How to save more money for travel

A LOT of my time is spent thinking about travel. It pretty much consumes 70% of my days. It’s an obsession that I’ve got and I can’t get a handle on it! To be honest I don’t want to get a handle on it. It’s time to save money for travel now, here’s how I do it.

We’re a busy family of 5 always with something to spend money on. We started quite well in lockdown 1, to be honest. A temporary thing or so we thought so we made the most of the opportunity of walking in our local area. We avoided going to the shop and hardly spent any money on fuel at all.

I was really good and cancelled all of my subscriptions that I had set up like Spotify and Prime. As time went on, online shopping got quicker and easier than it was at the beginning of the pandemic! Prime is back, Spotify is back and I have no end of subscriptions set up. Some days just to stay sane I find myself heading to the shops for a walk around.

Things are coming to an end now though and my behaviour needs to be rectified so that I can start to save properly instead of spending for spending’s sake so I thought I’d document here everything I am going to do. It’s not new things to me just things I often do when I am trying to save, usually for travel!

I need to get myself back in check. We need some normality back and if I don’t start planning some sort of travel soon I think I might lose my mind! Travel keeps me sane (debatable I know) and I need it so much. I think if it was taken away from me forever I wouldn’t know what to do with myself! If you are the same look no further than my top tips on how to save money for travel.

Meal planning

This is a big one in my house. I know we need to do it, but after a year of not being able to eat out, I feel so uninspired. It’s getting hard to meal plan so I have fallen off the rails with this over the last few months. We have had takeaway twice this week, and I went to M&S to buy dinner one night. Not cost-effective or money-saving. It’s a luxury that needs to be stopped. I would much rather eat cheaper at home to enable us to eat in a much nicer location!

Today I will be writing a meal plan. I have added a link below to download my meal planner sheet so you can start to meal plan too. I like one that has enough space to plan all the meals of the day and give a couple of options. As I am vegetarian and the rest of the family are not there are often at least 2 meals done here!

Stop buying takeaways!

Maybe not altogether as we all need a treat and a day off once in a while. For us, I think a once-a-month planned takeaway would be better than the unplanned mid-week. Firstly we would enjoy it more if we had it less because we sometimes don’t appreciate it. Also, we all need to eat better for our health.

I know not ALL takeaway is bad but a lot of what we can get delivered here is. No one is going to tell me a pizza or sweet and sour sauce and rice is healthy! So this month we’ve had about 4 takeaways, that’s coming down to 1 at the end of the month.

Fix broken things

This is something I do a lot. I have made a conscious effort over the last few years to throw fewer things away. That means fixing things that are broken such as a bag I had the strap broken so I sewed it back on. I mean I’m not so tight that I fix underwear and socks but most other clothes if they still fit then why not fix them? The kids are hardly going out to see anyone special. For hanging around the house etc, it doesn’t matter if you stitched up a sleeve or a hole in the knees. Even 90’s style patches are a great way to upcycle clothes.

No spend days

Have you heard of these? What about no spending weeks or months? Do you ever do it? It’s a great way to save money for travel. Often I will spend money without thinking about it such as popping to the local shop for one ingredient. Taking the kids out on a walk and picking up a snack on the way etc. All those £1 here and there add up and they are better in your saving pot for your holiday.

The one about picking up ingredients is a biggy for me. I will pop to the co-op to get sweet chilli sauce for example, then spot something else on offer and something else that I fancy and before I know it I’ve spent £10! I could have substituted the sweet chilli sauce for something else or modified the meal to suit what I had in the cupboard. How about going for a walk with the kids and taking snacks that are in the cupboard already and a coffee in a reusable cup? Easy ways to save £10 for us.

Budget

Probably the most important one of all. Go through all your spending habits and figure out what you can cut back on and how much money you can save for travel. Every so often I like to do a good budget plan and use the Money Saving Expert budget planner. It’s not quick to go through it honestly but is worth spending a bit of time going through it all.

Once you’ve gone through this and sorted out what your outgoings and income are you will be able to see exactly what you can afford. Gives you a realistic way to save money for travels and plan when you can genuinely do it.

It’s all well and good deciding that you want to travel to South America next year. But you might be better off waiting until late next year instead of early next year based on your budget. If you put a deposit on something and then can’t afford to pay for the whole thing you’ve effectively wasted the deposit money because that bit is usually non-refundable.

Make Money

So you’ve saved as much as you can, but how about topping up your funds by making some money too? Keep in mind that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Get decluttering and get everything that you don’t need to be sold. As my kids are getting older they have less and less interest in toys so they are slowly being sold as long as they are in decent condition. Some not for very much money but the same as the no spend days. It’s better to earn £1 than nothing in my eyes.

Lately, I’ve sold a lot of my daughter’s clothes that she had grown out of. She’s grown so quickly that most of them have barely been worn. I listed them on eBay and they’ve gone one by one making a couple of pounds here and there with minimal effort too. A quick photo and description and it’s listed. eBay even recommends prices for items based on what similar have sold for and the recommended postage cost.

It’s been dead easy and in the last 6 weeks, I’ve made £50. I’m not going to be a millionaire on that money I know but it’s money I would otherwise have not had if I had just put it in a charity bag when it came through the door.

Buy second hand

This is a great way to save money for travel. If you do need new things check to see if you can get them second-hand first. In the same way that I’ve been selling things so are a lot of others. Most things you want can be bought second-hand. Some things you wouldn’t want to buy used but some things there is no shame to do so at all. I pledged to myself last year that I wouldn’t buy myself any new clothes and shoes.

I get sucked in to see what’s on the sale rack in the Sainsbury’s clothing department or have a browse on Next or ASOS but nothing at all was purchased. Not even anything from Schuh (and that’s my real weakness). As well as being good for my pocket it’s good for the planet too. Fast fashion is a huge problem and it’s easy to see why.

When you can buy a child’s T-shirt for £1.50 at Primark you don’t think twice about throwing it away when it becomes a bit grubby. I have done that on many occasions but I am now trying to make sure it’s cleaned as well as I can and if I can fix it I will. If they’ve simply grown out of it then to sell it is preferable.

If You take into account at least a few of these tips then hopefully it will help you to save some money for travel. Little bits here and there are great and all mount up. I’d love to win the lottery but I don’t waste my money on it every week so I’m not likely to!

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you use any of these tips or have any others to share! Have a wonderful rest of your day! All of my other travel tips can be found here.

Becky x