Episode three twelve, how to travel full time on a budget.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life. Here your hosts, Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jill.
And my name's Chloe.
And if that sounds unusual to you, you are still listening to the Frugal Friends podcast.
But yeah, Jen's not here. She's uh, well, I'm not going to make an awful joke. She's just got a baby.
She's on maternity leave.
Yes, bulletle hopefully, I'm not sure. Well, Jen and the baby are doing great. His name is Atlas. He was a nine pounder. He was still is a chunk. He's so cute. They're all doing well, and big brother are hanging in there. I'll be honest, but.
Nine pounds, nine pounds.
My mom had five kids, and I don't think any one of us was nine pounds.
I think like the biggest was seven. Poor Jill. Jill's recovering me.
Jen, Oh shoot, but the Jay.
And j You're like, well, I'm fine, thank you very much. I know your name.
I believe you.
I was a nine and a half pound baby nine pounds five ounces.
Well that's not exactly half, but yeah, still, yeh, that's a lot, Mike.
Look at us, Look at us, big babies. We are not good.
Got nothing to worry about. Chloe's standing in as a guest co host. Well, Jen is on maternity leave right now, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I mean, Jen is great, but getting Chloe on the show is a real treat. She's holding it down the personal finance space and makes being good at money so fun, which isn't too common to come by, so you should definitely check her out. She is an amazing financial guru. She's got a podcast
called money Bear. She's on Instagram, which is my personal favorite because she's so fun to watch clobear money Coach. She's got a blog, clobear dot com. So so much that she brings to the table and just standing in as a co host currently see we will not be hearing from Jen on this episode, but if you've just turned in to learn more about traveling full time, we'll get there.
Don't worry.
But first, this episode is brought to you by at Liss, not the Collection of Maps or the Greek Titan condemned to hold up the heavens. But Jen's four week old son named Atlas. That's right, he's here. He's amazing. More on that in the weeks to come. Anyways, Atlas has graciously chosen a sponsor today's episode. Thanks for cash, little man. It's quite fitting because, as his name alludes to, we are going to be talking about traversing the globe and
the types of guides you need today. And speaking of guides, Chloe has an awesome one called Get your Money Right Guide, and it's full of everything you need to do just that get your Money Right. It's all of the most frequently asked questions in a thirty page guide with templates, links to blogs, videos, so much more. You can describe more on it, but definitely get it get your Money Right or money Right guide dot com.
Yep, what do you want to say about it? Que money right guide dot com?
I mean you did.
I love the way that you transition from you need a guide to traverse through the world. And then speaking of guides, that was genius.
I'm reading that. I'm like, brilliant. I love it.
But now everything everything Jill just said is true, and she was before we started recording. She's like, how do you want me to describe this? And was like, it's literally everything you need to start your money.
It's like it's all of the things.
So which is so great, and it's free.
It's free, and I love free stuff. So much time on it.
It was like, Okay, I need something that when people DM me with questions that I can just easily send them and just be like, hey, I actually put that answer in this free guide. And there's so much more here too, So that's really how it was born.
Was like, how do.
I answer everybody's questions with like a quick and easy link.
So yeah, that's the answer to your questions. My friends.
Oh, this is so great. We love free digestible things. So gay you want to right guy dot com at list Thanks for the money. Now I know how to get it right with Chloe's guide. Well, today we are talking about traveling full time on a budget. We've got other travel episodes that you can listen to. You can queue up after this, We've got episode two eighty four, which is how to Hack Your Next Vacation with Chris Hutchins. We love interviews, so that's a good one. He gives
us some really great tips. Then we've got episode two fifty how to Save Money on travel. That's kind of a frugal traveling one oh one, lots of different tips on how you can travel see the world but not completely break your budget or go overboard with it. But this one is going to look at a little bit more of a specific angle of full time travel. Now, some people do full time they consider that like living
overseas four years and years. Some people will do full time travel more in the sense of like six to twelve months. If this sounds like something that's interesting to you, this is kind of what we're going to be reviewing our classic going through two articles from the internet, sharing our own experiences along the way. Chloe, have you ever traveled like full time? Would you have considered yourself like full time traveler?
Yeah?
So I actually just finished up about nine months of full time travel, And no, I wasn't pregnant, because it's weird that it's nine months, but it was. It was about nine months. It might have been a little less than that. I can't remember. But when I quit my full time job to do Clober Money Coach full time, I was living in Chicago and I was like, I don't want to do another winter here if I can
avoid it. But I didn't know where I wanted to live, and so I started a road trip across the country with my dog and we just The whole point was to date cities essentially where it was like, Okay, here are the places I think.
I might be interested in living in, So.
Let me spend you know, two weeks to six weeks in each of these locations so that I have a better idea of where I want to live. And now after doing that, I'm moving to San Diego for three months and then I'll be in Tucson permanently.
So I'm very excited.
WHOA, Yeah, I's so beautiful and I'm so glad to hear your perspective throughout. This is why you're the stand in co host of the Frugal Friends podcast.
I'm excited.
Well, I told I told Jen when she was like, do you want to come on? I was like, just so you know, I wasn't very frugal on that. But what I will say so I don't lose all my credentials here is I used to travel very, very very frugally, especially like when I was studying abroad in college. And then when I lived in China, So I used to live in China for about two years, So I guess you could consider that kind of full time travel too,
because I was hopping around there as well. So I do have some perspective, and I'm excited to talk about this.
Well. I think I love the different extremes and experiences too that that you're describing of having done it on a really strict tight budget and then having the experience of being able to afford more. And that's just the thing. We love talking about values based spending. So all of this is within your means and your value system. If this is something that you choose to go after.
Yeah, well, and how about you.
Have you ever done like a full time travel stint full time?
