When You Just Wanna Travel... But You Broke AF

Some Super Helpful and Practical Travel Hacks for the Uninformed Wannabe Traveler

• How to Responsibly and Effectively Start a Legitimate Travel Fund, Because You Really Should Have One If You're Serious About This |

  This blog breaks it all down, and offers some great actionable advice on how to optimize your bank accounts for travel preparation. The blogger says they keep a dedicated travel fund and deposit money into it twice a month, and if they ever have to pay for a flight, they'll have a secret stash to pull from.

• You Don't Have to Think About Budgeting So Much If You Pick a Cheap Destination. And Many Amazing Destinations are Cheap, Cheap, Cheap

  Why spend $15 on a take-away egg-sandwich breakfast from a bodega in Iceland when you could spend $3 on the same thing in a fancy restaurant in Colombia?

• Maybe It's Not That You Can't Afford to Travel, But That Your Financial Priorities Haven't Been on Travel...Until Now!

  I've been following Adventurous Kate's blog for years now: I like her content because she never sugar coats anything. Here she writes "How I Saved $13,000 For Travel In Just Seven Months" and she legitimately tells you how. Read and learn from a master.

• FACT: The Slower You Move From Place to Place, The Less You'll Spend

  "Slow travel" is a thing... and it will help you save big if you're able to do it. Long-term discounts, less transportation costs, more flexibility to look for cheap tickets... the list goes on. And, there are lots of really cool perks to traveling slowly as well that you may have never considered. This article 8 WAYS TO SLOW TRAVEL AND WHY YOU SHOULD tells all.

• GOAL: Save As Much As You Can Before You Go. BuzzFeed Has Some Good Tips For How: |

  I know you're reading this roll in the first place because you're broke AF, but it would be BETTER to start your travels with a little bit of savings behind you. Here the ever-entertaining Buzzfeed offers some very sound advice and ideas.

• Take Advantage of Credit Cards! You Could Take $500 Off A Flight to Anywhere

  First things first: NEVER spend more than what's in your debit card. ALWAYS pay off the full amount. That being said, signing up for one of the credit cards on this list could help you knock the price of your one-way flight in half, or heck, go there for free. Usually you need to meet a minimum spend within three months, but I bet if you tell your parent/sibling/friend/someone you *trust* that you'll treat them to a nice dinner if they buy their next big purchase with your new card, they'll agree to help you out. I personally have had the Chase Sapphire for years and love it! To use their points on flights you need to book through their tool, which sometimes is annoying but usually worth it. I also recently got the Barclays Arrival card which is also great because you can use it with any airline booking tool.

• How and Why You Should Sell Your S*** to Meet Your Money Goal |

  This blogger says she made $7000 in one month by selling all of her stuff, and in her post she breaks down what you need to know to effectively sell your stuff too. Maybe you won't make quite what she made but any bit helps, and when you travel you'll need to embrace the minimalist lifestyle anyways so might as well start early!

• Make Money (or Volunteer) While You Travel To Stay Cash Positive

  You might not make a ton or save anything with the jobs listed here, but these are all great ideas to avoid depleting your bank account. For example, a large percentage of hostels will let you sleep there for free if you agree to a few hours of volunteering behind the front desk.

• Sometimes Airlines Make Mistakes and Post Flights for Ridiculously Cheap Prices, But You Need to Catch and Book Them Before the Airline Removes It! |

  Follow Secret Flying on all your social channels so you can catch and book "accident fares" when they happen. Another site that does this is called Flight Deal: http://www.theflightdeal.com/

• Beginner’s Guide on How To Use Matrix by ITA Software

  Learn how to search for cheap airline tickets like a pro! This is one of the best tips I have for saving big-time money on travel. Google ITA Matrix is a powerful search tool you can use to find the cheapest airfares out there. You can search from an unlimited number of departure and arrival airports. Read the next tile for a personal story about how I used it so you can better understand what I mean.

