We are already three weeks into the new year and most of us have probably already been thinking about the travels we would like to squeeze into our schedule this year. Unfortunately, most of the time it’s not the time we’re lacking, but the money. Especially when you’re young you’d just love to take on the world and visit a new country everyday but we all know how challenging it is to save up money for a single trip, especially when it additionally involves plane ticket. Today I want to show you how I calculate my budget and how I decide, which destinations to add to my travel plan and where to find great deals. 

Calculating your Budget.

Obviously, travel budgets vary from person to person, depending on if someone’s still a student or already working full-time, living alone or still at one’s parents’ house. But I believe saving money when travelling is something every young person would like to do. 

What I tend to do is keep track of my income and expenses and calculate the average expenses I have every month, including rent, food, car insurance and petrol as well as all the bills that need to be paid. Depending on how much is left for you individually, I recommend thinking of a certain amount of money you can spare each month to put aside for travels (or really any other thing you want to save up for). I personally, depending on other expenses that might occur in a month, try to put aside 100 to 200 Euro a month just for travelling, especially when I know that I want to go to a destination far from home. By putting away money in a consistent manner, you will increase your travel budget month by month almost unnoticed and it won’t feel as bad on your bank account once you pay for flights, hotels, hostels or bus and train tickets. 

I also tend to put the money I am gifted for Christmas or my birthday aside, as it’s another really good addition to your travel bank. 

A fun motivation to save up for me is putting the money into fun, lockable money boxes as looking at them everyday encourages me to really pull through and not take the money out to use it for something else. I recommend emptying it every couple months though for rather obvious reasons. No one should have such a big bulk of money lying around in their home. 

Choose your travel time wisely. 

As I am already working full time, the time I am able to go on holiday is rather limited, which is why I need to choose my travel destinations and the dates I am going wisely. I tend to plan one or two bigger holidays a year, depending where I am going, and sneak in a couple weekend getaways more spontaneously. 

The time you travel definitely does make a difference when going abroad, especially when visiting countries who mainly depend on tourism. When travelling to a hot country such as Egypt, Greece or Dubai, it definitely makes sense to choose a date outside the main season as flights are cheaper and hotels often have special offers during that time to fill their rooms. The best time during off season are probably the weeks before and after main season as the weather can still be expected to be warm and pleasant but the prices will have dropped by a lot already and can save you a lot of money. I know that choosing such travel dates is sometimes difficult due to uni or school but when I was at uni and knew I was going on holiday during a normal uni week, I tried to not miss class any other time during the semester so being away or twice was considered absolutely acceptable. 

Make the most of your holidays. 

In Austria people who work full time usually have 25 days of holidays they can use throughout the year. What I tend to do is take a close look at the calendar each January to figure out how to place my holidays best and get the most out of the five weeks of holidays. Obviously, arranging your holidays needs to be properly accommodated with your colleagues but usually it is not difficult to find an agreement. When placed between a national holiday and the weekend, one can therefore easily get a week of holiday out of three days off work. 

Cheap Flights needed. 

Especially in Europe, flights have become very affordable in the last couple years due to the amount of low budget carriers flying to destinations all across the continent. When looking for flights I always tend to use websites such as checkfelix.com to compare prices and figure out the best time to travel as their calendar offers a feature showing you days with the lowest prices. This has saved me a high amount of money when travelling by plane. 

Set yourself a Budget for your trip.

Even though planning a trip beforehand is already highly important, setting yourself a limit when travelling is even more important. It happens too easily that one loses track of the expenses ones they are abroad and come back having spent a lot more money than priorly anticipated. Which is why I suggest that it is important to inform yourself well about the prices in terms of food and drinks, as well as the entry fees of attraction you want to visit at your travel destination. This will give you an overview and an idea how much money you’ll need once you have reached your destination and will prevent you from experiencing bad surprises that would have been avoidable. 

Calculate a certain amount of money you will approximately need to cover daily needs such as food and drinks and you won’t be ending up spending more money than you actually want (and have).

At the end of the day each person has their individual way of saving up for travels and I am just sharing tips and tricks I use to be able to get around the world as much as possible during the year.