But many of our listeners would know that I and my husband lived in an RV on two different occasions, but everyone assumed it was to travel, and we did do some of that, but it was mostly to own a home within our means and it was primarily stationary, but we did do some travels within the midst of that. But okay, yeah, very cool, Like nothing that's a full year of travel, but it honestly does intrigue me, So I'm partially wanting to do this episode just because I am intrigued by it.
Yeah, I want to do it.
Yeah, and research for sure.
And the way that you've described dating cities that just sound so romantic and beautiful, it.
Was, it was.
It helped me get very clear on where I wanted to live and like what's important to me?
For sure? Awesome.
Well, I am excited to hear your perspective on these different articles. The first one comes from Earth Truckers and it's how much does it cost to travel around the world? Of course this is going to be super relative, but I really appreciate how they broke this down. They truly did go all over the place I want to say, nearly every continent they were in as a family, so even doing this with kids with a spouse, I think
that's really amazing. And they kind of break it down into the different categories of transportation, lodging, food, and then giving and overall.
What did you think of this article, Chloe?
I thought it was really impressive in terms of just how much they've done and then how much knowledge they have of the different places that you can travel, because I mean, it's one thing to do a bunch of travel in Southeast Asia or China or Europe. But like they have the gamut of it. They've like, oh, we did all of this, so I think they've got a really really cool perspective and clearly a lot of experience.
Yeah.
So they go through factors that influence the cost of long term travel, and the first one that they mentioned is the countries that you visit. So this is going to play pretty heavily into how much you end up spending, because, as I'm sure we're all aware, some countries cost more than other countries, and depending on where you're traveling from, the value of your currency might be more or less
in any given country. So you know, they talk about some of the more developed countries Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, some of those costs are going to be pretty high.
They mentioned that in Europe and Australia, per person, costs averaged about one hundred and twenty five dollars per day, So for their family of four, they experienced about three hundred and fifty dollars that they were spending per day, whereas for them, they found that with their currency and exchange rate and their experience Asia, Africa, South America was a little bit less expensive. When they went to Cambodia, India, Nepal, they spent as little as fifty dollars per person per day.
So of course, it's going to depend on where you choose to go, and I think they'll talk about this a little bit more in the article, but how many countries you choose to hop around to is going to play a big part in that. So that's a factor to consider depending on what your budget is where you
want to go, considering different parts of the world. If you're not actually trying to traverse the entire globe, if you just want to visit a couple of different places, maybe stick it within one continent, then that might be a way to kind of decrease cost if that's a primary concern when traveling for sure.
Well, the other thing that I like that they mentioned is that you know, being able to mix in some of those lower cost places, especially if you're doing like a really long term travel like a year, six months or even more. It's like, well, you're able to make your money stretch a lot farther by mixing in some of those more expensive places with like a cheaper place to spend more time in it, And that's kind of
that works in the US as well. So like when I was on that road trip, it was like almost every other city had a very different cost of living, and that made it a lot easier to just be like, Okay, yes, I'm spending four grand on my rent here in San Diego, but then I go to Portland and it's like a fraction of that. So that definitely, I think makes it a little bit more doable, especially if you're not planning on just staying the entire time in like Iceland or Norway,
like historically expensive areas of the world. The other thing that they talked about was mode of transportation, and mode of transportation is going to be huge when it comes to any type of travel domestic or international. You know, flying in the US and flying across country even state to state can be extremely expensive, but flying in Europe is going to be a lot less expensive if you're hopping around. But then there's also other modes of transportation too,
like trains, you can take buses. Doing all of that, like kind of figuring out what's your priority is going to be important because for me, like when I visited Italy and I was there for two weeks. I could have gone very frugally and just rode the bus or taken a train everywhere, but I really wanted the experience of renting a car in Italy, and so I decided to go a higher cost for my mode of transportation. But it was because of the experience that I wanted.
So really figuring out what's important. Is it important that I have the utmost comfort and I'm flying everywhere, or I'm taking a train, or is it I don't really care that much about comfort. I'm willing to bust it. I'm willing to, you know, do the cheapest option available.
So it all goes back to that values based spending of like what is actually important to you, Because if it's to do this as cheaply as possible, you're probably going to be bussing to a lot of places, You're probably gonna be tired, you're going to be you know, shoving your stuff into these things. But if that isn't as important as being comfortable or having freedom or flexibility, then you have some other options.
Too well, and there might be some really cool things that coincide with doing the busting system. And experiencing life special circle and meeting other people. But I can totally get on board with what you're describing of really valuing and prioritizing renting a car because of everything that you can see in that particular country. Maybe you wouldn't choose that in every country that you visit, or it's maybe
to the exclusion of other choices. Maybe you're not going to eat out as much, maybe you're not going to do all of the activities that you can do because the activity is seeing the countryside and how beautiful that is. So it's really just choosing what's your priority in each place.
One hundred percent. Well, and also like just running the numbers too. You know, I'm a big planner, So if you're really looking at costs of the long term, it's easy to find out these costs. It's easy to see, Okay, well, if I rented a car, it would cost me this
much over this period of time. But if I was to let's say I took a train to each one of these places, or took a flight to each one of these places, you can really see that side by side comparison, to be like, all right, do I really value the car this much or like, am I more willing to do something kind of in the middle.
