SMALL-TOWN GIRLS, MIDNIGHT TRAINS

— travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams —

travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams

…is to create a travel fund.

No, really. I’m not trying to be cute. A trip to Paris or Peru or Patagonia starts with a decision to do it. So do it. I mean it. Right now. Get an extra wallet or an envelope and put money in it. A hundred is okay if that’s all you can spare for now. In fact, if you only have P10, that’s fine. Just do it.

Hey! Go ahead. Do it now. I’ll wait.

You need to do it now because tomorrow you’ll forget, or you’ll think of a reason why you can’t travel just yet, or you’ll say you’ll just wait for the next sweldo. You’ll say you have kids, you’ll say you have debts, you’ll say you have a wedding to plan or a kid brother to send to college. And that’s all very awesome of you, really, but…come on, P10 won’t break your bank.

Coins and plant, isolated on white background

See, creating a travel fund now doesn’t mean it’s going to be the most important thing in your life. It doesn’t mean you’re being selfish. It doesn’t mean you don’t have other responsibilities. (Most of us do, actually.) It is just, quite simply, the very first step to making your travel dreams a reality.

Whether you want to backpack your way around the world, or you just want to go to Rome to see the Pope, if there’s somewhere you want to go, you need funds. And creating a travel fund — nothing more, just creating it, with whatever amount you can spare — is such an easy first step. There’s absolutely no reason not to do it. Okay? So do it.

Seriously, I’m not going to stop bugging you until you do it!

Done?

(Are you sure???)

Good.

In the next couple of posts, I’m going to share tips on how to make that travel fund grow. And I’m going to share what I know on how to get good deals for flights, trains, hotels, etc. (And, hey, you may even have tricks of your own. Let’s trade.)

For now, to end this post, let me just say: well done.

What you did right there — that’s huge. Lao Tzu probably wasn’t thinking of travel when he said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” but if he was, that single step — you’ve done it. Congratulations! 🙂

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“The Secret to Creating A Healthy Travel Fund” | LSS | Small-Town Girls, Midnight Trains. All rights reserved.

13 Responses

  1. Gian and I do stash away a part of our salary as travel fund every month. We dine out sparingly. We never buy coffee from Starbucks and just make do with the 3-in-1 instant coffee. Watching movies is almost zero to none. We don’t buy new clothes that we really don’t need. Our closet is still full of unused clothes anyway. These are just a few stuff we do so we can divert hard-earned money to our travel fund. We scrimp on these small things knowing there’s a better way to reward ourselves big-time–and that’s to travel!:-)

    1. Hi Sheila! That is so true — these little things add up if indulged in regularly. Some people say they can’t afford to travel but daghan kaayo sila’g ginagmay na luxuries na pwede na unta pang-travel fund. I guess it depends on our priorities in life, but for me (and I’m sure for you and Gian as well) travel is worth so much more than these little luxuries.

    2. Hi, thanks for this post. I can’t help but laugh every time I read “Go ahead, just do it.” 🙂 But you’re right. There’s no other way to do it but to save for it. Especially for people like myself who are tight on budget.
      I just graduated from college and got my first job and I’ve been saving since my first salary. I plan to travel the around the Philippines first and then around the world. I started a travel fund with a friend and we’ve been consistent on it thankfully. I’ll bookmark this page so I’ll have a reminder to just do it when I start to slump on building my travel fund.
      I’m glad I found it. Your writing is really good and very inspirational. I just stumble upon it today but I’m already loving it. Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts. Will be following you for more inspiration.

      1. Hi Jinger!

        First of all, let me apologize for taking almost three months to reply. These days, I just pop in real quick to WordPress and then log back out, and I’ve only just had the chance to really sit down to respond to comments.

        That’s so cool that you already have a plan and you’re already building up your travel fund, even though you’ve just graduated from college. It took me a while before I realized that, since I like travelling so much and want to keep doing it, I should just go ahead and include it in my monthly budget. I use a spreadsheet and I like the feeling of, every month, distributing my salary across the columns and watching my travel fund grow. Of course, it goes without saying you should also have, like, savings and an emergency fund, right? What’s nice about slowly building those up — savings, emergency fund, and travel fund — is that they can be your sort of “show money” for when you apply for visas. When you submit your bank statements and the visa officer sees that your bank balance is steadily going up, that’ll be a really good point in your favor.

        Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment and for your kind words, and I hope that you will find the rest of the blog useful and/or inspiring as well. Good luck and enjoy your future travels!

        Gaya

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