Funding a big trip

So you want to travel around, see the world, sample all the amazing experiences that are waiting for you out there? There’s just one catch, you’re not a millionaire and you don’t know any (or any that are willing to sponsor you!).

People say to me all the time “you must be loaded!” Well I’m not. I never have been, my family aren’t and I can’t see that I ever will have lots of surplus cash.

After I decided that travelling was what I wanted to do more than anything and realising I had no savings, I had to find money from anywhere that I could. I was studying full time at university and managed to fit in a couple of weekend shifts on the NHS bank at my local hospital but with the amount of private studying I had to do I quickly realised that achieving my financial goal by picking up extra shifts was a little too optimistic. What else could I do when all my time was taken up with studying?

I remembered a chance conversation I’d had on a flight to San Diego. I was sitting next to a lovely Italian guy who was learning to speak English. I only knew how to say hello and thank you in Italian but that was enough to start a fabulous flight of insightful conversations. It turned out he was travelling the world and even saved me lots of money by letting me into a secret… See I could not think how I could get from Asia to America without coming back home or via Africa. He did not understand what I was saying I thought because of his English skills. No. It turned out he was in disbelief at what I was saying not because he didn’t understand English but because of my stupidity! He said to me “but you can fly from Japan to Hawaii then to America or Canada”. I still didn’t understand how that could be possible looking at the world map on my phone. “but Kimberley you know the world is round right? So you can go off the map here to here? You don’t have to go back..?”

Anyway the other conversation we had was how envious I was that he had managed to do what he was doing. He said “well you know I have had to make sacrifices. When I am home I have a very broken old car and I have a very small apartment that I share to free up the cash because these things are not as important to me”.

There it was. I loved my car and pretty things and nights out in Leeds. But I’d rather be wearing a cheap bikini sipping water on the beach in Costa Rica. So began a life style overhaul. I took a look at my direct debits and general outgoings and made cuts everywhere. I didn’t upgrade my phone, made sure I had the cheapest insurance etc. I sold my car and got a £400 banger. I sold my designer clothes and got used to wearing the same things over again. Daily eating out and takeaways stopped. No more expensive meals and weekend full benders in Leeds. Luckily G being an adventurer was more than happy for us to spend weekends camping and bbq’ing costing next to nothing. Any gifts we bought each other for birthdays and Christmas were somehow related to travelling. Our home was the cheapest we could get in our area without living in fear or squalor. We still put in extra shifts and G often did odd jobs after work and on Saturdays as well as gigging but it all went in the pot. All very insignificant on their own but all together made a huge difference.

It took 2 years to get enough together between us but we have it now. If we had planned to work or volunteer on our way round then we wouldn’t have had to sacrifice as much for as long and there are lots of opportunities out there to try this option. But actually it’s very liberating to think that when we set off we will only be leaving a couple of suitcases, a mountain bike and his tools behind. 😊