Speaker 1: Episode three twelve, how to travel full time on a budget.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life. Here your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jill.
Speaker 3: And my name's Chloe.
Speaker 1: And if that sounds unusual to you, you are still
Speaker 1: listening to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 4: But yeah, Jen's not here. She's uh, well, I'm not
Speaker 4: going to make an awful joke. She's just got a baby.
Speaker 3: She's on maternity leave.
Speaker 1: Yes, bulletle hopefully, I'm not sure. Well, Jen and the
Speaker 1: baby are doing great. His name is Atlas. He was
Speaker 1: a nine pounder. He was still is a chunk. He's
Speaker 1: so cute. They're all doing well, and big brother are
Speaker 1: hanging in there. I'll be honest, but.
Speaker 3: Nine pounds, nine pounds.
Speaker 5: My mom had five kids, and I don't think any
Speaker 5: one of us was nine pounds.
Speaker 3: I think like the biggest was seven. Poor Jill. Jill's
Speaker 3: recovering me.
Speaker 5: Jen, Oh shoot, but the Jay.
Speaker 3: And j You're like, well, I'm fine, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: I know your name.
Speaker 4: I believe you.
Speaker 1: I was a nine and a half pound baby nine
Speaker 1: pounds five ounces.
Speaker 3: Well that's not exactly half, but yeah, still, yeh, that's
Speaker 3: a lot, Mike.
Speaker 4: Look at us, Look at us, big babies. We are
Speaker 4: not good.
Speaker 1: Got nothing to worry about. Chloe's standing in as a
Speaker 1: guest co host. Well, Jen is on maternity leave right now,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't be more thrilled. I mean, Jen is great,
Speaker 1: but getting Chloe on the show is a real treat.
Speaker 1: She's holding it down the personal finance space and makes
Speaker 1: being good at money so fun, which isn't too common
Speaker 1: to come by, so you should definitely check her out.
Speaker 1: She is an amazing financial guru. She's got a podcast
Speaker 1: called money Bear. She's on Instagram, which is my personal
Speaker 1: favorite because she's so fun to watch clobear money Coach.
Speaker 1: She's got a blog, clobear dot com. So so much
Speaker 1: that she brings to the table and just standing in
Speaker 1: as a co host currently see we will not be
Speaker 1: hearing from Jen on this episode, but if you've just
Speaker 1: turned in to learn more about traveling full time, we'll
Speaker 1: get there.
Speaker 4: Don't worry.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by at Liss,
Speaker 1: not the Collection of Maps or the Greek Titan condemned
Speaker 1: to hold up the heavens. But Jen's four week old
Speaker 1: son named Atlas. That's right, he's here. He's amazing. More
Speaker 1: on that in the weeks to come. Anyways, Atlas has
Speaker 1: graciously chosen a sponsor today's episode. Thanks for cash, little man.
Speaker 1: It's quite fitting because, as his name alludes to, we
Speaker 1: are going to be talking about traversing the globe and
Speaker 1: the types of guides you need today. And speaking of guides,
Speaker 1: Chloe has an awesome one called Get your Money Right Guide,
Speaker 1: and it's full of everything you need to do just
Speaker 1: that get your Money Right. It's all of the most
Speaker 1: frequently asked questions in a thirty page guide with templates,
Speaker 1: links to blogs, videos, so much more. You can describe
Speaker 1: more on it, but definitely get it get your Money
Speaker 1: Right or money Right guide dot com.
Speaker 5: Yep, what do you want to say about it? Que
Speaker 5: money right guide dot com?
Speaker 3: I mean you did.
Speaker 5: I love the way that you transition from you need
Speaker 5: a guide to traverse through the world. And then speaking
Speaker 5: of guides, that was genius.
Speaker 3: I'm reading that. I'm like, brilliant. I love it.
Speaker 5: But now everything everything Jill just said is true, and
Speaker 5: she was before we started recording. She's like, how do
Speaker 5: you want me to describe this? And was like, it's
Speaker 5: literally everything you need to start your money.
Speaker 3: It's like it's all of the things.
Speaker 4: So which is so great, and it's free.
Speaker 3: It's free, and I love free stuff. So much time
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 5: It was like, Okay, I need something that when people
Speaker 5: DM me with questions that I can just easily send
Speaker 5: them and just be like, hey, I actually put that
Speaker 5: answer in this free guide. And there's so much more
Speaker 5: here too, So that's really how it was born.
Speaker 3: Was like, how do.
Speaker 5: I answer everybody's questions with like a quick and easy link.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's the answer to your questions. My friends.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is so great. We love free digestible things.
Speaker 1: So gay you want to right guy dot com at
Speaker 1: list Thanks for the money. Now I know how to
Speaker 1: get it right with Chloe's guide. Well, today we are
Speaker 1: talking about traveling full time on a budget. We've got
Speaker 1: other travel episodes that you can listen to. You can
Speaker 1: queue up after this, We've got episode two eighty four,
Speaker 1: which is how to Hack Your Next Vacation with Chris Hutchins.
