Everything I Did to Save $20,000 and Finally Travel the World

Last Updated on August 26, 2026

During the two and a half years I spent saving money to travel the world, I did anything and everything I could to save as much money as possible.

And when I first started looking for advice, I felt like a lot of it didn’t apply to me.

I wasn’t a college graduate making a salary. I didn’t own a home. I didn’t have a partner. Actually, I was single, working at Whole Foods, and living in a studio apartment that cost half my monthly income.

Others made it look so easy. Where was I going wrong?

I wasn’t doing something wrong, but I did need a different approach, and the most important thing I learned during that time is that if you want something bad enough, you’ll do anything to make it happen.

And anything, I did.

Big and small, drastic and subtle, these are all the ways I saved over $20,000 to travel the world.

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Things to know before you start saving

Saving money required me to have a few different mindset and lifestyle changes before things started working for me, and not against me.

Get out of debt first. Saving was easier for me because I had zero debt. If you have a shadow of monthly interest looming over your head, take care of that first before you put money aside for travel.

You may have to play the long game. When I saw people saving more than my entire year’s salary in 6 months, it felt like my dream to travel was further away than ever.

I didn’t have the benefit of a robust corporate salary when I started saving money, and so I had to be honest with myself about how much was actually possible for me to save and how long it would take (much longer than I had originally thought).

You can’t have it all. Sacrifices are inevitable if you’re serious about travel. A lot of people are willing to get really uncomfortable to save money, which is a strategy that does pay off, but I was not one of them.

I wasn’t willing to go without WiFi and survive off hot dogs and ramen to shave a few hundred dollars off my monthly bills, but I was willing to remove a lot of other creature comforts from my everyday life, like getting my eyebrows waxed, going out to eat, and useless subscriptions.

Simplify your life and live beneath your means. If I could summarize saving money to travel in one sentence, it would be this: Save more than you spend.

Get comfortable with the word ‘no’. No to impulse purchases. No to whatever trendy new thing is floating around Instagram. No to clothes you don’t need. No to it all.

Track all your monthly expenses

The most obvious, albeit the most difficult tip to apply, is to track every single one of your monthly expenses.

I never used to tracked anything, and then wondered why I didn’t have any money to move to savings at the end of the month. Because when you spend money without tracking, you don’t know how much things are really costing you.

Going out to dinner with friends one weekend, picking up coffee throughout the week, and joining co workers for happy hour a few times don’t seem so expensive individually, but when you add them together, they can have a significant impact on your budget.

Every Sunday, I go through all of my bank and credit card accounts, add every expense from the last week, and put them into a monthly budget planner on Notion.

If you’re serious about saving money for travel, you need to know where your money is going. This was especially important for me because I wasn’t making a lot of money with my job and didn’t have a lot of excess income to be spending.

Cutout all unnecessary expenses

Once you start seeing where your money is going, you can prune your expenses and get rid of things like subscriptions you don’t use and that dumb $2.99 Apple charge that comes out of your account each month.

What’s unnecessary will depend on you and your lifestyle, but it’s important that you’re honest with yourself. My unnecessary expenses were and still are: streaming services, any app subscriptions, and monthly payments to services I no longer use.

But when I started properly budgeting, I didn’t have the money to get my nails done every month, dye my hair, go out to eat all the time, grab coffee everyday, or order UberEats and DoorDash.

Which is why this tip is so individual and will have the greatest impact the more you can be honest with yourself. I didn’t have a shopping problem and was already living without because of my low monthly income, but if you do, you should reconsider if those things are worth it.

Tip: If you don’t want to get rid of a subscription, threaten to cancel. Companies want to keep your business and will often offer you a discounted price for the next three months. Before officially cancelling my Hulu, I was streaming for only $3/month.

Try and minimize your fixed expenses

In a perfect world we could all reduce our expenses to zero and save all our income, but alas, we have rent, gas, water, groceries, phone bills, and car notes to pay.

After moving out of my studio, I got a roommate and was able to save money on rent, and then a month or two before I left to travel, I stayed with friends and family so I could save even more money.

If you threaten to switch cellphone providers, usually they will offer you an incentive to stick around in the form of a discount. I made a seamless transition from my $90 AT&T phone bill to Tello, which only costs me $10 a month.

