When I first started telling people about my trip, most peoples' responses and reactions were offensive, "Wow! You must be so rich!" or "Wow, mom and dad must have a lot of money." Just because I'm traveling, makes me rich? Or means that my parents are paying everything for me? While neither one of these are true, I finally understand why so many people's responses were more or less the same.
Since I've been traveling around, I have heard a tremendous amount of people explaining how their parents are paying for their trip or they have a nice little trust fund. While that's great for them and there's no problem with that, I have actually worked hard to be able to travel. And traveling isn't always expensive depending on how you do it. I've been gone for almost a month now and have spent less than $1500 (food, transportation, hostels). This may seem like a lot but I'm in Western Europe and the euro is seriously killing my budget.
So, here is my big secret. I have worked for years and years with one dream. To travel. Most of my decisions and choices have revolved around this. My disposable income goes towards my savings account for a future trip that I'm going to want to book sooner or later. I still have bills to pay and yes, my parents have helped me out with rent and my car insurance, but they haven't paid for my travels. Traveling isn't impossible, nor do you need a lot of money to do it.
When my credit was good enough, I applied for credit cards that would get me mileage points. This has allowed me to save about $500 so far. I applied for Spirit Airlines (which I no longer have because it was too hard to get points) and an American Airlines credit card. I'm saving up my points right now for my return flight home from this trip because I know it's going to be pretty expensive.
I also have been couchsurfing. Couchsurfing is a great way to meet new people, especially locals, and get a locals view of the area you're staying in. It's also a great way to save money because it's FREE. Another great way to save money is by booking a hostel or through Airbnb. I don't stay in fancy hotels every night. In fact, I've only stayed in a hotel one night because I really wanted to stay in a place longer that only had hotels available.
When people travel or vacation, they spend a tremendous amount of food because they eat out all of the time. I haven't. Most hostels have kitchens and when you're couchsurfing, your host will most likely have a kitchen. Go to the market and buy some food. I've been out a couple of time to McDonald's but that's just because of the great Wifi :P. Otherwise, I just get a sandwich from the market. I'm also a picky eater, so I went from eating 3 square meals a day to eating just one cheap meal a day. I know most people can't and won't do that. But I get too tied up in the exploring, I just forget to eat or put it off until it's too late. I also have a water bottle that I just refill. Water from the tap is safe to drink in Europe, so you don't have to spend $6-$8 a day on bottled water.
And last, but not least, there are free walking tours in almost every city you visit. Just check with your hostel and they should be able to give you more information. You should expect to tip your guide but other than that, it's a great way to get to know the city and find out some interesting facts about it. If you don't want to do that, then go out and explore. You don't always need to book a tour to see stuff. Most of the cities I've been to, I've taken the free walking tour or just walked around and found stuff I wanted to do.
So that's my spill about how I afford to travel. You don't have to be loaded down with money or have mommy and daddy pay for you to afford it. Just check out some travel blogs. There are many people out there that are buying round the world trip tickets from under $1000 and people living for under $25 a day traveling around the world. Do you're research well and you'll see that you can afford to travel as well :).
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