Yeah, exactly. The next thing that they mention is the pace of travel. So depending on how frequently you're changing locations, the more money you're going to spend. Anytime you're transferring to a new place, you're spending money on that transportation. Maybe other factors could be increasing those daily expenditures. So the slower pace that you take, the slower you travel, the longer you kind of stay in one place, the lower your daily costs are going to be when you're
not kind of hopping around. Because this also gives the ability, depending on where you're staying, to make your own food or be eating leftovers Versus if you are constantly traveling, you're constantly on the road, then you're probably going to be grabbing food along the way too, and paying for the transportation costs and whatever maybe upfront costs might be in addition to the places that you're staying. So I've
experienced this sometimes it's worth it. I always feel this way whenever I go someplace that's super far to me that feels like Europe or Africa or well where else have I been? Asia, It's like oh well, now I'm here, so what else can I see? And I want to jump around and it feels like, oh yeah, well, there's a plane ride from the Philippines to Bali is only
fifty dollars. Okay, But that's not the only cost to consider, because then you also have to figure out transportation once you're in that new country, lodging, once you're in that new country, what is the exchange rate of your currency in that new country. Not saying don't do it, but I think that this is a great thing to keep
in mind of. It's awesome to be able to collect the countries and the stamps on your passport, but just know that the more and the more frequently you're changing countries, that's going to increase cost significantly.
Well, and just like energy, Oh my gosh, I had the energy for like that fast paced travel in my early twenties and like in college where it was just like you're like, let's just go boom boom boom, we don't have to.
Sleep, like let's just catch another flight.
But I loved discovering slow travel the ability and I will say I understand slow travel is absolutely a privilege. Not everybody has the ability to be like I'm going to go stay here for a month, or I'm going to you know, I'm going to take my time experience these these places. And I think often the reason that we try to squeeze so much into like wherever we are is because we don't have that time.
We don't know when we're going to be back.
We want to be able to cram as much in together, but being able to take it slow and to really like soak in that's definitely my preferred mode of travel. It's just because it's so much less frantic, you know, and you get to make those decisions a lot easier and a lot slower where it's not like this need
to do everything all at once. So it's like your energy is better, you're you're not feeling as exhausted, and often it can lower the cost when you're comparing it to like if you had crammed a bajillion things in a short period of time.
So that's such a good point.
I feel like that's a reason to consider longer term travel if you're able to.
It's unfortunate because it's not like our country is really set up that way. Our systems of like PTO in this country of the US is really it's not set up that way, whereas other countries you've got, you know, there's like national holidays where people take off an entire month.
It's wild.
Yeah, I know.
So you know again, I guess now though, that we have so much remote working and things like that, that actually becomes an option for some people. But it's definitely something to think about. I'd be curious with the community things in terms of like are you a slow traveler? Are you let me jam everything I can into this experience.
So the next that this article described was the type of accommodations, and this is I almost feel like so many people think that accommodations is not a flexible expense. It's like it's always going to be your most expensive expense other than maybe the flights. But there are a lot of things you can do to lower it or really control the range in which you're you know, considering
your accommodations. What I loved about this article is they listed out, you know, the cheapest to the most expensive options, and a lot of people I don't think ever think about CouchSurfing. Then again, this is something I did in my twenties, but it's not something I would probably do now. But the cool thing about CouchSurfing, and there's an entire organization called CouchSurfing.
I think it's CouchSurfing dot.
Org is so original, Yeah I know, but it's.
Been around forever and the people on there who are couchsurfers or couch hoosters, and sometimes you can get an entirely free accommodation like an your own room for getting on this CouchSurfing like network essentially, because essentially the network around couchsurfers is all these people who are avid travelers who love hosting people, meeting new people from other places, or you can just meet friends on there. So CouchSurfing is one if you're really trying to stay for cheap.
Then they had camping, then hostels, long term budget rentals, low budget hotels and B and b's, mid range hotels and b and bs, and then the high range hotels B and bs and there's that can range from zero dollars to as much as you, I mean infinity and beyond in terms of what you want to spend. But again you have to figure out, Okay, what is important
to me in this journey? For me when I'm traveling, where I stay is really important, so I'm always willing to spend a little bit more, Whereas in my youth, when I was trying to do it for as cheap as possible, I was often saying in those hostels, And I think a misconception about hostels also is that they're not safe. A lot of hostels will allow you to rent your own room. It's just significantly cheaper than what
you're going to get at a hotel or airbnb. But personally I usually go with the airbnb route just because I really like having my own kitchen. And again, like you were saying earlier, that can impact your cross too, so got to figure that part out what's important to you.
Yeah, Oh, such a good point, I think, especially when you're talking for more long term, you know it's not just a couple of nights or a week. Many of these places will also give discounts for your longer term stays. Even a regular Airbnb that you could rent for a couple of nights, many hosts will have deals and discounts if you rent for longer than thirty days or something. So that's certainly something to look into and to know
that just because the name it's called couch surfing. Doesn't mean that you're actually just going to sleep on the couch. Sometimes you might if you're into that kind of thing, then great, But sometimes it does include someone's spare bedroom and hostels you can rent rooms with and have your own bathroom. So I think some of this is getting rid of the stigma around what these types of accommodations are.
Yes.
Yeah, So then the next factor is food. You know we'd get here one of these days. Food is this is my value. It encompasses all of my values. This is definitely where I would spend. But of course, just like our grocery budgets, this is going to range so
so much. If you are traveling longer term, then you definitely have the option of being able to stay in accommodation where you have a kitchen and make your own food and shop the local grocery stores, which is so fun and often a way to save money when traveling. But of course you could be going to like the really high end restaurants and trying out all of the different food offerings. I like what you mentioned, though, Chloe.
When you're staying in a place longer, you've got more time to explore, and it's not as if breadfast, lunch and dinner. We got to hit it hard and we got to get all of the restaurants that I see on Instagram. You can kind of space it out a little bit more too, So in that way, it doesn't have to be a super expensive experience, but of course it's going to come down to the decisions that you make along the way.
Well, and I think too, the food is very country specific as well and location specific, because like here, I love too that you're like, this is my number one thing, because for me, I think my number one thing is probably accommodations or experiences, which we'll.
Talk about here soon.
