Save to Travel – How I saved 100k in 2 years – TREKwithBECK

3 Dec 2023

Looking for ways to save money to travel?

Here is exactly how I saved $100,000 AUD to travel the world solo. My situation may not be the same as yours and this goal may not be reasonable for some. Nevertheless this blog will give you some great ideas on how to save for any up coming travel.

I decided a few years ago that a dream of mine was to travel the world consistently for at least a year. I have been saving for this trip over the past two years, and due to certain life circumstances, got the opportunity to take the leap. During these 2 years I was able to save 100k for my travels. Why did I choose to save 100k? Especially when you can travel the world on much less? Well I wanted to have enough to travel comfortably. I am a budget traveller and love staying in hostels or camping, however I still wanted to have the choice to treat myself when I wanted to. I also didn’t want to limit myself from any activities or experiences.

Start a Savings Account and Savings Plan

The first thing I did was start a savings account and a savings plan. I choose a savings account with special benefits. Those being if I didn’t touch the money I put in it, I would earn extra interest on that amount. This account was completely seperate from my daily spending account so I did not touch it once the money was put in there.

Once I had this account, I started a savings plan. I worked out how much of my fortnightly pay I would have to put away each week in order to reach my goal by a certain date. This is the amount I put away which only ending up between half and a third of my pay check. If I earned any more money, I would transfer this into the same account.

Keep a Budget

I kept a budget for everything I brought over those 2 years of saving. This did mean missing out on certain events or activities but in the end it was worth it because heading on a world tour was my top priority.

You can track your daily or monthly expenses by using a spreadsheet or I’m sure there are a few apps on the market too. By tracking your spending you can recognise what you are spending money on and where you can possibly cut down on costs.

Cutting down on Expenses

As I mentioned above, cutting down on expenses was one of the major ways I was able to save $100, 000. Reducing your expenses is definitely the fastest way to reach your savings goal. Here are some things I did personally to keep my expenses as low as possible.

I would just like to disclose that I did (and still do) live at home for the 2 years I was saving this money. So I did not have any expenses relating to rent, mortgages or home maintenance.

Going out to eat can really take a hit to your savings. Every time I went out with my friends, it would cost me a minimum of $30 AUD. This does not mean that I stopped going out completely! I just went out for special occasions or once every now and then.

90% of the time I would buy groceries for the week and make meals at home. I would also always take a packed lunch to work and try to avoid buying unnecessary items from the vending machine (night shift was always the hardest!).

This was not a difficult one for me to cut back on, as I was never someone who really liked spending a night on the town. Most of the time if I caught up with friends it was at a mates house, so this saved me a lot of money.

Mobile phone, internet, gym, streaming, Spotify – You can spend more than $100 a month just on subscriptions alone. Ask yourself if any of these are really worth keeping over the savings period.

This was a BIG one more me. If you follow me on instagram @beckkyhamilton or even just asked one of my mates – I always had a holiday or 3 planned. I stopped doing any little trips during this period, because each trip was costing me between $200 and $1000.

Yes I did travel to New Zealand and Africa during my savings period, these were not cheap trips. However both of these trips I had already made seperate savings accounts for as I was meant to travel there prior to Covid, so I already had the money saved up.

As I’m a travel blogger and content creator – there are heaps of expensive related to buying new equipment. I made sure each purchase I made was necessary and was going to add some form of value to my business. Honestly if I didn’t have this business, I believe I could have saved up to 15k extra.

I have never been one to love clothing shopping. I will wear my clothes till they fall apart and I only really have about 10 items which I absolutely love and feel very comfortable in. This however is a great way to save money if you have a habit of buying new clothes every month.

Another great tip is to shop at Op Shops or buy second hand clothes off marketplace.

I saved over 1k in those 2 years by quitting my gym. I decided to exercise by either walking or using my small at home gym set up instead (literally just a few sets on dumbells). This can save you a lot of money in the end if you are happy to find free alternatives to exercise. My gym membership was also extremely basic – no classes, PT etc. So have a look and see how much money you are spending on your membership.

Working out is extremely important for mental and physical health, so if this is something you do for any of these reasons, you don’t need to cancel this membership.

Again, this was not a hard thing for me to do, as I never actually spent a lot of money on beauty. Beauty includes; nails, hair, skin, makeup, etc. The only thing I did not cut down on was getting my eyelashes done – as this has become a serious addiction. However, if I did I could have defiantly saved over 2k (sorry not sorry).

I did pamper myself every now and then, things like a hair cut or getting my eyebrows done. I only did this every 6-12months, so I saved a lot of money. Also a lot of things you are paying for in the beauty department you can actually do your self at home!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Increase Your Income

Now that I’ve explained how I cut back on my expenses, let’s talk about how I increased my income. As I mentioned earlier, I already was making a decent living so I didn’t need to increase my income that much.

I mainly increased my income through content creation and blogging. This isn’t for everyone and isn’t something I actually ever planned on doing, it just kind of happened! These are a few ways I made income those content creation and blogging.

If you want to read more about how I got into content creation – you can read my blog here.

Advertising: I work with google ads which places ads on my blog. I get paid based on how many views my blog gets. So the more traffic I get the more I get paid!
Affiliate Marking: I use affiliate links to link readers to products which I recommend . I get paid a certain percentage when someone clicks or buys using this link. For example my shop page, has links to some of my favourite travel and photography items.
Selling Products: I own an online shop trekwithbeckshop.com – where I sell Digital products to customer. This site is fully automatic so I don’t have to do any shipping or invoicing one a product has been purchased. This is a great way to make extra income without doing anything.
Sponsored Posts or Blogs: I either approach a brand or a brand approaches me, and asks me to write a review or create content for a product/service. I usually get paid for these – I try not to do product for post swaps anymore as I believe my work and time is worth more than a single product.
Selling my Photos: I have sold a few photos to tourism boards or accommodations to use on their social media or websites. There is good money in this, depending on the quality of your content.
Website Flipping: I buy websites and flip them. This is similar to flipping houses but with websites! (I’ve recently stopped doing this due to the time factor).

I know blogging or content creation isn’t on everyone’s to do list! So here’s a few other ways you can increase your income.

Sell items your haven’t used: I actually did this with a few items on my car set up – I wasn’t using them for that period of time so I sold them. This can also be done with jewellery, shoes, clothes, furnitures, electronics etc.
Driving for ride share or food delivery
Walking dogs or pet sitting
Babysitting
House sitting
Tutoring

There are plenty of jobs you can do on the side of your regular job.

Bonus Tip – Travel Credit Cards

If you want to actually save some money while you are travelling, I would look into getting a travel credit card during your savings period and collecting frequent flyer points. I did this for two years and know I have enough points to travel at least 4 of my flights for my world tour – which is a massive bonus!

How to Save money of Travel

So that is how I saved $100,000 for my upcoming world tour! I hope these tips were helpful for you. With time and patience you can reach your savings goals. Just make sure you give yourself a reasonable amount of time to reach this goal!

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