Speaker 1: We love interviews, so that's a good one. He gives
Speaker 1: us some really great tips. Then we've got episode two
Speaker 1: fifty how to Save Money on travel. That's kind of
Speaker 1: a frugal traveling one oh one, lots of different tips
Speaker 1: on how you can travel see the world but not
Speaker 1: completely break your budget or go overboard with it. But
Speaker 1: this one is going to look at a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a specific angle of full time travel. Now,
Speaker 1: some people do full time they consider that like living
Speaker 1: overseas four years and years. Some people will do full
Speaker 1: time travel more in the sense of like six to
Speaker 1: twelve months. If this sounds like something that's interesting to you,
Speaker 1: this is kind of what we're going to be reviewing
Speaker 1: our classic going through two articles from the internet, sharing
Speaker 1: our own experiences along the way. Chloe, have you ever
Speaker 1: traveled like full time? Would you have considered yourself like
Speaker 1: full time traveler?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So I actually just finished up about nine months of
Speaker 5: full time travel, And no, I wasn't pregnant, because it's
Speaker 5: weird that it's nine months, but it was. It was
Speaker 5: about nine months. It might have been a little less
Speaker 5: than that. I can't remember. But when I quit my
Speaker 5: full time job to do Clober Money Coach full time,
Speaker 5: I was living in Chicago and I was like, I
Speaker 5: don't want to do another winter here if I can
Speaker 5: avoid it. But I didn't know where I wanted to live,
Speaker 5: and so I started a road trip across the country
Speaker 5: with my dog and we just The whole point was
Speaker 5: to date cities essentially where it was like, Okay, here
Speaker 5: are the places I think.
Speaker 3: I might be interested in living in, So.
Speaker 5: Let me spend you know, two weeks to six weeks
Speaker 5: in each of these locations so that I have a
Speaker 5: better idea of where I want to live. And now
Speaker 5: after doing that, I'm moving to San Diego for three
Speaker 5: months and then I'll be in Tucson permanently.
Speaker 3: So I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: WHOA, Yeah, I's so beautiful and I'm so glad to
Speaker 1: hear your perspective throughout. This is why you're the stand
Speaker 1: in co host of the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 3: I'm excited.
Speaker 5: Well, I told I told Jen when she was like,
Speaker 5: do you want to come on? I was like, just
Speaker 5: so you know, I wasn't very frugal on that. But
Speaker 5: what I will say so I don't lose all my
Speaker 5: credentials here is I used to travel very, very very frugally,
Speaker 5: especially like when I was studying abroad in college. And
Speaker 5: then when I lived in China, So I used to
Speaker 5: live in China for about two years, So I guess
Speaker 5: you could consider that kind of full time travel too,
Speaker 5: because I was hopping around there as well. So I
Speaker 5: do have some perspective, and I'm excited to talk about this.
Speaker 1: Well. I think I love the different extremes and experiences
Speaker 1: too that that you're describing of having done it on
Speaker 1: a really strict tight budget and then having the experience
Speaker 1: of being able to afford more. And that's just the thing.
Speaker 1: We love talking about values based spending. So all of
Speaker 1: this is within your means and your value system. If
Speaker 1: this is something that you choose to go after.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and how about you.
Speaker 5: Have you ever done like a full time travel stint
Speaker 5: full time?
Speaker 1: But many of our listeners would know that I and
Speaker 1: my husband lived in an RV on two different occasions,
Speaker 1: but everyone assumed it was to travel, and we did
Speaker 1: do some of that, but it was mostly to own
Speaker 1: a home within our means and it was primarily stationary,
Speaker 1: but we did do some travels within the midst of that.
Speaker 1: But okay, yeah, very cool, Like nothing that's a full
Speaker 1: year of travel, but it honestly does intrigue me, So
Speaker 1: I'm partially wanting to do this episode just because I
Speaker 1: am intrigued by it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and research for sure.
Speaker 1: And the way that you've described dating cities that just
Speaker 1: sound so romantic and beautiful, it.
Speaker 3: Was, it was.
Speaker 5: It helped me get very clear on where I wanted
Speaker 5: to live and like what's important to me?
Speaker 4: For sure? Awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, I am excited to hear your perspective on these
Speaker 1: different articles. The first one comes from Earth Truckers and
Speaker 1: it's how much does it cost to travel around the world?
Speaker 1: Of course this is going to be super relative, but
Speaker 1: I really appreciate how they broke this down. They truly
Speaker 1: did go all over the place I want to say,
Speaker 1: nearly every continent they were in as a family, so
Speaker 1: even doing this with kids with a spouse, I think
Speaker 1: that's really amazing. And they kind of break it down
Speaker 1: into the different categories of transportation, lodging, food, and then
Speaker 1: giving and overall.
Speaker 4: What did you think of this article, Chloe?