But food actually is not that important to me. Like for me, I'm definitely the type of person who's going to cook at home or who's going to do anything I can to lower my food costs because it's just not a high value item for me. However, if I'm traveling to another country, food becomes more important.
If I'm staying in the ua.
US, it's like, okay, you know, for the most part, there might be like a thing or two that the city specializes in and I need to like try it. But what I love about traveling in Southeast Asia and China, and you know all these places that have amazing street food, is that it's almost cheaper for you to eat out for every meal. So it depends heavily on the country that you're in, because you know, like in China, I almost never cooked because it was like every meal was
so inexpensive. It would be silly for me to like take the time and money to cook.
So true, it's, uh, yeah, it definitely varies.
The next thing that they had on their list was my favorite, which is activities, tours and multi day excursions. And really this again can range all the way from free all the way to.
However much you want to spend on it.
You know, when you're looking at the small things like museum interest fees, you know you've got like gallery fees, whatever it is that you're into, those can be pre and expensive. But you could go all the way to oh, I'm going.
On a winery tour.
I'm going on a multi day excursion, and so that's obviously going to impact your costs significantly.
I love splurging on this stuff.
I like, if I'm in a new place, I'm immediately on the Airbnb experiences just seeing like, Okay, what are like some of the cool things that I can do, Especially because I travel alone a lot, I want to meet people, and Airbnb experiences is a really easy way to do that, but also just seeing like what's going on in the area, what can I do, what kind of tour can I take?
Yeah, I think this is such a great way to explore the country. If you're doing longer term travel, I would imagine this is what you want. You want to engage in the culture, meet people, see what there is to see, and really explore and take in your surroundings and that country. So I think definitely carving out but carving out money for this, but also doing research ahead of time because many of these things are more kind of natural beauty. I think that's what appeals to me
in the various places that I visit. Sometimes there's if there's a cool building or museum like maybe, but primarily I'm interested in the hikes and the mountains and the rivers and the waterfalls and what is there to discover. And many times that's going to be free or low cost, which is exciting. Oh, for sure, to decide ahead of time, you know what you're going to do right well.
And also I think give yourself a little bit of a wiggle room because you may change your mind once you're there. Like, for example, when I was on the road trip across the country, that was my thought process too, was like, well, most of the things I want to do are free. I want to do a ton of hiking, I want to go see all the nature stuff, which is great.
But then I got.
Lonely and it was like, well, like, well, I want to do stuff too, And I had had this kind of belief in my head that I needed to unwind that it was like, oh, I shouldn't be spending that much money. And eventually got to the point and like, Chloe,
when are you going to do this again? When are you going to take a six to nine month road trip across the country and visit all these places and be here for a long period of time, Like you have to allow yourself to do what you want to do and try these new fun experiences, even if it's going to cost you a little bit more. So I do think add some wiggle room there, just because you may think that you only want to do all of the free things, but like giving yourself the permission to
also experience something else if you can. To me, that was important and I do got a shout out like a resource. Have you ever you mentioned that food's your favorite thing?
Yeah?
Have you ever done eat with? No?
Okay, learning about new things? All right, I'm gonna get it too.
I have to double check that it's still a thing. Hang on, let me google it eat With, Yes, it is still a thing. This is my favorite thing to do in a new city because you can literally go have a meal with somebody in their home. And most of the time these people who get verified on Eat With they literally like they're professional chefs. They are people who have like entire like catering businesses. They love hosting
people and it's just extra money for them. And so when I was in Italy, that was the first time I didn't Eat With. Like, my heart is even bursting thinking about it.
It's all dropped.
I know we don't do video on this podcast, but.
You will love it.
So it's like they've got they've got group experiences, they've got like tours they have, but my favorite is to be able to literally go to somebody's home who's like a master chef and eat a meal with them.
Oh, love that's so cool and like and it's locals, so you gotta.
You know, really really experience this whole new level of like intimacy with the city, you know, because whenever else, unless you have friends who happen to live there, whenever else are you going to get that kind of experience.
So love that.
I love how you're talking both to I don't know if is this both international and within the States.
Oh, that's awesome, I think too.
I know that this article is describing international travel, but I love how you're also weaving in travel.
Within the States.
I know so many, especially families, who have this bucketless goal of traveling to all fifty states with their kids, and sometimes that includes road trips in the summer. So I think a lot of these tips are true for also exploring the US. If that's from so I have, Yeah, this is awesome. Yeah, Okay, last two things we're gonna kind of breeze through before we get into our next article.
The next one is miscellaneous fees. We need it in our budget for just regular life, and we need it in our budget when we're traveling full time.
But they sneak up on.
You, all those miscellaneous fees whether it's visas upon arrival, souvenirs, laundry, replacing clothing or shoes, buying new gear, giving gifts to people that maybe hosted you on eat with or couch surfing, or who knows. There are miscellaneous fees. This article Earth Trek recommends setting aside between one thousand to two thousand dollars. Of course, it's going to depend on what is your length of travel, how many of you are there.
You know, use your own.
Discretion, but definitely have some miscellaneous money set aside.
Yeah, and I kind of the next thing was pre
trip expenses. And it's funny that they even included this because it's like two sentences, not even maybe, but it's just you know, preparing for those visas, preparing for the flight costs, things along those lines, travel gear, travel insurance, health insurance, homeschooling materials, things along those lines that you need to consider as well that are kind of like just the basic living expenses of travel of you know, if you're going to do this, don't forget you're going
to have to have a visa potentially in each place that you go to, or you're going to have to you know, get some extra travel insurance. So those are things that you got to keep in mind as well. But obviously with the with the flights and things like that, there's some wiggle room depending on how you do it. But when it comes to visas, I don't think there's anywhere there's appreciating that or even health insurance, like you're gonna have to pay pay full price.
