For the sake of honesty and putting it all out there, I am going to show everything from the good, the bad and the ugly as well as finances and more in this blog. Let’s start with a very common, misunderstood and frustrating comment I often get:
“The way you guys travel, you obviously make a lot of money” (Often said in a bitter, condescending way).
Here is the truth: Yes, the combined income of my husband and I is actually pretty good, I won’t hide that fact in case someone tries to come back with something from that later. But here is another fact: We live off of less than $40,000 a year. Why? Well, we have several financial reasons for this (putting money away for the future, early retirements, etc.) but a big part of that is that for every penny saved is a penny to put towards our next trip.
And then I hear the other end of the spectrum and often get made fun of the way we (don’t) spend money. So what is it people? Are we rich or cheap? Pick one side already.
Not even considering how we pinch pennies WHILE traveling, here are just a few ways that we are unlike the norm in how we decide to stretch every penny and save a few bucks in our daily lives to get us to our next grand destination:
1) Housing
When moving to Germany, we had the option of getting a nice sized place to live in. Instead, we chose to find a small apartment with no garage or parking and barely enough room to fit all of our junk into. By doing this instead of getting a townhome or house, we have saved thousands upon thousands of Euros. (Guess how many trips we have squeezed just from that alone!?). Sure, having a big home is great, but if you REALLY want to travel, could you get rid of your pool and gym access apartment or condo instead?
2) Long Underwear is Key
Long underwear is heck of a lot cheaper than turning on the heat. When most people have cranked up the temps, we are just putting on an extra layer of sweatshirts. It can be dipping well into the 20s or 30s (that’s degrees FAHRENHEIT my European friends!) and snowing outside before we even consider a teeny bit of heat. When it is time to begrudgingly turn on the furnace, don’t think we start shedding layers. Nope, we keep it just warm enough that your feet may still go numb without several layers of socks and some slippers. (Hint: Bring extra clothing when visiting in the winter!)
3) As are Fans
Likewise, in the summer, a fan in the window and a cold washcloth can beat the heat instead of the A/C. Here in Germany, we don’t even have an air conditioner (mostly because of the climate here) but in Nebraska, we did the same thing. It would take several consecutive days of 100+ degree weather plus humity to get us to flip the switch. Even when we do turn it on, it is just enough to not suffocate from the humidity.
Andy plotting our next grand adventure….or just to the top of the Swiss Mountain
4) Price Shop
We constantly price shop, even on places like amazon! We will wait to buy things (even small purchases) until it is cheaper. Yes, it is time-consuming, but it can pay off.
5) Buy in Bulk
We buy in bulk on many products. Sure, I have no idea what I’m going to do with 30 cans of coconut milk, but damn-it, I’m going to find out!
6) Laundry
You thought I was going to say we skip doing laundry, didn’t you? Well, lucky for you, we still do wash our clothes. However, we make our own laundry detergent and often hang dry our clothes instead of using the electricity for the dryer.
7) Soap and Shampoo
We hoard hotel soaps and shampoos for personal use like they are going out of style. With crazy long hair, I need real products, but it’s been years since Andy has bough shampoo and soap.
8) DIY
If something needs to be fixed, we try to do it ourselves before paying a professional (Google and Youtube truly can be a wonderful thing if you are willing to put in some time and effort and try something new). This is also true for when you are actually planning that trip that you’ve been saving for. Try to do it all yourself (planning, booking, free tours etc) and you’ll save tons.
9) Shopping
I have an unspoken clothes shopping rule: If one article of clothing is more than $10, it is too much. Believe me, this has made for some interesting shopping trips with my girlfriends and I may not be the most in-style person on the block, but when I am having dinner in an exotic location, I don’t mind that my shirt isn’t the newest trend.
10) Haircuts
My hairstylist hates me for this, but I get a cut MAYBE two times a year? I also cut Andy’s hair myself. Once again, we may not win an award for “Best Hair” and Andy sometimes looks like a child accidentally took scissors to his head, but considering mine is in a pony most days anyway and he knows that hair grows, who cares? Estimating, this saves at least $200/year!!!
11) Television
We don’t have “tv.” Ok, yes. We have a physical TV, but we don’t pay for cable or even a provider at all. We watch anything we need through the internet saving us a MINIMUM of $300 a year.
12) Phones
I have pre-paid phones. This trend is actually starting to catch back on. But no, I don’t have the smartphone pre-paid or wifi phone. I have this bad boy; circa 2000
My phone is so smart, it knows how amazing I am, what else would I need in a phone?
It cost me about 25 Euros to get the phone/sim card itself and RARELY, if ever use it and just put money on it as we go. I can put 15 Euro on my phone and have it last 4-5 months while others pay 80 Euro (UUUh, that is a Ryan Air flight to AFRICA right there!) a MONTH!!
13) Alternative Lodging
When traveling, we are willing to stay at hostels and other “cheap” places. While I do HIGHLY care about cleanliness, I am also willing to have a room the size of a closet, a hard bed and no breakfast and will only occasionally share a room with geckos if it means I can travel more or longer. Tripadvisor, Booking.com and AirB&B have become my best friends for finding great prices while not having to sacrifice cleanliness. (Yes, it can take hours upon hours of searching and cross-referencing hotels, but once again….a cheap stay in a clean room is worth it).
