A couple million Vietnamese Dong
I used to make just over minimum wage and I thought that the reason I was broke was because I wasn't making more money. Then I started making a lot more money and I still didn't have much money! I wasn't sure why untill I sat down and started looking at my finances. What I found was simple.
I sat down with paper and pen and started doing some basic math, thinking about where I was spending my money. My first budget had some revelations that helped me, but over the next few weeks as I thought more and more about it I was noticing many little things that were missing. As I revised and perfected my expenditure list I came up with two lists, essentials, and non-essentials.
Let's be honest, how many times a day do you buy something that is unnecessary or non-essential? Let me give you an outline of some of the things I cut out that added up to HUNDREDS of dollars a month in savings.
- Snacks - On break at work I used to walk down to the convenience store and buy a soda and something sweet or salty to eat. I cracked this habit down to maybe once a week.
- Coffee - I drink black coffee so hey that's not too bad compared to Frappe, Latte, or Capucino right? Wrong. It's still 10x overpriced for something I could simply make for myself at home.
- T-shirts - I used to buy these stupid $40 t-shirts because I thought they were cool. I'm by no means a shopaholic, but I would buy them every couple months.
- Cigarettes - I wasn't a full time smoker, but as someone who works at a bar I definitely would occasionally buy a pack
- Movies - This was 9-10 years ago so I'm talking about both going out to movies, and buying DVD's. I had a fairly cheap cable package with HBO that I split with my roomie that had on demand viewing of all the excellent programs they had to offer. Yeah HBO isn't cheap, but it's a heck of a lot better than buying $80 worth of DVD's a month.
The worst thing for a budget though? Eating out and going to bars. Once I figured out how much money I had been spending on bars and restaurants I realized I could save thousands in months! I think I used to spend $300-500 a month eating out! Once I figured that out I cut down on eating out to a few times a month.
So here is my biggest tip for saving up lots of money for world travel - Learn how to cook!!
For an other perspective on this check out the excellent article "Why having less money should not stop people from traveling the world..." by @diabolika
Check out my last blog to read about the first of my travel adventures.
How it all began...
And stay tuned for more!
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Yeah eating out is really expensive! I prefer to cook myself its way cheaper and if you try out various new things it is also enjoyable :)
Yes and it will help you when you get overseas and decide you don't want to go back anytime soon and you are trying to make those dollars stretch a little further to know how to cook some cheap rice and vegetables into a delicious meal.
Interesting. Eating out can be surprisingly expensive and usually causes weight gain.
I decided to keep this article short but I was going to go on to say that because I decided to massively cut down on drinking and eating out I also decided to focus on fitness and a diet plan where I was trying to gain muscle mass. I would cook up pounds of chicken breast at a time then use it in different dishes throughout the day, eating six times a day and working out five times a week. I ended up putting on almost 20lbs of muscle and have never been as strong as I was at that time.