expensive as you can literally afford. I've never seen a millionaire in any of the hostels I've stayed at, just sayin').
In all of the magazines, blogs and travel guides me and Callum have read, the general consensus is that you'll need about £1,000 a month (approx $1,300) to survive when travelling; this includes food, accommodation, (some) activities and public transport. Of course, this will vary depending on where you go and places like Thailand and South Africa are going to be dirt cheap compared to places in Europe, Australia and the USA; so sometimes you may need more than £1,000 a month, and sometimes you may need less, but it should even out at about that amount.
Then on top of that you've got your flights, which, for us, works out at about £3,000 (approx $3,900) each. This is pretty damn good when it comes to flight prices and I would highly recommend using STA travel to help you secure a good deal.
Then on top of THAT, you've got your travel insurance, your visas and your vaccinations.
You do the maths.
So, it's no cheap trip, but in my opinion it's 100% worth it. I've got the rest of my life to build a career, buy a house and all that business, but to up sticks and travel the world while I'm still young? I'm only really gonna get one real chance to do that and that's now.
How I've been saving
When I first started saving, I would just put aside whatever money I had left in my current account at the end of the month and transfer it into my savings account. This worked well for a time and I managed to save about £3,000 in a year this way, but it was nowhere near enough if I wanted to go travelling as soon as I wanted to.
I've found that the best way to budget myself is to limit the money I have in my current account, and what I've done for the last 10 months or so has been transfer X amount from my current account and into my savings account ON payday. That way I know I won't spend it because once it's in savings, it's there to stay. I leave myself with enough money (JUST!) to get me through the rest of the month and as shit as it is waiting all month to get paid, only to never get to spend it, I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end.
I guess the key to saving is to differentiate between the things you need and the things you want. I started bringing my own lunch to work which saves me about £3 a day (I know that doesn't sound a lot, but that still adds up to £260 a year), me and Callum stopped eating out two or three times a week and I can't even remember the last time I bought new clothes, it seems pointless buying nice stuff when I'll be only packing the essentials for next year anyway, which let's be honest, probably won't make it back into my wardrobe when we return in 2018.
As much as I make out like I have no life, I do still go out and do stuff. I guess it's just more in moderation than I used to! Like I said, I used to eat out a few times a week, I would go to London at the weekend and not think about what I was spending on food or drink and I quite liked going out clubbing every now and again. I still do all those things now I'm saving, just less of them. I've also found more things to do in my free time that are actually free: running, blogging, messing around on Photoshop and InDesign (hence the image for this blog) and owning and looking after a small puppy (read about Fat Badger on my other blog here)! I try and keep myself busy, otherwise I'd drive myself mad.
I don't doubt there are people out there who get their parents to pay for everything and would quite happily get them to pay for a trip like this too, and if you're in that position, great. Good for you. Fuck off. But for us, we haven't had that kind of luxury; so we've had to save in an extreme kind of way. But then again, we've had to because let's face it, this trip isn't going to fund itself!
Anyway, we still have 7 or so months of saving to go so we aren't quite there yet. Who knows, maybe in that time I'll have just changed my mind and bought myself a summer wardrobe and an all-inclusive holiday instead; in which case, this blog will be well and truly redundant!
Hope that helped in some way and wasn't a total incoherent ramble!
And that's just the start.
Still want to go on a round the world trip?
Okay, great. I'll continue.
How much do I need to save?
Like with a lot of things in life, travel can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be (or as is more often the case, as cheap or expensive as you can literally afford. I've never seen a millionaire in any of the hostels I've stayed at, just sayin').
In all of the magazines, blogs and travel guides me and Callum have read, the general consensus is that you'll need about £1,000 a month (approx $1,300) to survive when travelling; this includes food, accommodation, (some) activities and public transport. Of course, this will vary depending on where you go and places like Thailand and South Africa are going to be dirt cheap compared to places in Europe, Australia and the USA; so sometimes you may need more than £1,000 a month, and sometimes you may need less, but it should even out at about that amount.
Then on top of that you've got your flights, which, for us, works out at about £3,000 (approx $3,900) each. This is pretty damn good when it comes to flight prices and I would highly recommend using STA travel to help you secure a good deal.
Then on top of THAT, you've got your travel insurance, your visas and your vaccinations.
You do the maths.
So, it's no cheap trip, but in my opinion it's 100% worth it. I've got the rest of my life to build a career, buy a house and all that business, but to up sticks and travel the world while I'm still young? I'm only really gonna get one real chance to do that and that's now.
How I've been saving
When I first started saving, I would just put aside whatever money I had left in my current account at the end of the month and transfer it into my savings account. This worked well for a time and I managed to save about £3,000 in a year this way, but it was nowhere near enough if I wanted to go travelling as soon as I wanted to.
I've found that the best way to budget myself is to limit the money I have in my current account, and what I've done for the last 10 months or so has been transfer X amount from my current account and into my savings account ON payday. That way I know I won't spend it because once it's in savings, it's there to stay. I leave myself with enough money (JUST!) to get me through the rest of the month and as shit as it is waiting all month to get paid, only to never get to spend it, I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end.
I guess the key to saving is to differentiate between the things you need and the things you want. I started bringing my own lunch to work which saves me about £3 a day (I know that doesn't sound a lot, but that still adds up to £260 a year), me and Callum stopped eating out two or three times a week and I can't even remember the last time I bought new clothes, it seems pointless buying nice stuff when I'll be only packing the essentials for next year anyway, which let's be honest, probably won't make it back into my wardrobe when we return in 2018.
As much as I make out like I have no life, I do still go out and do stuff. I guess it's just more in moderation than I used to! Like I said, I used to eat out a few times a week, I would go to London at the weekend and not think about what I was spending on food or drink and I quite liked going out clubbing every now and again. I still do all those things now I'm saving, just less of them. I've also found more things to do in my free time that are actually free: running, blogging, messing around on Photoshop and InDesign (hence the image for this blog) and owning and looking after a small puppy (read about Fat Badger on my other blog here)! I try and keep myself busy, otherwise I'd drive myself mad.
I don't doubt there are people out there who get their parents to pay for everything and would quite happily get them to pay for a trip like this too, and if you're in that position, great. Good for you. Fuck off. But for us, we haven't had that kind of luxury; so we've had to save in an extreme kind of way. But then again, we've had to because let's face it, this trip isn't going to fund itself!
Anyway, we still have 7 or so months of saving to go so we aren't quite there yet. Who knows, maybe in that time I'll have just changed my mind and bought myself a summer wardrobe and an all-inclusive holiday instead; in which case, this blog will be well and truly redundant!
Hope that helped in some way and wasn't a total incoherent ramble!
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