I have a basic Tello plan to hold onto my U.S. phone number, but you can get unlimited data and calling for $25 per month. I wish I would have switched long before I went abroad. Get $10 after your first month with Tello here.

Getting rid of your car note, if you have one, is another category that will make the biggest difference. I drove an old 2000 Honda Accord with 350,000 miles on it because I owned it in-full and insurance only cost me $77 per month.

Set a realistic monthly budget

After tracking your expenses for a month, you will have a rough idea about where your money is going, and then you can make a budget that’s realistic (there is no sense in trying to make a budget when you don’t know how much you spend because you’ll only end up disappointing yourself).

At the end of each month, I go through and set a budget for the month ahead. Then, at the end of every week on Sunday, go through all of my daily expenses from that week and transfer them to my budget planner.

This way, I have a weekly update of my budgeting categories and whether or not I’m overspending. Some people like to do daily budgets, but I found that to be a bit overkill and inconsistent.

I use my own digital planner I built on Notion. I don’t have the finishing touches on mine, but there are endless templates online that you can get started with.

I think of mine less like a budget and more like a plan for my money. It starts with all my fixed expenses like rent, utilities, phone bill, gas, and my gym membership. These will stay the same month to month.

Then, I go in with everything else, and once you’ve pruned your expenses, you can set the amount you would like to spend in each category.

After that, it’s all about holding yourself accountable. There were months where I overspent and didn’t want to track because I felt ashamed, but I did it anyway, and it’s helped me get more truthful about my spending habits.

Create a travel savings goal

Are you saving for a round-the-world-trip or a 2-week getaway? Your answer to that will decide how much money you need to save. As will your travel style.

If you’re like me, assuming you’re budget traveling, mostly staying in affordable accommodation with the occasional splurge on a good tour or food experience, you can expect to spend a minimum of $75 per day.

That’s where I start.

Then I start to poke around online to get rough estimates. It’s old school, but I still use Budget Your Trip for helpful estimates. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great place to start if you don’t know what things cost in certain countries.

You can search for any country in the world on this website, and it will give you budget estimates depending on your travel style (budget, mid-range, or luxury) and how long you’re traveling for.

Those budgets don’t factor in flights, which is usually the first thing anyone thinks about. Luckily, I know exactly how to find cheap flights.

These are the categories you should factor into the savings goal: travel insurance, flights, accommodation, food (cooking and dining out), tours and experiences, car rental and gas (if it applies), visas, and miscellaneous (shopping and souvenirs).

If you’re nosy like me, I like to do a little bit of poking around on the internet to see what other people are spending on their trips. Instagram and TikTok are great places to find the videos.

Set up reminders for your trip or goal

There are many different ways to do this: changing your phone or desktop background, tracking your savings with an app, or telling someone you trust.

Make it something you will see every day so you don’t lose sight of your goal. Having this visual reminder of what I am saving for helped keep me motivated and accountable.

Put expenses into perspective

Once I started thinking about what my money could get me abroad compared to what it could back home, it became very easy for me to stop buying things I didn’t need.

With your budget in mind, the money you could save becomes more real when you have a list of future travel expenses you need to cover:

Impulse buy a new shirt for $30 or one night at a hostel in Edinburgh?

Travel insurance for your entire trip or spend $100+ on a manicure and pedicure?

Door Dash a pizza for $40 or go on a whale shark tour in the Philippines?

Pass on the upgrades

It’s hard to escape the pressures of consumerism.

Especially nowadays, where everywhere you look, you’re being marketed all this crap that you don’t even need. For a long time I always felt like I had to have what’s new in order to keep up and fit in, but nowadays I let that go, and if it ain’t broke, I don’t fix it.

Cars are the perfect example of this. I have never had a car payment in my life.

Before I moved abroad, I drove a 2000 Honda Accord I named “blue steel”, that had nearly 350,000 miles on it. My dad bought it for $800, drove it for a number of years, and then gave it to me.

Insurance only cost me $77 per month and gas was around $180 depending on where I went. Had I felt like I needed to be driving a brand new or newer car, I would have spent triple on insurance, plus a $500+ car payment, and gas.

Using what you have, taking care of it, and repairing it, usually is much cheaper in the long run.

Cook meals at home

Ever since McDonald’s got rid of the dollar menu, eating out as a whole has gotten egregiously expensive. Especially if you’re ordering from DoorDash or Uber Eats.

