How could you afford your trips?
I have got this question so many times that I decided to write about it.
No, no… I am not rich, I do not have rich parents and I do not have an extraordinary occupation. BUT this reality did not push me away to travel the world. 😀
This post is going to be a mix of personal experience and knowledge of Economy.
I traveled for a while with my savings, so, How could I afford it? Saving! Saving Saving!
Firstly, I have to admit my education helped a lot to learn how to manage my money. For example, I start managing my week’s allowance when I was only 9 years old. At the time I was getting 10€ a week and with that money I had to have lunch 5 days a week; buy my candies; pay my hobbies. It is a basic example but it actually helped a lot when I had to manage my own life.
NOW: Let me divide my work life in 2 sections and in each one I will explain you how I was saving money.
1. Working without a permanent contract
This period lasted for almost 2 years and it was for sure one of the most difficult moments of my life. I did not have work experience (Remember I start working in Paris); I did not know how the job hunting worked and; I did not speak French. It was tough but I survived!
During this period I did 2 internships getting 460€ (IMPORTANT: none can have a place in Paris for less than 500€). So, I had to find a second job to be able to attend my internship, have a place to live and eat. During the day I was improving my Marketing knowledge and at night or during the weekends, working in bars/ restaurants. It was hard, specially the weeks before delivering my thesis. I would sleep no more than 4 hours a day.
Waking up at 6am to correct and check all the thesis’ formatting; Going to my internship from 9am to 6pm; Working in a restaurant from 7pm to 0am; Writing more pages for the thesis until 2am. Over and over again.
At the time I was getting with the internship, the waitress job and the tips: a little bit more than 1 000€ a month which is not much in Paris (the minimum wage is 1 150€ a month). Although, I was saving up money.
Not having free time helps you to not spend money.
2. Working with a permanent contract
Here everything changes! Having a permanent contract means you can enjoy more.
At the time, I had a normal salary every month; my company was paying for my health insurance; I had discounts in leisure activities…
I was able to save up money and also treat myself with nice stuff sometimes. And HOW?
In a “normal life” we spend most of our money in 3 things:
- Housing (rent or house credit)
- Food (supermarket, lunch at work)/ Bills (transportation, taxes, water, phone, electricity…)
- Leisure (traveling, going out, cinema, books, restaurants…)
Look at my numbers:
Fixed expenses should not be more than 50% to 60% (housing, bills and food) of the salary we have, otherwise, it is a bad sign.
Ahhh I have never had car (so I guess it is a big expense I did not have as well).
Here you can see a different really from almost everyone. I was actually spending more money in things I like. Obviously not everything was perfect, my apartment was far from being amazing. I lived in a 20 m² studio on the 6th floor without lift and I have to admit the studio in the Summer was super hot and in the winter super cold.
At the time I did not know what to do with the money… I wondered about traveling; studying; buying a house. At the end, I decided to use the money to travel around. 😀 Today, I know it was worth it! Not paying 200€ or 300€ more for my studio allowed me to save up more money for my trips.
I know this kind of sacrifices are not everyone. Again: it depends how much you want something.
I guess now you understand better how everything happened. There is no secret and special ability. Let me know if you have any questions about this post.
Keep following because I will be posting about “how to stick a budget” and “how to avoid extra costs while traveling”. I am sure you will love it.
Beijinho,
Daniela