On a shoestring.. like, really on a shoestring

Some advice for broke ass travelers:

Adhering to our tight budget was almost like a full-time job and at times, no fun. Constantly seeking out the cheapest possible option can be exhausting, but after a while you do get used to it and it becomes part of the day. And the end result is, more traveling!

For a lot of people who don’t travel, they usually give a myriad of excuses as to why they don’t. Money usually being the prevailing reason. The others, I’m not qualified to advise you on. I can, however, provide some useful tips that worked for us throughout our travels.

First, you must understand where your money will be spent. Our top three expenses while traveling:

1. Accommodation

2.Transportation

3.Food

Segmenting these helps a lot with budgeting; stay at a nicer hostel, eat a little worse, it’s common sense and when you’re traveling on a tight budget it becomes the norm.

I’ve broken down the three expenses and explain a little bit how you can save money.

Accommodation:

Camping

• Couchsurfing: Cannot say enough about this. I’ve written a little expose on the network (if you have not already heard about it). But to summarize, it’s hands down the best way to see an area of interest; you meet amazing locals, it’s safe and free! There are also other hospitality networks such as global freeloaders, hospitality club, and Women welcome women – the girls only edition
• Camp: We brought a tent since we traveled in summer, when we couldn’t couchsurf we camped, saved us HEAPS! Also sleeping on the beach, where it is safe, is a good option.(reference the Lisbon post)
  
• WOOF and Help Exchange are programs that allow you to volunteer your labor for accommodation. Keep in mind a lot of farmers require you to stay a certain amount of time and it’s more than likely you’ll be in a rural area. You also have to pay for a membership.
  
• Part time job. Some places you can work and stay, illegally, so I don’t advise this, but as a backpacker I am required by our code to present this info to you. You can also do it legally, which is what I am doing in Australia at the moment! It is absolutely possible, especially in the service sector so bring along a resume!

Food:

A sample of our daily diet

• Grocery Store: We carried a bag of food around with us, shopping at grocery stores to save money. Cans of tuna, loaves of bread, jar of peanut butter and lots and lots of oranges  This is not glamorous but that’s how we role. Of course one of our favorite things to do is taste the local fare, so once a day, or once every two days we would grab something cheap.
  
• USE THE BACK STREETS. The most expensive places to eat are usually the ones that are right next to the tourist attraction. Explore a little for your food. If you see a long line of locals at a spot, chances are the food is fantastic and reasonably priced. An ancillary benefit is you’ll see more of the city, maybe discover some hidden gem, like the 7 euro buffet in Florence!

Transportation:

Busabout

• Take buses, we signed up for a busabout – hop on, hop off tour. Which gave us a choice of cities that were on its loop with designated pick up days. The bus would usually make two stops the last one a compulsory overnight stop and that would be considered 1 trip. An example of a route would be Nice, France to Barcelona, Spain. You can buy anywhere from 5 to unlimited trips. Mostly this saved on big distance travels. But for small distances within a country it can be rather cheap. Like in Italy, traveling from Rome to Florance was 16 euro one way train or something like that. It gets expensive when you are going international/long distances like Paris to Amsterdam. This is when having a rail/bus pass is super beneficial.
• Use Rideshare programs (Europe): Or pre-arranged hitchhiking with a relatively small fee. Basically someone posts on the website that they are driving from A to B and they have # of seats. They may or may not list a price but it’s easy enough to work out. The only thing about this is, you have to get lucky and find someone who is traveling the exact route you want at the exact time. It only worked out once for us, Vienna to Salzburg, but it was smooth sailing the entire ride and much cheaper than the train or bus. The majority of these are for northern Europe in countries like Germany, Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland where trains are Extremely expensive and there are no buses. Just pull up google and punch in ‘ride share – (country) – and a bunch will pop up.
• 

  Hitchin a ride

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*Another example of something you can do is hitch a ride in a camper van. While at a camp site in Senj Croatia, we met this wonderful couple from Germany. We heard that they were going to Plitvice Nat. Park the next morning. Fortunately we had just met two other travelers from Germany who were able to translate, and asked them if they would take us along! …They ended up driving us around Croatia for the next week! An example of the kind of things that can work out if your open and friendly….being in a camper park helps too

Just think about it like this, how would you save money at home? Apply the same mentality. When on holiday it’s easy to spend frivolously because of the excitement, but do a quick costs-benefit analysis. More often than not you’ll find that you make economic decisions based off short term satisfaction and if you’re going the distance like us than you’ll be coming home quicker than anticipated.

Depending on your level of tolerance and time, you can cut costs left and right. It takes a strong will not to give in when you’re tired or hungry, but roughing it was the best way for us to travel this particular trip and I wouldn’t change a thing!

Any questions about specific ways we saved money in a country just leave a comment or shoot us an email. Driftingduo468@gmail.com