When I first made the decision that I was going to eventually quit my job to travel the world I was excited. The kind of excited that makes chills go down your arms and this indescribable feeling bubble up inside you that usually comes out as either a bright smile or a burst of laughter.

Then I suddenly remembered that travel costs money - money I did not currently possess.

I made $10.50/hour as a sea lion trainer and $8.50/hour plus tips working my second job on a ferry. I didn’t even know how much I spent each month, or how on earth I was going to save up thousands of dollars to travel the world.

I had student loans, car loans, and a combined monthly income that, while changed every month depending on how much I worked at the ferry, came in on average at about $1,700/month.

Getting Started

Now I needed to know how much I could save. I created a budget in an Excel spreadsheet and inputted the minimum amount of money I thought I could spend in each category. Some things like rent, car loans, car insurance, and internet were at fixed amounts, other categories such as gas, groceries, and utilities had a bit more wiggle room.

Now I could come up with my expected savings.

Let me tell you it was sad. We are talking maybe $300/month. I didn’t exactly live in a cheap part of the United States (I’m looking at you Connecticut) so cost of living was relatively high.

But I had to work with what I was given. So here’s how I saved some serious money over the course of 1.5 years.

Paying off Student Loans

I had two student loans at the time. One was $60/month and I had about $5,500 left on it. The other was $120 every 3 months and had approximately $1,100 remaining. I had $1,100 available in my savings account so I immediately paid that loan off. One down one to go! The second loan I knew if I kept paying a measly $60/month I’d be paying the loan off forever. So I upped the automatic payments to $250/month.

Additionally I created a Capital One 360 account (it was ING when I first started) and created a separate “Travel the World” savings account where I would transfer money whenever possible to build my adventure fund.

I then began to scrimp and save wherever possible. I’m not going to lie it was a bit crazy at times. A $50 per month food budget? Keeping the heat in my apartment at 50 degrees in the middle of a New England winter because heat was expensive and I wanted to keep my utilities as low as possible? Yeah it was a bit nuts. But with the budget I was given I only had a few areas I could willingly keep costs down so I did what I could.

I also picked up as many shifts at my second job as possible. All tips I made went into a jar at home that then got deposited into my account every month. Also, at the end of each month, I looked at my additional savings column and any amount that was remaining from my superstar budgeting was transferred to my Capital One 360 savings account.

At first all additional savings went directly to my student loan – I wanted that damn thing gone as soon as possible. Some months I was only able to put away an additional $200, some months over $1000 (thank you extra paycheck months). But regardless, by putting in the hard work and sacrificing a lot I was able to pay off the remainder of my student loan in 6 months! No more monthly payments, no more soul-sucking interest rates, nothing. Success!

Saving For Travel

Now the real fun began - saving for the trip itself.

I continued to do exactly as I had done before. I worked as many shifts at my second job as were available, kept grocery, gas, and utility bills low, and transferred all savings to my “Travel the World” fund.

I should also note I was previously keeping the majority of my savings in my primary Bank of America account. The savings account had a HORRIBLE interest rate – we’re talking like 0.05%. Capital One 360 on the other hand had a 0.75% interest rate. So I transferred all by $100 of my savings to Capital One 360 so that I could actually earn interest on the money I was putting away. This money became my “Return Home/Emergency” fund.

Combining savings earned through budgeting, birthday and Christmas gifts I was able to save about $7,000 over the course of about 6 months.

Changing Jobs = Increased Salary

Then I was offered a job in San Diego, CA that offered me a decently higher salary.

Now I didn’t have to work a second job AND I was making more money! Granted cost of living was a bit higher but surprisingly not too much.

I continued to budget and was able to steadily increase my savings.

I did make a few changes when I moved to California however. While I’m sure I could have saved more money if I continued to budget like I had in Connecticut, let me tell you living on $50/month for groceries and refusing to drive somewhere just because it was farther than 20 miles away is not a fun way to live. It was fine for awhile while I was living off a salary that required me to do so, but it was definitely not sustainable long term.

So I gave myself a bit of slack. I allowed myself to increase my food budget and not worry so much about taking longer than an 8 minute shower.

I also worked my travel savings into my budget itself. Travel money became its own category! Every month $650 was automatically withdrawn from my Bank of American account and transferred to my Capital One 360 account. By adding my travel fund into my budget it essentially made it so that money never existed – that $650 wasn’t available to spend because it was already accounted for. Then, once again, any extra savings at the end of the month was transferred as well.

Even giving myself a bit more leeway with my budget I still noticed myself obsessing constantly about how much I was spending. It was becoming a bit unhealthy.

So I took a break from my ‘money diet’ and took 4 months off. Yup, you heard me right – 4 months. And let me tell you I seriously needed it. The first month especially was incredibly hard. I had to constantly tell myself to relax and stop freaking out about going to see a movie with friends or making another trip to the grocery store.

I still had the $650 automatically transferred over but didn’t do anything extra.

I realized that while saving money for my trip was important, my sanity was as well.

I knew I was saving for an incredible opportunity and wanted to be able to do as much as possible while on the road, but I needed to enjoy my life in the meantime. Saying no to dinner or a concert with friends in favor of staying at home was fine sometimes, but it definitely wasn’t necessary ALL the time.

Balance is key.

So here we are – 6 months from lift off – and I have $14,172.96 in my “Travel the World” fund plus $2,562.64 in my “Return Home/Emergency” fund and about $2,000 in my checking account which will eventually join my “Return Home” account. Any money I make from selling my car and anything else I can will be added to my actual travel money.

My end goal is at least $20,000 – I think I can make it! (EDIT: I totally did!)

Have you ever had to set a hard core budget to save for something amazing? What kind of sacrifices did you have to make?

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