14) Cars
We only have one car. (This is a tough one for most to wrap their heads around) and I have to admit that this is probably the most inconvenient and difficult one to make work. I can live without a haircut, but I do have to get out of my house occasionally. We will take the bus to work (often making the trip double the time compared to us driving) if the other has the car. Or, one of us often has to go to work hours early or stay hours late just to accommodate the other’s schedule. In the summer, the hour plus grueling bike ride through the Bavarian hills to the Army Post provides for a great workout if the car is already in use. Also, when picking our car gas mileage trumps design and car model. We also try and keep the amount of driving we do to a minimum to save as much on gas money as possible. When other people are paying hundreds of dollars a month for a shiny, cool looking car, I have no problem being “that hippie” in my Prius,
(I can’t tell you the amount of people that complain about travel being too expensive, yet have high-end luxury vehicles. Pick your priorities, but don’t bitch and moan that you can’t travel when you CHOSE to buy that new BMW)
15) Ditch the Digital Gadgets
We don’t buy/have the newest tech gear. Our desktop computer is about ten years old, neither of us own an Ipod (our $10 MP3 Players work just fine), we bought a refurbished (read: cheaper) tablet, we don’t have and don’t have the newest gaming systems. Any electronics/gadgets we do have, we make last and are fine buying things that aren’t “Brand-names”
And for your reading pleasure, here are two Bonus Tips:
Restaurants
16) We make most of our food at home and therefore, don’t eat out very often. This includes always packing leftovers for lunch instead of eating out, prepping food and taking it along for roadtrips and vacations as well as making our own coffee instead of hitting up Starbucks (although, I do miss my Scooters for all you Omaha peeps!)
Loans
17) Not everyone has this luxury, but if you can, save money on interest by not taking out loans (cars, school, etc) and not having credit card debt. If we can’t pay for it in cash, we won’t charge it. That’s not to say we don’t take full advantage of credit cards and Travel Hacking, but we won’t charge what we don’t have.
For every hundred dollars we save, I look at that as another potential trip. So, when others think it is “weird” that we don’t have cable or that most of our furniture is second hand or that I am not willing to pay $15 for a shirt, I ignore their “cheap” comments, go to a happy place in my mind, like that kick-ass trip to the beaches of Thailand and just simply think, “Where in the world would I like to go next?”
I don’t mind pinching pennies as long as it will takes me to my next adventure
The Economical Excursionist
Latest posts by The Economical Excursionist (see all)
- 15 Ways to Pinch Pennies to Save for a Vacation - July 18, 2015
- How to Save Money In London - March 27, 2014
- 10 Packing Light Tips - March 24, 2014
Great tips!! Keep’em coming!!!
Great tips. We have been doing some of these but I think we will add a few more to our money saving list :).
Thank you! An upcoming post will be about specifically saving money while traveling, so stay tuned!
Awesome tips on saving money. Now I want to hear how you save while planning trips!~!~! I never spent less than a few hundred (sometimes a grand) on a trip and I need to learn!~!~!
Thanks, Kandace! Don’t worry, I have plenty on traveling tips. Get ready to start saving some money!
I love this post!
Totally with you on the haircut money-saving technique though I need you to teach me how to give a men’s haircut or something because I am terrible at cutting Drew’s hair.
Thanks, Carrie! Not going to lie, some haircuts look like a 5 year old got a hold of scissors, but luckily Andy just laughs and says, “It is hair, it will grow!”
there are a lot of great YouTube videos that have haircut tutorials. Great resource to use BEFORE you pick up the shears or clippers. And you do save a lot of money doing it yourself at home, I save over a grand a year cutting my children’s hair and having mine cut at home as well. My hairdresser doesn’t hate me, lol. He trims it for me every other month, and he will braid it for me as well. He does a Great job, convenient and free. Being you wear yours long and in a braid most of the time, you should give your guy the shears to let him pay you back for your services and have him trim your ends. Have him watch some YouTube tutorials first and be sure he understands the difference between a one inch trim and a six inch chop. If he doesn’t then I would not entrust him with the shears, but go DIY.
Yes, I can see with kiddos how you could easily save a grand a year! I would not trust hardly anyone w/ scissors to my hair, even my hubby! I actually bought a $2 cheapo thing that is supposed to help me trim it myself, but it’s taken me 4 years to grow out this hair, I’m not risking it! I’ll stick to the twice a year trims and just deal w/ split ends in the mean time 😉
Four years to grow your hair out. I know how you feel. The only reason I have been able to grow mine to elbow length is because my guy trims it less than 1/4 inch every other month keeping the ends even and doing S&D on my split ends. Before I met my guy he had a lot of experience with the shears. He had given hundreds of haircuts to female friends and his ex-wife over the years. He had one friend whose hair reached to her calves at her longest point and he would have to sit on the floor to trim it. He did end up taking her length up to her hips when she got tired of getting it caught on just about everything and told him to just cut it. He also did a few repair jobs on bad salon haircuts, so he had a lot of practice cutting a woman’s hair before he ever offered to do mine and I wanted to see what kind of shears he intended to use to cut my hair. He got out a leather case with high quality hair shears, so I said OK. If he had opened the drawer and took out kitchen shears, I would have said no way. I wouldn’t trust a $2 cheapie thing to cut my hair. My mom bought one of those trim comb things back in the 70’s. It hacked a chunk of his hair on the top, leaving short hairs sticking up. She threw it out after that. Thankfully she didn’t use it on my head. But I did get my share of bad haircuts growing up. I don’t know why cutting my bangs to 1/2″ was supposed to look cute. I thought I looked like a dork.