Speaker 5: I thought it was really impressive in terms of just
Speaker 5: how much they've done and then how much knowledge they
Speaker 5: have of the different places that you can travel, because
Speaker 5: I mean, it's one thing to do a bunch of
Speaker 5: travel in Southeast Asia or China or Europe. But like
Speaker 5: they have the gamut of it. They've like, oh, we
Speaker 5: did all of this, so I think they've got a
Speaker 5: really really cool perspective and clearly a lot of experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they go through factors that influence the cost of
Speaker 1: long term travel, and the first one that they mentioned
Speaker 1: is the countries that you visit. So this is going
Speaker 1: to play pretty heavily into how much you end up spending, because,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure we're all aware, some countries cost more
Speaker 1: than other countries, and depending on where you're traveling from,
Speaker 1: the value of your currency might be more or less
Speaker 1: in any given country. So you know, they talk about
Speaker 1: some of the more developed countries Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
Speaker 1: some of those costs are going to be pretty high.
Speaker 1: They mentioned that in Europe and Australia, per person, costs
Speaker 1: averaged about one hundred and twenty five dollars per day,
Speaker 1: So for their family of four, they experienced about three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars that they were spending per day,
Speaker 1: whereas for them, they found that with their currency and
Speaker 1: exchange rate and their experience Asia, Africa, South America was
Speaker 1: a little bit less expensive. When they went to Cambodia, India, Nepal,
Speaker 1: they spent as little as fifty dollars per person per day.
Speaker 1: So of course, it's going to depend on where you
Speaker 1: choose to go, and I think they'll talk about this
Speaker 1: a little bit more in the article, but how many
Speaker 1: countries you choose to hop around to is going to
Speaker 1: play a big part in that. So that's a factor
Speaker 1: to consider depending on what your budget is where you
Speaker 1: want to go, considering different parts of the world. If
Speaker 1: you're not actually trying to traverse the entire globe, if
Speaker 1: you just want to visit a couple of different places,
Speaker 1: maybe stick it within one continent, then that might be
Speaker 1: a way to kind of decrease cost if that's a
Speaker 1: primary concern when traveling for sure.
Speaker 5: Well, the other thing that I like that they mentioned
Speaker 5: is that you know, being able to mix in some
Speaker 5: of those lower cost places, especially if you're doing like
Speaker 5: a really long term travel like a year, six months
Speaker 5: or even more. It's like, well, you're able to make
Speaker 5: your money stretch a lot farther by mixing in some
Speaker 5: of those more expensive places with like a cheaper place
Speaker 5: to spend more time in it, And that's kind of
Speaker 5: that works in the US as well. So like when
Speaker 5: I was on that road trip, it was like almost
Speaker 5: every other city had a very different cost of living,
Speaker 5: and that made it a lot easier to just be like, Okay, yes,
Speaker 5: I'm spending four grand on my rent here in San Diego,
Speaker 5: but then I go to Portland and it's like a
Speaker 5: fraction of that. So that definitely, I think makes it
Speaker 5: a little bit more doable, especially if you're not planning
Speaker 5: on just staying the entire time in like Iceland or Norway,
Speaker 5: like historically expensive areas of the world. The other thing
Speaker 5: that they talked about was mode of transportation, and mode
Speaker 5: of transportation is going to be huge when it comes
Speaker 5: to any type of travel domestic or international. You know,
Speaker 5: flying in the US and flying across country even state
Speaker 5: to state can be extremely expensive, but flying in Europe
Speaker 5: is going to be a lot less expensive if you're
Speaker 5: hopping around. But then there's also other modes of transportation too,
Speaker 5: like trains, you can take buses. Doing all of that,
Speaker 5: like kind of figuring out what's your priority is going
Speaker 5: to be important because for me, like when I visited
Speaker 5: Italy and I was there for two weeks. I could
Speaker 5: have gone very frugally and just rode the bus or
Speaker 5: taken a train everywhere, but I really wanted the experience
Speaker 5: of renting a car in Italy, and so I decided
Speaker 5: to go a higher cost for my mode of transportation.
Speaker 5: But it was because of the experience that I wanted.
Speaker 5: So really figuring out what's important. Is it important that
Speaker 5: I have the utmost comfort and I'm flying everywhere, or
Speaker 5: I'm taking a train, or is it I don't really
Speaker 5: care that much about comfort. I'm willing to bust it.
Speaker 5: I'm willing to, you know, do the cheapest option available.
Speaker 5: So it all goes back to that values based spending
Speaker 5: of like what is actually important to you, Because if
Speaker 5: it's to do this as cheaply as possible, you're probably
Speaker 5: going to be bussing to a lot of places, You're
Speaker 5: probably gonna be tired, you're going to be you know,
Speaker 5: shoving your stuff into these things. But if that isn't
Speaker 5: as important as being comfortable or having freedom or flexibility,
Speaker 5: then you have some other options.
Speaker 1: Too well, and there might be some really cool things
Speaker 1: that coincide with doing the busting system. And experiencing life
Speaker 1: special circle and meeting other people. But I can totally
Speaker 1: get on board with what you're describing of really valuing
Speaker 1: and prioritizing renting a car because of everything that you
Speaker 1: can see in that particular country. Maybe you wouldn't choose
Speaker 1: that in every country that you visit, or it's maybe
Speaker 1: to the exclusion of other choices. Maybe you're not going
Speaker 1: to eat out as much, maybe you're not going to
Speaker 1: do all of the activities that you can do because
Speaker 1: the activity is seeing the countryside and how beautiful that is.