For that, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and insurance is important to have if you're going internationally. So I love how they wrap up this article. They give an entire summary of their costs. I love it when people are just open like this, bearing it all. Now, keep in mind, this is a family. They traveled around the globe. They did the whole thing for a full year, and they found that it costs them between twenty five thousand to thirty five thousand per person for one year to traverse the
globe together. Of course, you can find yourself less than that more than that somewhere in the middle, or you may not choose to go for a full year. You may not choose to go around the world. But there's a little bit of an idea if this is a goal of yours, whether you want to save up to do this or you're thinking about working, if you have flexibility in your work or you can work remotely, this is something to be prepared for about how much it's
going to cost. So yeah, for two people, if you're a couple wanting to do this, you know, looking at about fifty thousand dollars to travel around the world, you probably spend that at like just regularly in a.
Year, yeah, on yourself.
So when you look at it, so doable.
When I looked at the twenty five thousand to thirty thousand, I'm like, some people spend twenty five thousand to thirty five thousand just on rent.
Like that's it alone in the United States.
So it's yeah, I think it's I think it is surprising when you realize that actually it could. If you're able to get rid of your rent at home or you know, pretty much eliminate your expenses at home, then traveling really can be less expensive than living in the United States for a year, depending on where you're at now. Yeah, obviously it's a huge range depending on what you want to do. But yeah, I think that's something that a lot of us don't even consider that it's possible to spend less.
Yeah, and I appreciate all that you've kind of listed out. I think that that is worth considering of how what would happen to my living situation where I'm from, How am I going to keep up with any savings or investing goals while I'm gone, you know, all of those factors. But I think ultimately what that article did for me too was realize this is doable and attainable with preparation and within my own set of values and priorities.
But yeah, I think that's honestly the hardest part is figuring out what am I going to do with my current situation. I feel like that's what holds so many people up, is like, well, what do I do with my stuff?
How about my rent or my mortgage? You know, you just gotta.
Yeah, but if you're coming to the end of a lease and you already want to move, just take a sabbatical overseas instead, for sure. All Right, So this next article comes from the Travel and it's twenty five painless ways to budget in order to travel full time.
And we're not going to go through.
All twenty five.
We're picking our kind of top two to three favorites on ways to consider our money when we are traveling full time, and I do want to look at this from the lens of both whether we're traveling within our own country of origin or we're going internationally.
What was some of your favorites, Chloe.
So it's funny because I just said this, but the sometimes it's cheaper than living at home, I think it's huge, especially depending on where you live or where you go. It's going to be a huge range. If you side to spend a year in Thailand or a year in Bali, likely that's going to be incredibly less expensive and you're probably going.
To be able to save more money if you're working by doing that.
I think it's called what geo arbitrage, where you decide to live somewhere other than where you work because of the lower cost of li living. That can be huge And I know that not everyone can do that, but if you're able to make that work and you do have some big financial goals, it's always something you could consider.
Yeah, I one hundred percent agree, And I think that that depends on, like we were talking about earlier, if you are going to be traveling a lot, or if the travel just means kind of staying stationary for a set amount of time, having a like landing point, and then going out from there, like you're mentioning, you know, if it's Indonesia somewhere, but then you kind of travel to the different places around that area, but you've got maybe some sort.
Of your home base.
Yeah, midterm rental there. One of the ones that I liked on this list that we did kind of reference already too. Number nineteen is consider finding work that requires travel. So this is coming at it from a little bit different of an angle. But for those of you who might be listening and you're like, this is not doable for me, I love hearing you all talk about being able to travel full time and spend twenty five to thirty five thousand dollars a year. But that's not my situation.
But I do want to explore. I do want to travel. I think that thinking outside the box with anything travel included is so so helpful, and we can kind of think creatively about how can I get the things that I want within my means, within what's available to me, and within reality. And if you do want to travel, but work is a huge consideration, as it probably is for most of us who are still like of working age, we're not retired yet, then consider finding work that would
include travel in it. Maybe it's not a case where you can just kind of let work go for a year at having had saved up money.
But if this is something that.
You really want, and maybe you're already looking to change careers or organizations or companies, this is something to consider in that. Because there are plenty of companies businesses that hire people and they want people to travel, there are plenty of people who don't want to travel, and so sometimes it can be hard to fill those roles because people don't want to be gone away from their home
for a long stance of time. But if that's you, then finding work that requires that can kind of be like best of both worlds, where you're making money and you're able to explore and it's not necessarily on your dime. That could be an awesome way of hacking this.
Absolutely, and I think too a lot of the jobs that do require travel are more accessible than people realize, but you have to be willing to be like a people.
Person a lot of times.
So the jobs that I think require the most travel often are sales jobs, business development fundraising, which is great in that you don't need like technical experience, but you need to be able to show your ability to build relationships. Essentially, those I feel like are something. And then there's like the highly technical skills where it's like you have to
go somebody in another part of the world. That or consulting, I mean consulting, especially you've you know, if you've got to go to a new location to train some folks on something or consult them on operations and things along those lines. I think that those are usually some of the best travel gigs. And what's nice too. I used to travel when I was in a fundraising role and I loved it. But I will say traveling for work
got very exhausting very quickly. So the nice thing about trying it out is you may scratch that itch and I'll be like, all right, never mind. What I will say is that when I traveled with the company or the nonprofit that I worked for, it was never an issue extending my trip and it was paid for. So it was like the nice thing was if I decided, okay, well I finish up work on Friday, I'm not going to come back.
Until Monday, like the flight was still covered.
The only thing I had to pay for was what happened between Friday and Monday. So that can be a really accessible way for folks and shout out out to the fundraising career.
Yeah, people so often forget about.
That is not an easy job.
It's not an easy job.