• Matrix by ITA Software Continued: Seriously; you gotta learn how to use this tool if you want to find cheap flights! Here's how I saved $800 on a flight from South America to Europe using Matrix by ITA Software:

  Recently, I wanted to get from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Seville, Spain: a very considerable distance and not-at-all a common route. When I searched directly, I found that one-way flights were about $1500-- way too much! I used ITA Matrix to search for flights from anywhere in South America to anywhere in Europe using the "nearby" tool that's described in this blog post (it allows you to search for all airports within 1000 miles). I found that I could fly in the evening from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Madrid, Spain for $350. That meant I only needed to find a flight from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo earlier on that day (or the day before and spend one night in a hotel). Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo is a very common flight that typically costs under $300. The final step was to book a train or flight from Madrid to Seville; either costing under $50. So, see what I did there? With a little clever searching I was able to make it to my destination for $700 instead of $1500. Not too shabby.

• "CouchSurfing" is Like AirBnb for Free, But With a Host Who Wants to Play Tour Guide

  It's exactly what it sounds like. Make a profile, find and message a host, go crash on their couch, or often a spare bed, for free (just please be nice and at least treat them to a beer or pizza one day). Lots of people who love to travel but are stuck at home (because they have to work, take care of their pet, or are just broke AF because they spent all their money traveling) find hosting other travelers in their home to be fun. Showing someone else your city makes you appreciate where you live more because you start to see it through the travel lens.

• Avoid Expensive Phone Bills By Using Wifi-Calling. Google Hangouts Works Great.

  We all know WhatsApp is great for free texting and calling if both parties have the app installed, but what if you want to call your grandparents or other tech-illiterate people in your life? Google Hangouts lets you call both mobile and landline numbers in the US and Canada for FREE!

• Think Outside the Box When Booking Flights to Get To Your Final Destination with a Hidden City Flight

  Or let SkipLagged do it for you if you're a beginner flight-hunter. A hidden-city flight is a flight where you get off at the layover rather than the final destination. Sometimes it's cheaper to book a flight to a further destination that has a layover in the city you actually want to get to. Just remember, if you do this you can NOT check luggage.

• Switch Your Bank to Charles Schwab If Traveling Internationally To Save on Withdrawal Fees

  Charles Schwab doesn't charge you foreign ATM withdrawal fees: awesome enough already. Even more awesome, it refunds you any money that foreign ATMs charged you by depositing a lump sum into your bank account at the end of the month.

• Here are 50 Fairly Obvious Money-Saving Travel Tips That Are Still Worth Mentioning

  You'll probably read this list and say to yourself, "yeah, obviously," but when you're not in the flow of traveling yet these things are sometimes easy to forget about. Read this before you go to get in the right mindset of spending your travel money in the right places.

• Hostels > Hotels |

  Accommodation doesn't have to be as expensive as you may think. Hostels will save you a ton of money, will introduce you to other like-minded travelers from all over the world, and will let you see the city through a more authentic lens. Also, FYI, a high percentage of hostels offer private rooms if the idea of a dorm leaves you weary. People from other countries, specifically Europeans and Australians, are common guests at hostels. Americans (your parents, probably) seem to be scared of hostels because they're not common in the U.S. so the only time they've ever heard the word "hostel" was when it was the title of of a stupid horror movie. The reputation is totally unjust.

• Get Compensated for Flight Delays, Even If They Happened 3 Years Ago

  This tool scans your email inbox for flights you've booked and if one had a problem, it'll tell you if you can claim money for it. It also gives you a really cool report of all the flights you've taken over the past 3 years.

• Save By Being Food Wise, e.g. Cooking When You Can, Choosing Menus in a Pre-Determined Price Range, Etc.

  Tip number 8 here has awesome advice and insight on how your eating patterns and habits could break the bank; and how to prevent that from happening. http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-travel-cheap/#tip8

• If Hitchhiking is Too Scary to Be Worth It (it is...) Then BlaBlaCar is the Next Best Thing

  BlaBlaCar is the world's leading long distance carpooling service, connecting drivers with empty seats to people traveling the same way.

• Get Yourself a "Real" Job Overseas in One of the 5 Countries Americans Are Legally Allowed to Work in

  This is the American's guide to working holiday visas. Here's everything you need to know to make your dreams of working abroad come true. How to work abroad in 1) New Zealand, 2) Australia, 3) Singapore, 4) Ireland, and 5) South Korea.