Speaker 1: So it's really just choosing what's your priority in each place.
Speaker 5: One hundred percent. Well, and also like just running the
Speaker 5: numbers too. You know, I'm a big planner, So if
Speaker 5: you're really looking at costs of the long term, it's
Speaker 5: easy to find out these costs. It's easy to see, Okay, well,
Speaker 5: if I rented a car, it would cost me this
Speaker 5: much over this period of time. But if I was
Speaker 5: to let's say I took a train to each one
Speaker 5: of these places, or took a flight to each one
Speaker 5: of these places, you can really see that side by
Speaker 5: side comparison, to be like, all right, do I really
Speaker 5: value the car this much or like, am I more
Speaker 5: willing to do something kind of in the middle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. The next thing that they mention is the
Speaker 1: pace of travel. So depending on how frequently you're changing locations,
Speaker 1: the more money you're going to spend. Anytime you're transferring
Speaker 1: to a new place, you're spending money on that transportation.
Speaker 1: Maybe other factors could be increasing those daily expenditures. So
Speaker 1: the slower pace that you take, the slower you travel,
Speaker 1: the longer you kind of stay in one place, the
Speaker 1: lower your daily costs are going to be when you're
Speaker 1: not kind of hopping around. Because this also gives the ability,
Speaker 1: depending on where you're staying, to make your own food
Speaker 1: or be eating leftovers Versus if you are constantly traveling,
Speaker 1: you're constantly on the road, then you're probably going to
Speaker 1: be grabbing food along the way too, and paying for
Speaker 1: the transportation costs and whatever maybe upfront costs might be
Speaker 1: in addition to the places that you're staying. So I've
Speaker 1: experienced this sometimes it's worth it. I always feel this
Speaker 1: way whenever I go someplace that's super far to me
Speaker 1: that feels like Europe or Africa or well where else
Speaker 1: have I been? Asia, It's like oh well, now I'm here,
Speaker 1: so what else can I see? And I want to
Speaker 1: jump around and it feels like, oh yeah, well, there's
Speaker 1: a plane ride from the Philippines to Bali is only
Speaker 1: fifty dollars. Okay, But that's not the only cost to consider,
Speaker 1: because then you also have to figure out transportation once
Speaker 1: you're in that new country, lodging, once you're in that
Speaker 1: new country, what is the exchange rate of your currency
Speaker 1: in that new country. Not saying don't do it, but
Speaker 1: I think that this is a great thing to keep
Speaker 1: in mind of. It's awesome to be able to collect
Speaker 1: the countries and the stamps on your passport, but just
Speaker 1: know that the more and the more frequently you're changing countries,
Speaker 1: that's going to increase cost significantly.
Speaker 5: Well, and just like energy, Oh my gosh, I had
Speaker 5: the energy for like that fast paced travel in my
Speaker 5: early twenties and like in college where it was just
Speaker 5: like you're like, let's just go boom boom boom, we
Speaker 5: don't have to.
Speaker 3: Sleep, like let's just catch another flight.
Speaker 5: But I loved discovering slow travel the ability and I
Speaker 5: will say I understand slow travel is absolutely a privilege.
Speaker 5: Not everybody has the ability to be like I'm going
Speaker 5: to go stay here for a month, or I'm going
Speaker 5: to you know, I'm going to take my time experience
Speaker 5: these these places. And I think often the reason that
Speaker 5: we try to squeeze so much into like wherever we
Speaker 5: are is because we don't have that time.
Speaker 3: We don't know when we're going to be back.
Speaker 5: We want to be able to cram as much in together,
Speaker 5: but being able to take it slow and to really
Speaker 5: like soak in that's definitely my preferred mode of travel.
Speaker 5: It's just because it's so much less frantic, you know,
Speaker 5: and you get to make those decisions a lot easier
Speaker 5: and a lot slower where it's not like this need
Speaker 5: to do everything all at once. So it's like your
Speaker 5: energy is better, you're you're not feeling as exhausted, and
Speaker 5: often it can lower the cost when you're comparing it
Speaker 5: to like if you had crammed a bajillion things in
Speaker 5: a short period of time.
Speaker 4: So that's such a good point.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a reason to consider longer term
Speaker 1: travel if you're able to.
Speaker 5: It's unfortunate because it's not like our country is really
Speaker 5: set up that way. Our systems of like PTO in
Speaker 5: this country of the US is really it's not set
Speaker 5: up that way, whereas other countries you've got, you know,
Speaker 5: there's like national holidays where people take off an entire month.
Speaker 4: It's wild.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 5: So you know again, I guess now though, that we
Speaker 5: have so much remote working and things like that, that
Speaker 5: actually becomes an option for some people. But it's definitely
Speaker 5: something to think about. I'd be curious with the community
Speaker 5: things in terms of like are you a slow traveler?
Speaker 5: Are you let me jam everything I can into this experience.