But I it gave me a lot of really good skills, and so I always say, sales is just for building relationships. Okay, have you considered house sitting? Was my next favorite, which is number fifteen on the article. The reason I wanted to shout this one out is because there is this beautiful.
App that a lot of people like to gatekeep. Have you heard of this one?
What is it?
Trusted House Sitters?
WHOA, yeah, probably, but so it's not used it.
I might get attacked for sharing it because on TikTok it's a very very gate cup. But essentially and I've never used it because I when I was traveling, I was traveling with animals, so essentially Trusted house Sitters it's an exchange. So you're essentially going to someone's house to
watch their house, to keep track of their animals. And sometimes the animals are like horses or pigs or like like just or dogs and cats, but people are looking for people to come house sit for them, and in exchange, you get to stay at their place for completely free.
You just have to watch their dogs.
And so everybody gets verified in things along those lines. But it's really cool if your plans are flexible. If you are like, oh, I don't have like any certain date that I can travel, or you know I you know, I'm just looking for my next trip, you could go on to Trusted house Sitters. And you do have to pay a membership fee for Trusted house Sitters. I think it's like one hundred and fifty dollars for the whole year.
But then you get to go and like scroll through and be like, Okay, where do I want to take my next vacation based off of this house sitting availability.
I love that you've got all the test, Like, I hope no one comes for me.
My name is not Chloe, so that's a It's just a really cool tool I have. You know, I have clients and I have followers who have told me and who have used it long term. But again, it's one of those things where both are verified. So it's like you are a verified person in the house sitting situation is also a verified person, so it's safe from what I can tell.
Yeah, well, I house that for a couple and I didn't find it through online. It was more like connections within our network. And the couple didn't want to rent the house out because they wanted to be able to come back for the holidays. But they're going to be gone for over a year and they wanted someone to still be utilizing their pipes they're in their water and flush the toilets, and I'm like, I can do that. I flush some toilets, and you know, people will ask, well,
how do you find these things? And I know it's out there, but that's a helpful tip. And there's others other than what Chloe has mentioned. So the next on this list is number eighteen. This is an obvious one, but I do love it because I think so many people don't know how to do this. Number eighteen look for inexpensive flights. So this too, is another situation where having flexibility is useful in when you.
Choose to travel. The days of the week that you.
Travel will often play into how inexpensive your flights are, and also knowing how to search for flights. So if you've been listening to the podcast for a long time. I'm sure you're aware, but I love to tell all of my friends and all of you listeners who are also my friends, to search for your flights in an incognito window. And that's as easy as typing incognito up in your search browser, and then this button will come up and say do you want to go incognito and
you say yes, I do open an incognito window. Because the more that you search for the same flight, the more that the prices for that flight could go up. It's that classic kind of supply and demand situation. So if they're picking up on the fact that, like, oh, this same person is searching for this flight over and over again, it can jack up the price of the flight. So first of all, I would say, don't start looking until you are actually ready to pull the trigger, but
then do it in an incognito window. I love using Google's just Google Flights for searching. Of course, this would be a great thing to use any points that you may have on, especially those longer flights you know, getting you across the ocean. This can really help in cutting down what is usually a massive expense of traveling.
Yeah, no, I love the tip on the Google flights and the incognito mode. The other app that I like is sky Scanner. That's kind of been my og and one that I've used forever because it'll always tell you if it's a good time to buy or not. It'll give you like an idea of like, oh yeah, these
might go down. And I always love apps that have the feature of like this is the airport I'm leaving from, and then you can put anywhere like as your destination and then they'll show you like what are the cheapest flights to.
Pretty much anywhere.
Credit card hacking I do love, but I'm not like a serious credit card hacker because I think you can get.
You can get real deep and it's real.
Complicated, and I'm like, no, thank you, I don't have time. I'll just pay full price. I don't care, but but it is. I do love my Chase credit cards because
of their Ultimate Rewards program. I feel like if you're a lazy credit card hacker or a lazy travel hacker, like I am, the Chase credit cards and obviously this is coming with the disclaimer of like only do this if you're good at using credit cards and you pay them off every month, but their ultimate rewards makes it so easy to find whatever you want and pay for it with their points.
My final one from the article was be like a local.
So it kind of ties into a lot of things we've already said, which is that slow travel really allows you to kind of soak in the vibe of the city what it feels like to actually live there, which was really my main goal this last year.
And it's great.
Because it's more inexpensive when you're living like a local, but you also get the experience of like, Okay, what is grocery shopping here? What is it like to prepare a meal? How is it getting around and going to a gym? You know, all of those things, And personally now these days, that's kind of how.
I prefer it is. It's just I'd rather.
Just go to experience what it's like to live here, and like, you know, I'll go see the nature stuff and things along those lines. But a lot of the times I don't end up doing a lot of the touristy things or traditionally touristy things, because my goal is usually just to like understand how it feels to live here, and like I like just going for walks and seeing what the vibe is, and that can be pretty inexpensive as well.
I agree, that's where the experience is and just soaking in the environment that you're in. My last one on here is number fourteen, which is reduce unnecessary expenses or spending, reduce nuser spending. And this is just a tip across the board whether and that you choose to travel. I think it's always good to be asking our question, like asking that question of do I really need or even want to be spending on this thing? Do I value this? And in spending on this, is it keeping me from
something that I actually value more? And so I think that this is a great thing to explore pre travel and in the midst of travel and post travel. And if you never travel, but if this is something that you're considering of, oh, in the next two to five years, I really would love to explore another place for six months, nine months, not pregnant or pregnant however you want to do that then beginning now, because for most of us, this isn't something we can just decide to do. I'm
just going to go travel for a year. There does need to be planning in prep that goes into this where do I want to go? Do I want to stay within the States? Do I want to travel abroad? And what can I be doing now that's going to help me get to that point? Is there spending that I'm doing now to kind of fill in whatever adventurous gap that I might be feeling inside myself that is ultimately potentially going to keep me from doing this really
cool thing in the future. So cutting for that greater why, that greater purpose to be able to have the money set aside in order to travel for whatever set amount of time that you want is awesome. So I think this is the ultimate budgeting tip I think is beginning as soon as possible, because I think if this is something we have our sights on, we've got to start preparing, cutting in different ways, then setting that money aside for this purpose, and start planning and do it if you want to do it.
