I decided to make the first entry about the all mighty dollar - not because I think it’s the most important thing when it comes to travelling, but because that’s what most people ask me about! I also think it directly ties in with motivation to travel, which is the most important thing. So, how the hell did I do it? Here’s my story about saving enough money to travel.
I went directly from high school to undergrad to grad school, and then only worked for a few months at a shitty hourly wage before I left to travel. Despite this I was able to save enough to spend two years abroad doing every crazy thing I could come up with (and actually wanted to do! Let's just say there are some pretty messed up things out there that I wouldn't want to do... e.g. blowing up cows with bazookas, ingesting all sorts of disgusting things, etc.). The reason I could afford to experience so much is simple – I’m super cheap. No, really. Ask anyone. I’m also a hard worker, and pretty lucky… that helped.
One of the crazy things I did - The World's Biggest Swing!
Basically, my story goes something like this. I have wonderful parents and I also earned a huge scholarship, which meant I was able to escape undergrad with zero debt. I worked every summer so was able to fund my travels and other expenses prior to grad school with that. I got paid during my Master’s via TAing and scholarships, and though that amount was extremely small (I believe it would be considered below the poverty threshold) I put most of it into savings. While my friends were living paycheck to paycheck I had money growing in the bank. I then spent the money I saved up to that point backpacking all over South America. I went to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Holy shit those were some of the best six months of my life.
To me saving money has always been simple. Whenever I buy something anything, I seriously consider whether I really need that thing now, or if I’d rather save the money for something more important to me later – like travelling. For example, while I know I’d definitely have fun at an expensive music festival at home, I also know that I would get way more out of hitting the clubs or watching a Boca Juniors match in Buenos Aires. Or even though I might really feel like eating chocolate one day, I know I’d rather use that money to eat and get pissed while travelling. And that’s exactly what I did. My belief that every cent counts extends to the core of my being, and affects every monetary decision I make in life. People have told me that it’s no way to live – to constantly deny myself things that I want in the moment. I would have to disagree. By prioritizing travel experiences I give myself the opportunity to live in the moment in a new and exciting country. I still hang out with friends and spend money on going out even when I’m not travelling. I’m just careful about what I do. I have never felt that I lacked anything. Except maybe crack... definitely wish I had more of that! (Just kidding, Mom!)
Boca Juniors vs Gimnasia de La Plata. Palermo's last match!
Another piece of luck was that I had the best Master’s supervisor ever, and he offered to pay for me to go to a conference in Melbourne to present an e-poster. When he told me about the conference, the idea of going all the way to Oz for just a couple of weeks seemed crazy, and I started thinking about spending more time there. With his blessing I applied for a working holiday visa and booked a one way ticket to Melbourne with his funding. It turned out the conference wasn't very relevant to my research at all, and instead of going to many talks I spent most of my time looking for a place to live. I wanted to leave my couchsurfing host's apartment before I wore out my welcome (you're the best, Will!). I ended up living in a loony bin at first, which is possibly universal retribution for being so f***ing lucky and going to Oz for free, but that's a story for another day. The point is that I felt terrible that my supervisor paid for me to go all the way to Australia for nothing, but he didn't seem to mind. He said he owed me a conference and knew I wanted to come to Australia. Great guy, right? I guess what I'm trying to get across is that networking and seeking opportunities like this can actually pay off!
I ended up spending a year in Oz, working for nine months of that time. Damn, did I work hard! The six months I spent travelling in South America before heading to Australia left me broke. I literally had $40 left in my bank account before I managed to get a job in Melbourne. That was scary. My first job was a ridiculously boring office job (I hope none of my former bosses read this…), but they let me work overtime every day for the six months I was there, and that I did! Working 9-10 hours a day and sometimes on holidays and weekends at a job you don’t like is not fun. None of my Australian colleagues would even consider coming in on a day off because as you may have heard, they have a big sickie culture over there; i.e. people take a lot of sick days on top of their four weeks of annual leave. Australians really enjoy their time off and that sometimes made me question my priorities – I knew that I too would have a lot of fun getting drunk in the middle of the day wearing a fancy hat during Melbourne Cup. I wondered if it was really worth working so hard. Then I would get my paycheck that included the double and a half time I earned on holidays and I decided that yes, yes it was worth it.
I compensated for working so much by also going out every single night and going on weekend trips when I could. I had a super active social life in Melbourne (I miss you guys!) and again, never felt like I was missing out on anything. I knew that if I didn't work hard and make certain sacrifices I wouldn't be able to do all the things I wanted to do once I left Melbourne. I used to slack off at work sometimes and research things to do in New Zealand. That motivated me to stay late every day, and it definitely paid off because after those six months of work I spent two months backpacking in New Zealand and Tasmania. Neither of those places are cheap, and I had a lot of really expensive activities to tick off my bucket list (e.g. zorbing, body boarding down rapids, naked bungee jumping, etc.). I was able to do everything I wanted and still had a bunch of money left over.
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| Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand |
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| Post naked bungee jump! Queenstown, New Zealand |
My second job was in Brisbane, Australia. It was much more fun (hurray for getting leeches in my mouth!) and actually in my field of study. Although it paid a lot less than my Melbourne job, I was still adding money to the amount left over from working in Melbourne. After finishing that job I was able to travel a bit more in Australia (super expensive!), and spent four months backpacking in Southeast Asia (super cheap!).
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| White Haven Beach, Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia |
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| Great Barrier Reef |
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| Perhentian Islands, Malaysia |
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| Prasat Bayon, Angkor Thom |
The last little bit I’m going to include in this guide to saving money for travel is about choosing cheap places to go. Sure, a plane ticket from Canada to Southeast Asia isn't cheap, but once you’re there you’ll be living large! $5 massages, $1 meals, $5 bed for the night. That’s cheaper than living at your parents’ house! Throw in some scuba diving courses and tours and it can get a bit more expensive than that, but still very cheap. Flying to Latin America from Canada is relatively cheap and travelling there isn't bad either. Just do your research and figure out where you want to go and what you’re willing to spend money on. I did a 4 day trek to Machu Picchu in May 2011 that cost me $200, booking it one day in advance. That’s the equivalent of a couple big nights out at home. How good is that?! It was an incredible experience and I would have paid a lot more for it.
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| View of Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu |
Going to the Galapagos Islands was my biggest expense in South America. I spent eleven days out there, including an eight day cruise on a first class yacht (you can only see the far islands by doing a cruise). My flight to the islands, food, accommodation, and cruise all together cost me approximately $1300. I paid about a third of the price that the seniors on my cruise paid when they booked their trip from home. Luckily there were a few other young backpackers on the yacht with me, because those seniors were nearly dead and very concerned with not getting a sunburn, pshhh. Granted, my hotel room in Puerto Ayora, the biggest town on the islands, that cost me $10/night before I left on my cruise was pretty much a dungeon. I remember desperately needing clean underwear before my cruise started, yet not finding anywhere to have my clothes washed. I ended up hand-washing everything at another hotel (the man working there was very nice!) but then having nowhere to dry my clothes. I eventually hung my underwear up on the ceiling fan in my room, and then lay in bed watching them spin around while I waited to meet up with my friends later. The room had no windows and with my drying laundry it became extremely hot and humid in there. That was probably the most depressing point of my trip up until then. Totally worth it!
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| Galapagos Islands |
So there you have it. It’s all about being tight with cash when it comes to the less important things (like chocolate, believe it or not) so that you can spend money on the more important things (like drinking disgusting whisky on a picturesque Thai island). So many people tell me that they would travel if they could afford it, but if you really want to travel like I did, you will make it a priority. If I could do it, so can you.