Speaker 5: So the next that this article described was the type
Speaker 5: of accommodations, and this is I almost feel like so
Speaker 5: many people think that accommodations is not a flexible expense.
Speaker 5: It's like it's always going to be your most expensive
Speaker 5: expense other than maybe the flights. But there are a
Speaker 5: lot of things you can do to lower it or
Speaker 5: really control the range in which you're you know, considering
Speaker 5: your accommodations. What I loved about this article is they
Speaker 5: listed out, you know, the cheapest to the most expensive options,
Speaker 5: and a lot of people I don't think ever think
Speaker 5: about CouchSurfing. Then again, this is something I did in
Speaker 5: my twenties, but it's not something I would probably do now.
Speaker 5: But the cool thing about CouchSurfing, and there's an entire
Speaker 5: organization called CouchSurfing.
Speaker 3: I think it's CouchSurfing dot.
Speaker 4: Org is so original, Yeah I know, but it's.
Speaker 5: Been around forever and the people on there who are
Speaker 5: couchsurfers or couch hoosters, and sometimes you can get an
Speaker 5: entirely free accommodation like an your own room for getting
Speaker 5: on this CouchSurfing like network essentially, because essentially the network
Speaker 5: around couchsurfers is all these people who are avid travelers
Speaker 5: who love hosting people, meeting new people from other places,
Speaker 5: or you can just meet friends on there. So CouchSurfing
Speaker 5: is one if you're really trying to stay for cheap.
Speaker 5: Then they had camping, then hostels, long term budget rentals,
Speaker 5: low budget hotels and B and b's, mid range hotels
Speaker 5: and b and bs, and then the high range hotels
Speaker 5: B and bs and there's that can range from zero
Speaker 5: dollars to as much as you, I mean infinity and
Speaker 5: beyond in terms of what you want to spend. But
Speaker 5: again you have to figure out, Okay, what is important
Speaker 5: to me in this journey? For me when I'm traveling,
Speaker 5: where I stay is really important, so I'm always willing
Speaker 5: to spend a little bit more, Whereas in my youth,
Speaker 5: when I was trying to do it for as cheap
Speaker 5: as possible, I was often saying in those hostels, And
Speaker 5: I think a misconception about hostels also is that they're
Speaker 5: not safe. A lot of hostels will allow you to
Speaker 5: rent your own room. It's just significantly cheaper than what
Speaker 5: you're going to get at a hotel or airbnb. But
Speaker 5: personally I usually go with the airbnb route just because
Speaker 5: I really like having my own kitchen. And again, like
Speaker 5: you were saying earlier, that can impact your cross too,
Speaker 5: so got to figure that part out what's important to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh, such a good point, I think, especially when
Speaker 1: you're talking for more long term, you know it's not
Speaker 1: just a couple of nights or a week. Many of
Speaker 1: these places will also give discounts for your longer term stays.
Speaker 1: Even a regular Airbnb that you could rent for a
Speaker 1: couple of nights, many hosts will have deals and discounts
Speaker 1: if you rent for longer than thirty days or something.
Speaker 1: So that's certainly something to look into and to know
Speaker 1: that just because the name it's called couch surfing. Doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you're actually just going to sleep on the couch.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you might if you're into that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: then great, But sometimes it does include someone's spare bedroom
Speaker 1: and hostels you can rent rooms with and have your
Speaker 1: own bathroom. So I think some of this is getting
Speaker 1: rid of the stigma around what these types of accommodations are.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So then the next factor is food. You know
Speaker 1: we'd get here one of these days. Food is this
Speaker 1: is my value. It encompasses all of my values. This
Speaker 1: is definitely where I would spend. But of course, just
Speaker 1: like our grocery budgets, this is going to range so
Speaker 1: so much. If you are traveling longer term, then you
Speaker 1: definitely have the option of being able to stay in
Speaker 1: accommodation where you have a kitchen and make your own
Speaker 1: food and shop the local grocery stores, which is so
Speaker 1: fun and often a way to save money when traveling.
Speaker 1: But of course you could be going to like the
Speaker 1: really high end restaurants and trying out all of the
Speaker 1: different food offerings. I like what you mentioned, though, Chloe.
Speaker 1: When you're staying in a place longer, you've got more
Speaker 1: time to explore, and it's not as if breadfast, lunch
Speaker 1: and dinner. We got to hit it hard and we
Speaker 1: got to get all of the restaurants that I see
Speaker 1: on Instagram. You can kind of space it out a
Speaker 1: little bit more too, So in that way, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be a super expensive experience, but of course
Speaker 1: it's going to come down to the decisions that you
Speaker 1: make along the way.
Speaker 5: Well, and I think too, the food is very country
Speaker 5: specific as well and location specific, because like here, I
Speaker 5: love too that you're like, this is my number one thing,
Speaker 5: because for me, I think my number one thing is
Speaker 5: probably accommodations or experiences, which we'll.
Speaker 3: Talk about here soon.