Finding simple recipes you like, and cooking them at home, will save you a ton of money. Meal-prepping alone has done wonders for my wallet over the years.

The problem is that most people think they need to cook really elaborate meals with 15 ingredients in order to make dinner, but that’s not the case. It’s also really expensive (which is why people end up ordering food instead).

There are countless YouTube videos, blogs, and Instagram accounts that make content specifically for meal-prepping budget-friendly meals that aren’t boring.

For a lot of people, going out to eat is one of their biggest expenses in their budgets, and you can see where you land once you create and start tracking your budget.

Shop smarter at the grocery store

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the reason why you think buying groceries is more expensive than going out to eat is because you don’t make a shopping list and buy a bunch of snacks to get you through the week.

Grocery prices are abysmal these days, but by doing these things, I’m able to eat affordably:

Make a list and stick to it: Plans all your meals in advance and only shop for what you need.

Buy ingredients, not snacks: Beans, pasta and rice are so versatile and can stretch your dollar way further than buying cookies, chips, and other snacks.

Plan meals around what’s on sale: Sales rotate in grocery stores about every two weeks, so there’s always something discounted.

Take advantage of discounted foods about to expire: Whole Foods has this program perishable items that were about to expire were 50% off. I saved so much money by buying these items, and freezing it until I was ready to eat it.

Shop your pantry/freezer first: What can you cook with what you already have?

Only take the amount you want to spend in cash: This will prevent you from making a lot of impulse purchases when you can’t default to using your card.

Avoid prepackaged/premade foods: There’s about a 30% price increase on premade foods to factor in the labor.

Don’t shop hungry: My hanger has cost me a Benjamin or two.

Find free or cheaper alternatives

For every expense you’re not willing to part with in your life, there is always a way to make it cheaper or free. You may just have to exchange convenience for a little bit of effort.

The local library is a fabulous place to borrow books, movies, and other resources for free.

If you’re going out drinking with friends, you can pregame a little at home and buy fewer drinks when you’re out. Have you seen drink prices these days? They’re egregious.

I’ve been loving YouTube for free yoga and workout classes rather than paying for a gym membership. I also started learning how to do my own nails (courtesy of YouTube university), which has saved me a ton of money.

The goal shouldn’t be to cut out everything, but to ask yourself if there’s a version of something you’d be just as happy with for cheaper (or free).

Sell your things

If you’re planning a year long backpacking trip in Southeast Asia or simply want to make extra cash, take a look at what you have lying around and see what you can get rid of.

Before I moved abroad, I made nearly $1,000 selling things that I no longer needed or used. But even if you don’t plan on uprooting your life, there’s probably a lot you have that you don’t need or have never used or worn.

I sold a lot of clothes on DePop and then anything else I posted on Facebook Marketplace. You’d be surprised what you can get rid of.

If you have a specific date in mind that you want to travel, start selling things as early as you can. I started posting items almost 8 months out from my move and I still felt like it would have been nice to have more time.

Find ways to earn more money

If you’ve done all you can to your budget, and you’re still finding it difficult to save money, the best thing you can do is increase your monthly income.

I got a second a job.

It sucked, but it was the only way that I could start saving more money. Even if you only pick up a shift or two a week, that can bring in hundreds of dollars in extra income to put towards your travel fund.

It helps if you get a job that can help reduce any of your monthly expenses. My job at Whole Foods got me 20% off my groceries each week.

But these days it’s really easy to make money online. I also did freelance writing, but there are many skills that can be transferrable to the online space.

Where there is a will, there’s a way. What skill of yours can you monetize?

Borrow or buy secondhand

If you need something, chances are there’s either someone close to you who already owns it, or a stranger that has donated it to a secondhand shop.

On one of my first dates with my boyfriend, I asked one of my best friends if I could borrow her black purse instead of buying a new one.

When did stuff like that go out the window? Let’s bring back offering your friends a 12-pack of beer to help you move.

But if you absolutely need something, thrift stores have everything for a fraction of the price. Especially if you’re celebrating something soon and need a gift.

I’ve been following this Instagram account for a while where she shows you what she thrifted and how she gifted it. It’s helped me think about thrifting more creatively and has given me a lot of budget-friendly ideas.

More guides for your next adventure

How To Find Cheap Flights

Tips For Traveling on a Budget

Safety Tips For Solo Female Travelers

A Quick Guide To Travel Insurance