Keep putting money away and save for your travels. Photo credit: Canva

So you want to quit your job and head overseas to travel. But you are worried about how much money you will need and have asked yourself many times ‘how much money do I need to save before I go travelling?’. And you don’t want to run out half way through and come home with your tail between your legs! Right? It is hard to give an exact amount that you need to save before you head off travelling as this will depend on how much you spend each day. Having been through this many times myself my best advice is to take as much as possible. My second piece of advice is to pick up work or work online as you travel. To help you save, here are my 10 top tips on how to save money for travel. Post updated March 2023.

My Best 10 Tips To Save Money For Travel

The following 10 ways helped me save save $1000 a month for travel. It is not the exact blueprint you should follow. Everyone is unique and what works for me, might not work for you. My aim with the following tips is to give you some ideas you could implement into your life to help you save money for travel abroad.

1. Start A Travel Savings Account and Give Yourself A Goal

The first thing I suggest you do to save money for travel is to open a special travel savings account. This is what I did. I worked out when I planned to leave and then gave myself time to save. Six months to save $6,000. I believed this would be enough because I planned to go on a working holiday in the UK and I was expecting to work once I got there.

To qualify for the working holiday I had to prove I had $4,000 to support myself during my initial stay. I thought having another $2,000 on top of that would stand me in good stead. And it did, for a while! Lucky I was able to work. So save as much as you can and do some research on living costs in where you might be. If you budget living costs at say, $2,500 per month, this is just an estimate for accommodation, food and incidentals you would hope the $6,000 goal would last you 2.5 months. I would suggest you save as much as possible.

TIP: Save as much as possible. The more you have helps you to travel better and longer. However, you can make money on the road by getting a travel job or work online.

2. Track Your Expenses

To help you reach your savings goal for your travels, make a list of your current expenses. Then see what you can eliminate from your spending so your savings will grow quicker. Ask yourself, do I need that coffee every morning? Do I need that pair of shoes? Track your spending in a spreadsheet or an app – whatever suits. As long as you are tracking your expenses and not wasting your money, you should see your savings for travelling grow. List and work out your weekly and monthly budget of essential items you need to pay and stick to only paying for these items. Items to put on your list include rent, mortgage, bills, food and whatever else you spend your money on. Even though it is great to live frugally you still need to enjoy yourself so treat yourself now and then.

3. Move Home or Rent Out Your Spare Room

I know we can’t all do this, but to save money on paying rent, move to a cheaper place. This could be back home with your parents or a family member. Don’t expect to not pay any rent or board, but as long as it is cheaper to help you save for your travels abroad. And if you have your own home, consider renting out the spare room. It may mean you lose your privacy, but the rent you earn from your renters will help to increase your money for travel.

4. See What Things You Can Reduce

As well as tracking your expenses see what expenses you can reduce. Do you really need pay TV? Maybe get a cheaper package. Do you need that expensive phone deal? See if it can be reduced by going on a pre-paid deal. Do you need the car? Maybe use public transport instead. Turn off the air conditioning or heating for a while! Buy budget-friendly groceries like home brands rather than the most expensive brands. There are lots of ways to reduce your spending to help you save money for your travels. But if you can’t go without these things, don’t.

5. Start Cooking and Take Your Own Meals To Work

Not only is it cheaper, but it can be a whole lot healthier to cook your own meals. I am talking about buying fresh groceries and cooking things from scratch. If you don’t know how you better learn, cause even when you are travelling, you can’t eat out every night. Apart from over indulging it really hurts your hip pocket. So learn to cook some meals. And utilise any leftovers by taking them to work for your lunch the next day. So instead of spending $10-15 on your lunch every day, save it and see that by saving this money you could save some $1,300 for your your travels in a six month period. But don’t take this to the extreme, as you still need to spoil yourself sometimes with a nice meal out. To get some inspiration for fast and fabulous recipe ideas for meals check out Travellers-Fare, fast and fabulous meals for travellers.

6. Do Free Things To Help You Save For Travel

Cut down on going out at night to bars and clubs and the movies and do free things. Maybe do more things during the day like visiting places that are free to enter. Every town and city has things going on that are free to attend. Keep a look out for them. And if all your friends are going out why not bring the party to you. Host a game night, a dinner party or a movie night. Enjoy having a budget night in. Doing this will definitely help you save for travel and some great experiences abroad.

7. Cut Back on Treats

Cutting back on treats is my least favourite thing to reduce when I save for travelling, but it must be done! Start looking at everything you buy as an experience overseas. What I mean by this is reduce (or stop) purchasing little items such as coffees, magazines, chocolate bars, clothes, books, cigarettes, etc. You will be amazed how much you will save for travel if for instance you give up buying a morning coffee at $4 each time. If you work 5 days per week and buy one coffee per day you will save $20 a week to put towards a fabulous experience overseas. If you save for 6 months that will be 26 weeks of saving $20 which would give you an extra $520. This could mean you could bungee jump in New Zealand, ski for the day in Austria, learn to dive in Australia to name a few activities. Calculate savings for all the extra items you could cut back on and allocate the savings towards an overseas experience.

8. Sell Stuff

A month or two before you head overseas on your travels see if you need to keep all your stuff. Clothes, sport equipment, kitchen utensils, your car – anything really. And do you have somewhere to store it while you are away if you want to keep it. If you don’t need the things, why not try to sell them. Use websites such as Gumtree, eBay and Facebook Marketplace to sell your stuff. With the extra cash you could get for your stuff you could put towards a wonderful overseas travel experience.

9. Get a Second Job

You may or may not want to do this but you can seriously achieve your goal of saving for travel faster. Even it you only get a couple of hours per week or on the weekends, every little bit of extra money helps. You might want to look for something flexible like walking dogs, house cleaning, babysitting, bar tending. Even if you don’t like this type of work, just think of your travels. And the extra work may give you skills and experience so while travelling you could pick up this type of work and make extra money to further your travels.

10. Work During Your Travels

Many travellers pick up work while they travel the world. They physically work in a bar as a bartending, in a coffee shop as a barista or waiting tables, pick fruit and vegetables on farms, Au Pair and look after children in their home or get administration work in an office. Many even work online as digital nomads. What ever work you can find that will help save money for your travels.

Bonus Tip – Travel Hacking

Many savvy travellers leverage travel credit cards to use reward points to pay for flights and even accommodation, known as travel hacking. Apply for a credit card offering reward points, using one or more, to build up your points could see you travelling for free or for less than the usual fare. Credit cards are one of the ways to carry your money overseas. Use them while travelling also to pay for things and you will build up your points to help you travel further.

Wrapping Up

So these are my 10 best tips to save money for travel. Very importantly, allow yourself to enjoy this time while you are saving for your overseas trip. Trust me, once you are travelling and experience other cultures and are having a fantastic time you won’t be disappointed that you gave up a coffee everyday or sold your car or hosted fun nights in. If after reading this you can think of other ways to save money for travelling please comment below.