Speaker 5: But food actually is not that important to me. Like
Speaker 5: for me, I'm definitely the type of person who's going
Speaker 5: to cook at home or who's going to do anything
Speaker 5: I can to lower my food costs because it's just
Speaker 5: not a high value item for me. However, if I'm
Speaker 5: traveling to another country, food becomes more important.
Speaker 3: If I'm staying in the ua.
Speaker 5: US, it's like, okay, you know, for the most part,
Speaker 5: there might be like a thing or two that the
Speaker 5: city specializes in and I need to like try it.
Speaker 5: But what I love about traveling in Southeast Asia and China,
Speaker 5: and you know all these places that have amazing street food,
Speaker 5: is that it's almost cheaper for you to eat out
Speaker 5: for every meal. So it depends heavily on the country
Speaker 5: that you're in, because you know, like in China, I
Speaker 5: almost never cooked because it was like every meal was
Speaker 5: so inexpensive. It would be silly for me to like
Speaker 5: take the time and money to cook.
Speaker 3: So true, it's, uh, yeah, it definitely varies.
Speaker 5: The next thing that they had on their list was
Speaker 5: my favorite, which is activities, tours and multi day excursions.
Speaker 5: And really this again can range all the way from
Speaker 5: free all the way to.
Speaker 3: However much you want to spend on it.
Speaker 5: You know, when you're looking at the small things like
Speaker 5: museum interest fees, you know you've got like gallery fees,
Speaker 5: whatever it is that you're into, those can be pre
Speaker 5: and expensive. But you could go all the way to oh,
Speaker 5: I'm going.
Speaker 3: On a winery tour.
Speaker 5: I'm going on a multi day excursion, and so that's
Speaker 5: obviously going to impact your costs significantly.
Speaker 3: I love splurging on this stuff.
Speaker 5: I like, if I'm in a new place, I'm immediately
Speaker 5: on the Airbnb experiences just seeing like, Okay, what are
Speaker 5: like some of the cool things that I can do,
Speaker 5: Especially because I travel alone a lot, I want to
Speaker 5: meet people, and Airbnb experiences is a really easy way
Speaker 5: to do that, but also just seeing like what's going
Speaker 5: on in the area, what can I do, what kind
Speaker 5: of tour can I take?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is such a great way to
Speaker 1: explore the country. If you're doing longer term travel, I
Speaker 1: would imagine this is what you want. You want to
Speaker 1: engage in the culture, meet people, see what there is
Speaker 1: to see, and really explore and take in your surroundings
Speaker 1: and that country. So I think definitely carving out but
Speaker 1: carving out money for this, but also doing research ahead
Speaker 1: of time because many of these things are more kind
Speaker 1: of natural beauty. I think that's what appeals to me
Speaker 1: in the various places that I visit. Sometimes there's if
Speaker 1: there's a cool building or museum like maybe, but primarily
Speaker 1: I'm interested in the hikes and the mountains and the
Speaker 1: rivers and the waterfalls and what is there to discover.
Speaker 1: And many times that's going to be free or low cost,
Speaker 1: which is exciting. Oh, for sure, to decide ahead of time,
Speaker 1: you know what you're going to do right well.
Speaker 5: And also I think give yourself a little bit of
Speaker 5: a wiggle room because you may change your mind once
Speaker 5: you're there. Like, for example, when I was on the
Speaker 5: road trip across the country, that was my thought process too,
Speaker 5: was like, well, most of the things I want to
Speaker 5: do are free. I want to do a ton of hiking,
Speaker 5: I want to go see all the nature stuff, which
Speaker 5: is great.
Speaker 3: But then I got.
Speaker 5: Lonely and it was like, well, like, well, I want
Speaker 5: to do stuff too, And I had had this kind
Speaker 5: of belief in my head that I needed to unwind
Speaker 5: that it was like, oh, I shouldn't be spending that
Speaker 5: much money. And eventually got to the point and like, Chloe,
Speaker 5: when are you going to do this again? When are
Speaker 5: you going to take a six to nine month road
Speaker 5: trip across the country and visit all these places and
Speaker 5: be here for a long period of time, Like you
Speaker 5: have to allow yourself to do what you want to
Speaker 5: do and try these new fun experiences, even if it's
Speaker 5: going to cost you a little bit more. So I
Speaker 5: do think add some wiggle room there, just because you
Speaker 5: may think that you only want to do all of
Speaker 5: the free things, but like giving yourself the permission to
Speaker 5: also experience something else if you can. To me, that
Speaker 5: was important and I do got a shout out like
Speaker 5: a resource. Have you ever you mentioned that food's your
Speaker 5: favorite thing?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Have you ever done eat with? No?
Speaker 4: Okay, learning about new things? All right, I'm gonna get
Speaker 4: it too.
Speaker 5: I have to double check that it's still a thing.
Speaker 5: Hang on, let me google it eat With, Yes, it
Speaker 5: is still a thing. This is my favorite thing to
Speaker 5: do in a new city because you can literally go
Speaker 5: have a meal with somebody in their home. And most
Speaker 5: of the time these people who get verified on Eat
Speaker 5: With they literally like they're professional chefs. They are people
Speaker 5: who have like entire like catering businesses. They love hosting
Speaker 5: people and it's just extra money for them. And so
Speaker 5: when I was in Italy, that was the first time
Speaker 5: I didn't Eat With. Like, my heart is even bursting
Speaker 5: thinking about it.
