Planning your next trip but it’s seeming more and more difficult to find hotels, flights, and activities in your budget? Well, here are five ways to save a little extra cash so you can spring for the nicer room, shorter flight, or boating excursion you’ve been eyeing!
Piggy Bank
As silly as this one may sound, it actually works! Everytime I swap purses, change out my wallet, or find change in my pockets I scoop all the loose change and plop it all right into my piggy bank! In about eight months (from the time I returned from my 2018 volunteer year to my summer in Europe) I had $184 in coins waiting for me to add to my bank account! That money was my four nights in a nice hotel in Zurich, all my food for Amsterdam and Annemasse, or my Oyster card refills for two weeks in London. The best part is, I didn’t even know I had that cash sitting around until a few days before my trip when I made the ‘withdrawal’ from Mr. Oinkers!
Acorns
This is one of my favorite saving applications, and if you use this link you get $5 added to your account right away!! It literally ‘squirrels’ away your money and invests it in various types of stocks and bonds for you, I’ve actually MADE $30 from using this app! The way it works is you connect your cards or bank accounts and it rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar (you can set it to round up to .25, .50, or .75 cents if you don’t want to do the full dollar; or if you want to save more, you can add a multiplier!) and then transfers that money into your Acorns account once the roundups accumulate to $5. I have mine set to add a monthly fee into my account as well to help it grow just a little bit faster. Acorns also has plans for retirement savings and partnerships with brands like AirBnB, Groupon, and more to give you cash back and special deals!
Cleo Wallet
You may have seen advertisements on Instagram or Facebook for this money saving technique before, but I highly recommend using Cleo if you haven’t yet given it a chance. This app is run through Facebook messenger where you set up a weekly budget based on how much you earn, spend, and want to save, helping you reach your goal faster and with clarity. Each week the app will message you to update you on your spending (whether you’re under or over), alert you to the upcoming withdraw it will be making from your account (you can opt out of a withdrawal at any time by simply saying ‘No’), and with survey opportunities and games to win gift cards! You can also message Cleo at anytime to check up on your balance (the Cleo wallet and your accounts separate and combined) or ask about your budget. This app actually helped me save money while I was travelling, as I try not to dip into my investments and savings for vacations unless I book trips last minute or run into a problem abroad! Since the app is pulling money out during my travels, I come home and still have some cash tucked away if I got a little too excited in the souvenir shops or tasting all the fancy cheeses.
Reselling
We all have stuff lying around the house or in our closets that just simply aren’t being used any longer. Facebook marketplace is a great venue to list your furniture, home decor, and other goods you don’t want around anymore. When it comes to clothing, I use Depop (click here to shop my closet!) to list items that are in good condition and I think will actually sell. Whenever I make a sale I let the money sit in my PayPal account until I’m in need of some extra cash, have a vacation expense, or just want to do a little online shopping to amp up my wardrobe before I hop on a plane! I’ve barely sold ten items on Depop and already made over $150; to put this into perspective, that was my round trip flight from London to Edinburgh, plus my food at the airports!
The Bread and Butter
This one is not as fancy as an app or sneaky as the piggy bank, but it’s one we should all be practicing! Talk with your bank or employer about setting up your paychecks to automatically send 10% of your paycheck into a savings account. If you aren’t seeing the money being taken out, but watching it grow, you’ll find it’s much easier to stay within a smaller budget and let that savings build up! If you simply can’t afford to let 10% go into your savings or don’t have a job that has a regular paycheck amount, try looking at your average monthly income and figure out how much you’re spending on luxury items, eating out, entertainment, etc. and see what you’d be willing to cut out so you can get your next destination that much sooner!
These are all budget and saving techniques I use to go on my adventures, which ones do you see yourself trying out?
Love,
Candace
Cactis Candace 