Right well, And I think too with the it's such a good ending tip because it's like, if you are mindful of your spending in your everyday life, you're also going to be mindful of your spending on a trip. Now, obviously things are going to be a little bit different, and you may be splurging, but it's all that baseline
of being mindful with where your money is going. And I like too that that really ties into the like being like a local or kind of what I had said earlier, because one of the things that I had to discover for myself was in terms of touristy things. There were some things that I felt like I had to do or had to spend my money on because it's like the thing to do, but deep down I had no interest in it. Like this may offend some people, but I have zero interest in ever seeing another cathedral.
Ever again, I don't care anymore.
I'm like, there's no I don't need to see another cathedral. There's a lot of museums I don't care about. But there's like this thing in the back of my mind that used to be like, well you should. You know, this is something you should want to do. Everybody else does this, and you have to really recognize that thought because it's going to cost you more money. You're not going to enjoy it because if you don't want to go, you're not going to just magically be like, yeah, I'm so glad I did this.
Sure you may be like.
Yeah, the pictures were pretty or whatever, but you really really have to be honest with yourself and like, am I doing this because I feel like I have to get this Instagram photo or because I if I'm here, I'm supposed to be doing this thing?
Figure out what is it that you actually what do you actually care about? And if you don't care about it, don't do it.
You get to travel on your own terms and sometimes going off the beaten path and doing your own thing that was never posted on on Pinterest or never posted on on Instagram. That is going to be the thing you cherish the most. The thing I cherish the most for my travels are those random experiences. It's almost never Oh I loved going up into the Sistine Chapel where I was surrounded by people, could not move and it smelled like.
That's not my favorite memory.
Sure, I'm glad I did it, but you do have to really check yourself and be like, what do I care about?
And that's just another lifetip on Honestly, speaking of being like a local, Chloe, are you ready to be like a local a local? Frugal Friends podcast co host we Wei yell that it is time for.
The week.
That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This is the bill of the week.
Hi Jen, Hi Jill.
My bill of the week is the monthly cost of the clothing rental subscription that I have. I have a pretty public facing role, so I have lots of high level meetings and panels, and I'm in front of people quite a lot. That used to cause me a lot of stress because I was always worried that I wouldn't have something to wear, or something wouldn't fit, or I wouldn't be as professional as I thought that I should be.
So I went ahead and invested in the subscription, and I cannot overstate the value that I've gotten from it.
It makes such a difference for me to not have to worry about my appearance, to be able to wake up and know that I have something in my closet that is professional, that will help me to look polished, that will help me to feel good in what I have on and I used to feel really silly about spending money on clothes that I don't own, but I think I've gotten so much value out of it and thinking about the way that frugal friends talks about values
based budgeting and prioritizing the things that really make it difference. My career matters a lot to me, and this is a much better investment in my career than spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on a full business professional wardrobe. So thanks for everything y'all do bye.
That got me like choked up.
I was like, Oh, aren't these bills amazing?
I like, I love you, Jessica, that's so like amazing. And I can hear it in your voice of just how good you feel doing this clothing subscription. And I don't know if it's like a rent. It sounds like it's a renting. I think she said rent the runway. I mean that's also sustainable, so you're also saving the planet earth.
Good job, Jessica, did.
You tying in all these frugal principles? Yes, Jessica, I affirm everything that Chloe just said. And you I think this is this is exactly what we're talking about when we say use base spending, and it is frugal because it is making wise, good stewarding decisions with what we have that are based around the things that are important
to us. And to hear you be able to connect your spending to some of those deeper reasons of My career is really important to me, and I want to put my best foot forward and this helps me to be able to do that. It helps bolster my inner confidence the way that I feel about myself, which helps me in the way that I engage with those around me and my workplace. And I too, I have chills right now just even talking back what I've heard from you.
And yeah, you get it, and you.
Have found the freedom to spend on the things that are important to you. And well done, and I bet you look so good and polished. I love that word when it comes to talking about a wardrobe of clean, polished wardrobe.
Ough. It just feels good and it's.
A thing like it's a stress that is off your shoulders. You spend time worrying about something else.
Because time is money too.
You don't have to be out there shopping and feeling like you need to be getting everything dry cleaned and changing out your wardrobe regularly. It's coming to you. So yeah, you're paying for an efficiency as well.
I just love that.
I love that for you, Jessica. Thanks for calling it in and I appreciate that you are taking like the shame around something that I think a lot of people might be, like what you do well with clothing and it's just like no, and I have full confidence in this and here's why, and well done. And if you all listening, have a subscription that you don't mind paying for, or you just are a person named Bill, you know what we like. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill,
leave us your bill. We are ready to listen to it and get choked up and get chills or just laugh with you whatever you want to do.
And now it's time for the lighting around.
Wow.
I was not expecting that. Thank you for that.
Your forehead bounds.
You're like, oh my god, oh what is happening? She is possessed.
Yeah, we yell, we yell a lot in like the back end. Hey, it's great, you can do it next time.
Chloe deal.
Jen's not on board for the lightning round. She always just whispers, but someday. All right, So this question is just a fun one that we're going to ask each other. What's something that you're willing to splurge on when you travel. I'll add the caveat that you're splurgeing because you have the money. You're not going into debt for it, but you're willing to spend more than maybe what others might typically.
