How to Afford Your First Trip

Let's be realistic - traveling is expensive. Here's how to make it possible.

I remember when I first started reading travel blogs and kept seeing people who started out their travel fund by investing $3,000....I remember thinking "How do you start with that? How did they get that much money for nothing but traveling? Don't they have a truck payment?". I started with $3 in my vacation fund. I am the proof that it is possible to travel - and you will be too.

“I want to start by saying that when American’s hear the word “hostel” we automatically think of horror movies. Hostels in Europe are the opposite of a horror movie – they’re clean, have great staff, and are such a fun experience.”

Most of us don’t have $3,000 sitting in the bank for us to invest or spend on a vacation – and if we do have that much sitting, chances are we’re either saving up for a vehicle, house, or we're suddenly about to have vet bills or truck problems. As glorious as so many people make it sound, traveling takes money, and spending that much money at one time is a hard thing to come to terms with. Here’s some of the things I’ve done to help afford my trips.

Step 1

Start small. You don’t realize how many things you’ll actually spend your money on until you take your first trip. It doesn’t have to be huge – take a weekend hiking in the Smokey Mountains. Or if you happen to already live in the Smokey Mountains, check out Colorado and enjoy all the food in Denver. Make your first trip a decent drive, but don’t go all out. See what price sacrifices you’d be willing to make – camping instead of hotels is always a great way to save money. I can’t tell you how many times my meals have consisted of canned food I heated over a fire. Tent camping isn’t for everyone, but if you’re adventurous and not afraid of wildlife it may a good option for you. The main thing to accomplish here is getting a realistic concept of how much you actually eat, drink, spend on extras, and gas.

Step 2

Investigate what trips you can make that will be cost effective. For your first big trip, Europe is a great option. I use Hostel World every time I travel. I want to start by saying that when American’s hear the word “hostel” we automatically think of horror movies. Hostels in Europe are the opposite of a horror movie – they’re clean, have great staff, and are such a fun experience. They’re such a great way to meet other travelers and learn about other cultures (also you’d be surprised how many cute Australians you run into). They do have some options in America as well, but hostels are a HUGE thing in Europe. Not only are they extremely easy to find, they are CHEAP. Instead of paying $100+ for a Holiday Inn (that you only spend 20 minutes in before passing out) you can pay $20 and still have a place you can spend 20 minutes in and then pass out. I love Hostel World because you can book in advance, carry your confirmation on an app on your phone, and have a way to communicate with the hostels without having to pay for international calling. Hotels are normally half the cost of traveling, so being able to cut down to $20 a night by staying in hostels is a huge help.

Step 3

Knowing what time of year is best to visit a country is important - but knowing when you can get cheap flights is importanter. There’s a few great ways I accomplish this.

The first is by using Scott’s Cheap Flights. If you’re like me, you can be a bit sporadic and can’t always make up your mind as to which place you want to go. Scott’s Cheap Flights will send you emails letting you know what flights they’ve found great rates on. When I say great rates, I mean like flying to Europe for $300-$400 from the Midwest (which would usually cost $1,000+). They can literally save you thousands in flights just by letting you know which airlines have good deals and how long you can expect that price to last. Most of the time they only last a few days, so you have to be prepared to jump on it when you find one you want, but the range of dates you can buy flights for varies greatly, so you’ll still have plenty of time to prepare the details and find accommodations. They do charge an annual fee, I think it’s about $40, but I promise it is worth every penny.

The second way is by using Google Flights or SkyScanner. If you’re the person who knows exactly where they want to go (if you are, I applaud you, I wish I had those decisive skills), these are a great tool. You’ll be able to scroll through months and see when you can find the cheapest round trip and even choose to include flights out of nearby airports. Actually, SkyScanner let's you pick "everywhere" as your destination and chose "cheapest month" which is by far my favorite thing to do. Ya know, just in case you can't decide where you want to go.

Step 4

Decide if you’re ready to travel alone or if you want to travel with a group. I took my first big trip with EF Tours and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. The best part is that you can extend your trip and stay longer than the rest of the group, so you can try out solo travel after becoming more comfortable in the country y’all travel to. EF Tours lets you pay over time, and since you can book your trip a year in advance your monthly payments are lower. It’s a great tool for those of us who have the money to put towards a trip each month, but then blow the money on new boots once you see it piling up in your savings account. The trips are guided, safe, and honestly have the best tour guides and travelers – I highly recommend using them for your first trip. I’ve loved both the trips I’ve gone on with them. The flights, accommodations, and almost all the food is included in the price, along with entry fees to anywhere y’all go. If you're going some where Machu Pichu, where the lines are insane and you don't always get to see the best part, EF Tours are sometimes a great way to get in, skip the line, and have private tours. Naturally, after the first time you use them you start finding ways you can travel cheaper if you do it on your own, but they’re a great stepping stone in the right direction, and a great option for those who want company and to make new friends.

Step 5

Actually save the money. There were a couple things I did to help me get started. The first was creating an Acorns account. Not kidding, I started by putting $5 a week towards my Acorns account. Eventually it was $3 a day, then $5 a day, then $10 a day. It was amazing how much more I could put back than I thought I’d be able to when it was automatically coming out of my account. Acorns is an investment app, but you can make it as safe or risky as possible. Considering I knew nothing about the stock market when I created mine, I stuck to the safe side. If you have a good chunk of money to put down up front, more power to you, but any amount you can put towards your goals is impressive, regardless of if it’s $3,000 a month or $3 a day – as long as you start somewhere. The second thing I did was get a Capital One Venture card. Obviously, this only works if you already have established credit, but if you can manage to get a travel based card it can help you so much. I have no foreign transaction fees (yes, those are a real thing), get miles towards every purchase I make, and use my points to buy more plane tickets. If you can get one while they have a good incentive going it really helps. I purposely waited until a month before leaving for Spain to get mine so that I would get the additional 60,000 bonus miles if I spent $2,000 in the first 3 months of having the card. I definitely spent the $2,000 on that trip and on the trip I took to Georgia a month after returning from Spain.

Always look into what you can do financially to travel. Remember that we all start somewhere. Life isn't an Instagram account. We have bills and responsibilities, but that doesn't mean you should be able to travel to your hearts content.