Speaker 4: It's all dropped.
Speaker 1: I know we don't do video on this podcast, but.
Speaker 3: You will love it.
Speaker 5: So it's like they've got they've got group experiences, they've
Speaker 5: got like tours they have, but my favorite is to
Speaker 5: be able to literally go to somebody's home who's like
Speaker 5: a master chef and eat a meal with them.
Speaker 3: Oh, love that's so cool and like and it's locals,
Speaker 3: so you gotta.
Speaker 5: You know, really really experience this whole new level of
Speaker 5: like intimacy with the city, you know, because whenever else,
Speaker 5: unless you have friends who happen to live there, whenever
Speaker 5: else are you going to get that kind of experience.
Speaker 3: So love that.
Speaker 1: I love how you're talking both to I don't know
Speaker 1: if is this both international and within the States.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's awesome, I think too.
Speaker 1: I know that this article is describing international travel, but
Speaker 1: I love how you're also weaving in travel.
Speaker 4: Within the States.
Speaker 1: I know so many, especially families, who have this bucketless
Speaker 1: goal of traveling to all fifty states with their kids,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that includes road trips in the summer. So
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these tips are true for
Speaker 1: also exploring the US. If that's from so I have, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is awesome. Yeah, Okay, last two things we're gonna
Speaker 1: kind of breeze through before we get into our next article.
Speaker 1: The next one is miscellaneous fees. We need it in
Speaker 1: our budget for just regular life, and we need it
Speaker 1: in our budget when we're traveling full time.
Speaker 4: But they sneak up on.
Speaker 1: You, all those miscellaneous fees whether it's visas upon arrival, souvenirs, laundry,
Speaker 1: replacing clothing or shoes, buying new gear, giving gifts to
Speaker 1: people that maybe hosted you on eat with or couch surfing,
Speaker 1: or who knows. There are miscellaneous fees. This article Earth
Speaker 1: Trek recommends setting aside between one thousand to two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's going to depend on what is your
Speaker 1: length of travel, how many of you are there.
Speaker 4: You know, use your own.
Speaker 1: Discretion, but definitely have some miscellaneous money set aside.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I kind of the next thing was pre
Speaker 5: trip expenses. And it's funny that they even included this
Speaker 5: because it's like two sentences, not even maybe, but it's
Speaker 5: just you know, preparing for those visas, preparing for the
Speaker 5: flight costs, things along those lines, travel gear, travel insurance,
Speaker 5: health insurance, homeschooling materials, things along those lines that you
Speaker 5: need to consider as well that are kind of like
Speaker 5: just the basic living expenses of travel of you know,
Speaker 5: if you're going to do this, don't forget you're going
Speaker 5: to have to have a visa potentially in each place
Speaker 5: that you go to, or you're going to have to
Speaker 5: you know, get some extra travel insurance. So those are
Speaker 5: things that you got to keep in mind as well.
Speaker 5: But obviously with the with the flights and things like that,
Speaker 5: there's some wiggle room depending on how you do it.
Speaker 5: But when it comes to visas, I don't think there's
Speaker 5: anywhere there's appreciating that or even health insurance, like you're
Speaker 5: gonna have to pay pay full price.
Speaker 1: For that, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and insurance is important to
Speaker 1: have if you're going internationally. So I love how they
Speaker 1: wrap up this article. They give an entire summary of
Speaker 1: their costs. I love it when people are just open
Speaker 1: like this, bearing it all. Now, keep in mind, this
Speaker 1: is a family. They traveled around the globe. They did
Speaker 1: the whole thing for a full year, and they found
Speaker 1: that it costs them between twenty five thousand to thirty
Speaker 1: five thousand per person for one year to traverse the
Speaker 1: globe together. Of course, you can find yourself less than
Speaker 1: that more than that somewhere in the middle, or you
Speaker 1: may not choose to go for a full year. You
Speaker 1: may not choose to go around the world. But there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of an idea if this is a
Speaker 1: goal of yours, whether you want to save up to
Speaker 1: do this or you're thinking about working, if you have
Speaker 1: flexibility in your work or you can work remotely, this
Speaker 1: is something to be prepared for about how much it's
Speaker 1: going to cost. So yeah, for two people, if you're
Speaker 1: a couple wanting to do this, you know, looking at
Speaker 1: about fifty thousand dollars to travel around the world, you
Speaker 1: probably spend that at like just regularly in a.
Speaker 4: Year, yeah, on yourself.
Speaker 3: So when you look at it, so doable.
Speaker 5: When I looked at the twenty five thousand to thirty thousand,
Speaker 5: I'm like, some people spend twenty five thousand to thirty
Speaker 5: five thousand just on rent.
Speaker 3: Like that's it alone in the United States.