Spend accommodations without a doubt. I just I am a homebody without a doubt, and that even extends to when I am traveling, and so I am willing to spend a lot of money on my accommodation now not an unreasonable amount. Like my brother, we were just at a all inclusive resort for my brother's wedding last weekend and congrats, and it was it was.
A beautiful resort.
And I looked at upgrading the room just because and the room upgrade would have been like five hundred dollars extra a night, and I was like, yeah, no, that's where I draw the line. But my brother did it, and it was like I was like, you spent an extra twenty five hundred dollars just to like have a balcony, And I.
Was like, no, thank you, but I got it's his wedding.
It's no, no, no, this was my other brother. Oh.
So I was like, I realized that my willingness to spend on accommodations has its limits, which actually is comforting.
You were able to see, like I'm still able to stick with a boundaries.
Yeah, exactly, Like if I really wanted it, I would have, but like.
That just felt unreasonable.
So that's amazing.
Yeah, I think similarly, like I want to feel really comfortable. I want a beautiful setting, but I still want it at a relatively reasonable price, Like I want the best of both worlds.
Yes, yeah, someday, someday, maybe I I'll be unreasonable, but yeah, Jill, what about you?
What's Oh John, this is so silly and it's probably not like my ultimate final answer, but I'm going to go with it.
Food at the airport.
I feel like in your classically, like the way that we classically understand frugal people, there's always the folks who pack to go to the airport. The prices are so high, like it's like Disney World when you go to the airport, and I just don't care. I am so willing to spend an extra fifty percent on my food at the airport to keep from needing to pack tupperware of carrot slices and apples. Like, if I'm traveling, I want to be able to buy a glass of wine and enjoy
some food before I get on the plane. I I will spend their guilt free.
You know what.
CO sign on that because it's like it stresses me out to pack too much, and like I feel like I'm always pushing it. So if I had to like jam some snacks in there too, there's just no way.
Yeah, exactly, there's just no room for the carrot slices. No problem. No. Oh man, Well that's traveling full time for you folks, traveling full time with Chloe.
Yeah that was fun. Well, thank you guys so much for listening. Many of you know your Frugal Friends have a membership for the listeners who are paying off debt where they do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups. We want to congratulate one of the members for a big win.
Michelle B.
You had a huge win, so Michelle said you guys, I'm so excited thanks to Frugal Friends, I've gone from having such poor credit that I wasn't approved for a Marshall's credit card. How is that even possible? She said in parentheses a year ago to today being approoved for a Capital one event V your card.
Whoo.
I am so thrilled. My fiance and I are going to put all of our upcoming wedding expenses on this card and use the points we accumulate to go on a trip to celebrate our big day. Thanks Jenna and Jill and all of you for helping me get here.
Oh my gosh, Shell, that's huge, Michelle, congratulations, this is exciting and also how fitting about travel. We'll be able to use those points. Hopefully there were some nuggets. I know you're not talking about traveling for a whole year, but hopefully there's some nuggets in this episode that will help you to travel, but also just improving your credit score. It's so amazing to see what can happen within the
course of a year. How much I think sometimes we think about credit scores, being like it's going to take a decade to get this thing turned around. But the decisions that you made and the things that you were able to shift in your finances just within a year, that's amazing.
Well, done well.
Also, we just have to point out you got such a better credit card than what you would have been approved for, so it's like that's also a win. You almost got like a crappy Marshal's credit card that wouldn't have helped you in any way really, and instead you got a Capital one Venture card that actually has points and is going to you know, allow that extra splurging on travel and things like that.
So that's huge.
Michelle, congratulations again, well to everyone, thanks for listening. If you want to check out our membership where we have all kinds of courses, interviews, challenges and more. Had to Frugle Friends podcast dot com slash club to check it out.
See you guys next time to do Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Kaloe.
You've freading crushed it.
Oh I thank you.
I'm afraid I'm going to get booted, Like Jen returns from eternity leave and it's like.
Oh, don't you worry, I don't have time.
I'm gonna say, now, don't worry.
I will say no. But you are so sweet for saying that. I was like, I was like, am I talking too much? Like?
So I have a podcast it's called The Money Bear b Are, and I like every time I have a guest on, I'm always just like, just so you know, this is casual, Like all I do is show up to chat with you, like I just want to hear
about you want to hear about this topic. Like the other day, I had a post about how I spend four hundred dollars a month on health insurance and I'm still afraid to go to the doctor because of like cost, and somebody commented and they're like, oh somebody, like everybody was sharing their woes and the comments and they were just like, yeah, I had to spend nine hundred dollars for benadryl, like crap like that where it's just like it's atrocious. And anyway, somebody commented and I said, have
you heard of dollar for Dollar four? And this is not sponsored or anything, but like dollar for is this new organization that will like fight for patients medical bills for them. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So I just immediately messaged them. I was like, I love what you're doing.
This is so needed.
I just heard about you today. Do you want to come on the podcast just so I can talk to you and it's like they were. But that's that's kind of how I roll on the podcast, where it's like I don't even have a script. I don't have like I have a general idea of the questions I'm going to ask. So I was like, I hope this is okay with them.
This is my style.
I love that style, just the dialogue.
And yes, anyone who is still listening this post show, check out money Bear. Just check out everything Chloe has to offer Instagram.
It's the money Bear. So on everything Bear is spelled b are because we get bear about our finances, we get bear about our income, we talk about mental health. So that's where that came from.
You are so cool. Thanks, Well that's all I'm just fanning.
Well, I appreciate you and this is fun. I was like, travel, I could talk about.
This all day.
Yes, and we almost did.
Oh I know.
You were like You're like, well, we're usually at forty five minutes, and I was like, I'll be easy, don't you worry.
You worry, and here we are