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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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