I get asked about how I fund travel almost as much as where I’m going. I get it. It’s an essential and fair question. Trips can be expensive and considered a luxury when you’re balancing other budget constraints. I’ve compiled five tips I hope are useful to you as you aim for a more wanderlust life.

Tip #1: Confront Your Financial Behaviors

We all want to live our best lives, experience incredible destinations, and eat fantastic food. To drive that, you have to ask yourself if your financial behaviors can fuel the growth you want. You must confront your financial practices. Living paycheck to paycheck is the reality for a lot of people, but there are ways to adopt habits that can alleviate some of that. One way to jumpstart more healthy financial behaviors is to give your finances a hard look and do so beyond just analyzing the numbers in your budget. First of all, what is your psychological response to money and finances? Do you get tense when you think of funds? Is spending a source of anxiety? Do you see money as one small part of abundance, or is it the end all be all to wealth?

The habits we have around money and finances stem from how we view money in our minds. Personally, I’ve had to overcome the anxiety I get around spending money. Also, I have a general phobia for numbers, so dealing with budgets and finances always gave me some concern because it’s all about calculating and percentages and making it work. I realized that saving and spending are essential parts of managing my life and my finances are a part of the abundance I want for myself. Also, a friend gave me this fantastic line, “scared money don’t make no money,” and I repeat it as a mantra when I’m spending on something expensive. I don’t purport that this is the perfect mantra for spending, but I suggest finding some mental notes that you can repeat that address your specific issues and tensions around funds.

It is essential to see which areas of your financial picture are healthy and which are unhealthy, mentally. Once you identify those areas, it will help you address the behaviors and develop practices that address areas where problems may exist.

Tip #2: Budget

Budgeting is a way to see your complete financial picture. It lays it all out there and shows you what’s available, where you can trim the fat and what’s left over for saving. Mathematics is not my strong suit, so I use apps to do all the calculations and put things in pretty excel sheets and pie charts. I like Mint for budgeting. I get weekly expense reports that show my areas of spending, and if I go under or above the limits, I’ve set for each category. It’s helpful to see where you may be overspending and if you need to make changes in time for the next paycheck. Mint is free and easy to use.

Also, take a good look at your credit and view your credit score regularly. There’s a lot that’s possible when you have good credit, have good travel credit cards, and, most importantly, have good use of credit. Thankfully, many banks make credit scores readily available as part of online banking. If you need more resources, try Credit Karma for a free, no-hassle credit scoring.

Tip #3 Save

Ah, saving is a vital habit for every traveler. It’s not easy, and for some, close to impossible. Some people don’t believe in saving; I think it’s a great way to fund travel and it provides a great sense of financial security. I highly recommend getting into the habit of saving money. One way I save money is by making automatic deductions from my paycheck directly into high-yielding savings account that’s intended to fund my travels. It also helps me to plan my trips so that I can have a sense of where I can go based on how much I’m able to save that year. I do most of my travel in September - December, so that gives me about nine months every year to save actively for trips. Saving is important because you can meet your monthly obligations and know you can still fund some trips along the way.

Tip #4 Source Deals

There are so many useful websites to find flight deals that you must search multiple places before you settle on a ticket price and reserve a flight. The exception is if, like my parents, you’re loyal to one airline and only fly with that particular airline - regardless of cost. For my parents, that’s Delta airlines. I have preferred airlines, and I am part of the loyalty program for several of them. Still, honestly, I can’t afford to only fly with my preferred airline, so I search for the best deal and use multiple comparison sites to ensure I have the best deal possible. All of my flight searches start at Google Flights. I like this site because it compares flights to all the major airlines and shows you the prices before and after your desired dates.

Kayak is very popular and useful for finding flights as well. Kayak makes great comparisons, and you can search for hotels and cars as well.

I really like The Flight Deal. I signed up for their newsletter, and daily, they send flight deals from major US cities. I found my flight deal to Madagascar via this site, and I was delighted with the booking process. They carry all the codes you need and the dates that apply to the deals. I highly recommend using this site and viewing the daily flight deals.

Other notable mentions are Travelocity, Expedia, and Student Universe.

Tip #5 Enjoy

As much as I love a deal and love to travel on a budget, I have to enjoy the trip. So, make sure you’re spending on a flight that makes sense, is on a reliable airline, doesn’t include numerous stops, and additional charges. Nothing kills a trip more than a flight that has so many stops with little time to enjoy the destination. Or worse, a flight on an airline that is notorious for cancellations and missed connections.

Consider what your needs are when booking a budget flight. Measure the length of the flight, what your purchased ticket offers, and ensure that the flight deal you’ve selected is worth it in happiness :). I flew on a budget airline to Iceland. Folks on that same flight complained a lot because the seats didn’t recline, there was no on-air entertainment, and I think you had to pay for even a cup of water. I was prepared with my snacks and drinks. I slept the majority of the flight, and my only issue was that someone stole my magazine from my lap while I slept. Yes, this is a true story. I looked everywhere; the people seated next to and around me feigned complete ignorance. All in all, I got to Iceland safely and had a blast while I was there.

I hope these tips help you to plan your next fabulous trip. Bon Voyage!

Until the next adventure,

xoxo

Moni