Money. Cash. Green. Dollar dollar bills y'all.
There just never seems to be enough of it; the more you make, the more you spend, and the more you complain. It's something we all work for and yet can't wait to spend the first chance we get. Whether it goes towards a $5 coffee every morning on your way to class, to the newest must have item from a mall, or you're like me and it seems to disappear on well deserved nights out after a stressful week, it's consistently going a lot quicker than it's coming.
Traveling requires money, there's really no way around it. As cheap as you might be able to live sleeping in hostels and eating nothing but prepackaged noodles and granola bars, you're going to need a decent nest egg to be comfortable.
Looking online now at fight "deals", one way to India will cost me up to $2500 dollars. That's one way; no food, no activities, no bed to sleep in, just a flight. Now I don't know about you but I'm personally a broke student eight months of the year, and the other four months, most of my money goes to paying back the credit card i racked up during the last eight months of school. How on earth am I going to pay for my trip!?
I decided the key is to be very careful with the small amount of money I make in the school year and even more careful with all the money I make in the summer. No more overpriced coffees, no more buying things from malls (actually avoid malls at all costs), and start unwinding after a hard week at home with friends.
Truth is we fill our lives with a lot of things we don't need in any way shape or form, we are simply blinded by wants. Going traveling is not necessarily a want or a need for myself, its a deep desire and a goal to reach for. With this in mind, I will push my materialistic stupid spending aside and I will achieve this dream.
Not only will I be living on pennies for the next what will seem like an eternity, it's time to start thinking of other ways to increase my income. I got the "it will do" part time job a couple days a week while in school but what else can a student do? Odd chores for the neighbors? Garage sale? Perhaps a lemonade stand on the corner? Maybe not the last idea, its a little cold for that, a hot chocolate stand might be more profitable.
Either way I'm for hire! Just another every day poor student looking for some paper. What do you do when you need some extra cash or need to save up for something big? I will only accept free advice.
That is such a valid point, all these amazing places we want to travel, yet it seems like you have to be a millionaire before you can even begin to consider a foreign trip.
ReplyDeleteThe advice I would give you is to start looking into sites like Groupon (http://www.groupon.com/calgary), and eBates (http://www.ebates.com/canada.htm). While most people know that Groupon is a site for huge discounts. I just came across eBates yesterday. Its a site that receives commission from stores all over the world if they help make sales. Well they have decided to share that commission with consumers. Not only do you get discounts from hundreds of different stores. They also give you a percentage of your money back from each purchase. Every 2-3 months they will mail you a cheque from all the money you've accumulated.
My second bit of advice would be to get some sort of waitressing job. Most often if you're employed at a busy restaurant, you can bring home around $100 (tips) in only 4 hours of work. That's $25/hr in tips alone. Don't forget you also earned an hourly wage during that time. Most restaurants need more servers only on the weekend so it works really well while you're going to school.