How I Afford to Travel

Maybe I’m cheap, maybe I’m frugal, but what I do know is that I am and always have been aware of what things cost. Even as a child when I would go out to eat I would always order less expensive items on the menu, even though my parents were paying. I started babysitting before I was twelve and was working after school and during school breaks since I was 16. I have been responsible for my money for a long time.

Currently I am 26 years old and have the money to travel when I want to and the vacation time to do it in. I am a social worker so being smart with my money is the only way I can do this. I drive a lot for my job so I started building my savings account by putting my mileage reimbursement checks into savings. Money was very tight when I first started my job so that was about all I could manage for savings. As I have moved up the pay scale instead of increasing my living costs I have increased my savings (okay, I have probably increased my living costs a little). I get paid twice a month and twice a month I automatically deposit money into my savings account. This started at about $200 twice a month. Now I am up to $375 twice a month. If I notice that I have significantly more money in my checking account than I need to pay my bills that month I will transfer some extra to saving. Sure sometimes I would like to have a new car. But if I did that I would have to dip into savings for the down payment and then have a monthly car payment. Eventually my car will die and I will need a new one, but at this point mine works and saving is my priority.

In addition to working full time I have always seemed to find a way to make extra money. It used to babysitting, dog sitting and housesitting. As I have gotten older I don’t really do any of those things. Currently I have some overtime opportunities at work I am taking advantage of. Although I don’t really like working on my weekend or evenings, the extra money makes buying a plane ticket guilt free. I think it also increases my desire for frequent vacations, because I definitely need some down time! My overtime pay is sporadic and totally depends on if there are emergencies or not. Not being able to count on the income makes it easier not to add it to my monthly budget and just see it a something extra.