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How To Travel When You’re Broke

How To Travel When You’re Broke
Carly Jacobs
I

love Elizabeth Gilbert, I really do but some of her life advice is a bit difficult to swallow. I admit I never read Eat, Pray, Love (because it has ‘pray’ in the title) but I watched the movie (because Julia Roberts is a delightful awesome giraffe lady who I love) and honestly, the main message is pretty unrealistic. If you’re sad, go to Italy, meet a dreamy man, eat a metric fuck tonne of pizza, gain a teeny amount of weight and practice lots of self acceptance. It’s all very wonderful and romantic if it’s available to you but most people can’t afford to take a year off from their life to ‘find themselves’. And if an average Josephine manages to pull this off they’ve most likely lived a very sad existence while they saved up, spending a year sleeping on their parents’ couch and eating two minute noodles. With respect to Elizabeth Gilbert, here are a few ways you can travel when you’re broke.

Watch the airlines like a hawk 

Sign up for sales alerts to countries that you’re interested in and subscribe to cheap airline syndicates like Skyscanner, Webjet, and Cheapoair. It also helps to get buddy buddy with people who work for airlines. Friends and family discounts are ridiculously cheap and often limitless so next time you have the opportunity to add an air-hostie to your friendship circle, make it happen.

Roys sign travel when you're broke

Pack your own lunch… and breakfast and dinner

Restaurants and cafes can be really expensive, especially if you’re travelling in a country where you need to tip. It’s so much cheaper to grab a box of cereal and a carton of milk at the local shops and have breakfast in your hotel room, rather than dropping serious coin on a fancy hotel breakfast. Whenever you’re at a supermarket stock up on snacks like fruit, boiled eggs and long life cheese so you never have to buy a $5 protein bar at a gourmet snack bar. There’s also no reason why you can’t pack your lunch when you’re sightseeing. Making your own sandwiches is always cheaper than paying for cafe sandwiches and they’re often yummier too. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re missing out either – unless there’s a michelin rated sandwich shop where you’re going, you won’t be missing out on anything by bringing a bagged lunch.

US cafe travel when you're broke

Book a terrible flight 

If money is more important to you than time, you can book tickets with long or undesirable layovers. It might take you two days to get home but you could save up to $1000 on flights, simply by spending a day or two in Singapore or Dubai. Most people would prefer to go to Paris than Dubai but it’s actually a very cool corner of the world. There’s always awesome things to do wherever you travel so don’t stress too much about a few days in a place you don’t know much about. Just embrace it.

airport travel when you're broke

Be a bit sneaky 

I recently heard about the concept of a ‘throw away’ ticket and I cannot believe I didn’t think of this sooner. A ‘throw away’ ticket is purchased with the intention of only using half the ticket. For example a flight to Los Angeles from New York may cost $700 one way but a round trip at a specified time might be $450. If it works out cheaper you can book the round trip for $400 and simply not use the return flight. This trick takes quite a bit of planning and research but if you’re prepared to look outside the box you can save hundreds of dollars by cutting your booked flights short to get the cheapest fares possible.

LA travel when you're broke

Book the actual cheapest accomodation you can find 

Hostels, motels and AirBnB are amongst the cheapest ways to get accomodation overseas but they will vary from country to country. Sometimes motels will be the cheapest and sometimes an AirBnB will be your most cost effective accommodation option. Always check Hotwire and Priceline too. They’re mystery hotel apps where under-booked hotels put their empty rooms hoping to fill them cheaply at the last minute. We got some absolute steals when we travelled in the US in cities that are notoriously expensive.

truck stop travel when you're broke

Rent out your house while you’re gone 

One of the biggest killers of finances when you’re travelling is paying rent so why not get someone else to pay it for you? You can put your house up for short term rent on AirBnB or Stayz and have someone pay your rent while you’re away. You can even hire handover cleaners who will come in, clean the house, change the sheets and do a handover for the next guests. Mr Smaggle and I AirBnBed our place last time we were away and we made a few hundred dollars to go towards our rent. Not too shabby.

california travel when you're broke

Road trip with a relocation car 

If you want to save on car hire give Vroom Vroom Vroom a go. If there’s someone who wants their car driven from Los Angeles to New York, you can drive it for them and save yourself from having to rent a car. It’s a win win situation and will save you heaps in domestic flights and/or car hire fees.

truck travel when you're broke

Couch surf or couch swap 

Visit sites like Couch Surf or Nolo for free, cheap or swappable accomodation. If your bed is empty at your house, you might has well try to swap accommodation, particularly if you live in a cool location. Note: house swap site generally want you to house swap so you need to make sure you’re happy having people stay in your place as well.

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Have you ever travelled when you’re broke? Any tips to share?

 

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8 Comments

  1. Donna 8 years ago

    Great tips, thanks. Saving saving saving now for Europe next year which will be so expensive so looking to travel as economically as possible.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 8 years ago

      Honestly, we cut corners everywhere! As long as a hotel has clean sheets I don’t need anything else.

  2. Sharee 8 years ago

    Hated Eat Pray Love ! Totally agree with your comments and thanks for the great tips X

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 8 years ago

      I didn’t hate it I just thought it was a bit drivelly. Love her other work though – glad you liked the article!

  3. Harlow 8 years ago

    I love all of these ideas, my biggest issue is paying the rent while travelling, which is the reason I didn’t go overseas this year now that I’m living in my own place rather than a share house. I am a bit funny about the whole idea of a stranger staying in my house! I instantly think that they will try on all of my clothes and then wear them out…like J.Lo in that total guilty pleasure of a film, Maid in Manhattan. My husband on the other hand refuses to stay in AirBnB because of random horror stories he has read of other peoples experiences where the person found a rotting corpse in the backyard of the house they were staying in…
    What is the etiquette with staying in an AirBnB place where the owners are present the whole time? My husband and I are introverts and really hate awkward small talk with strangers and prefer not to have to deal with anyone, do the people tend to leave you alone? All of these scenarios of being stuck with crazy people who have cameras set up in the shower/bedroom run through my mind!

  4. Jodie S 8 years ago

    Thanks Carly! Am planning our first US trip and doing a similar route to yours. Ploughing through Air BnB options at the moment but it will be our first Air BnB experience so feeling a little unsure about the “Private Room” situation and looking more at whole apartment scenarios.

  5. Katherine 8 years ago

    Great Tips!!

    I love to travelling around different parts of the world. Now, I am planning to trip to Canada and looking for new experience.

    Thanks for you suggestions

  6. cyndigrahamcracker 8 years ago

    I research like crazy and find an average price range. Then I call the hotel directly and tell them the lowest price I’ve seen online and ask nicely if they can do better. It’s worked more than once and ranged from a $5 a night savings to $45 a night savings.
    I’ve asked direct questions to travelers on Instagram if they have tips for the area I’m headed if I see they’ve been there recently. One guy gave me a referral code to stay in a hostel at 50% off.

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