Speaker 5: So it's yeah, I think it's I think it is
Speaker 5: surprising when you realize that actually it could. If you're
Speaker 5: able to get rid of your rent at home or
Speaker 5: you know, pretty much eliminate your expenses at home, then
Speaker 5: traveling really can be less expensive than living in the
Speaker 5: United States for a year, depending on where you're at now. Yeah,
Speaker 5: obviously it's a huge range depending on what you want
Speaker 5: to do. But yeah, I think that's something that a
Speaker 5: lot of us don't even consider that it's possible to
Speaker 5: spend less.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I appreciate all that you've kind of listed out.
Speaker 1: I think that that is worth considering of how what
Speaker 1: would happen to my living situation where I'm from, How
Speaker 1: am I going to keep up with any savings or
Speaker 1: investing goals while I'm gone, you know, all of those factors.
Speaker 1: But I think ultimately what that article did for me
Speaker 1: too was realize this is doable and attainable with preparation
Speaker 1: and within my own set of values and priorities.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think that's honestly the hardest part is
Speaker 5: figuring out what am I going to do with my
Speaker 5: current situation. I feel like that's what holds so many
Speaker 5: people up, is like, well, what do I do with
Speaker 5: my stuff?
Speaker 3: How about my rent or my mortgage? You know, you
Speaker 3: just gotta.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you're coming to the end of a
Speaker 1: lease and you already want to move, just take a
Speaker 1: sabbatical overseas instead, for sure. All Right, So this next
Speaker 1: article comes from the Travel and it's twenty five painless
Speaker 1: ways to budget in order to travel full time.
Speaker 4: And we're not going to go through.
Speaker 3: All twenty five.
Speaker 1: We're picking our kind of top two to three favorites
Speaker 1: on ways to consider our money when we are traveling
Speaker 1: full time, and I do want to look at this
Speaker 1: from the lens of both whether we're traveling within our
Speaker 1: own country of origin or we're going internationally.
Speaker 4: What was some of your favorites, Chloe.
Speaker 5: So it's funny because I just said this, but the
Speaker 5: sometimes it's cheaper than living at home, I think it's huge,
Speaker 5: especially depending on where you live or where you go.
Speaker 5: It's going to be a huge range. If you side
Speaker 5: to spend a year in Thailand or a year in Bali,
Speaker 5: likely that's going to be incredibly less expensive and you're
Speaker 5: probably going.
Speaker 3: To be able to save more money if you're working
Speaker 3: by doing that.
Speaker 5: I think it's called what geo arbitrage, where you decide
Speaker 5: to live somewhere other than where you work because of
Speaker 5: the lower cost of li living. That can be huge
Speaker 5: And I know that not everyone can do that, but
Speaker 5: if you're able to make that work and you do
Speaker 5: have some big financial goals, it's always something you could consider.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I one hundred percent agree, And I think that
Speaker 1: that depends on, like we were talking about earlier, if
Speaker 1: you are going to be traveling a lot, or if
Speaker 1: the travel just means kind of staying stationary for a
Speaker 1: set amount of time, having a like landing point, and
Speaker 1: then going out from there, like you're mentioning, you know,
Speaker 1: if it's Indonesia somewhere, but then you kind of travel
Speaker 1: to the different places around that area, but you've got
Speaker 1: maybe some sort.
Speaker 3: Of your home base.
Speaker 1: Yeah, midterm rental there. One of the ones that I
Speaker 1: liked on this list that we did kind of reference
Speaker 1: already too. Number nineteen is consider finding work that requires travel.
Speaker 1: So this is coming at it from a little bit
Speaker 1: different of an angle. But for those of you who
Speaker 1: might be listening and you're like, this is not doable
Speaker 1: for me, I love hearing you all talk about being
Speaker 1: able to travel full time and spend twenty five to
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand dollars a year. But that's not my situation.
Speaker 1: But I do want to explore. I do want to travel.
Speaker 1: I think that thinking outside the box with anything travel
Speaker 1: included is so so helpful, and we can kind of
Speaker 1: think creatively about how can I get the things that
Speaker 1: I want within my means, within what's available to me,
Speaker 1: and within reality. And if you do want to travel,
Speaker 1: but work is a huge consideration, as it probably is
Speaker 1: for most of us who are still like of working age,
Speaker 1: we're not retired yet, then consider finding work that would
Speaker 1: include travel in it. Maybe it's not a case where
Speaker 1: you can just kind of let work go for a
Speaker 1: year at having had saved up money.
Speaker 4: But if this is something that.
Speaker 1: You really want, and maybe you're already looking to change
Speaker 1: careers or organizations or companies, this is something to consider
Speaker 1: in that. Because there are plenty of companies businesses that
Speaker 1: hire people and they want people to travel, there are
Speaker 1: plenty of people who don't want to travel, and so
Speaker 1: sometimes it can be hard to fill those roles because
Speaker 1: people don't want to be gone away from their home
Speaker 1: for a long stance of time. But if that's you,
Speaker 1: then finding work that requires that can kind of be
Speaker 1: like best of both worlds, where you're making money and
Speaker 1: you're able to explore and it's not necessarily on your dime.
Speaker 1: That could be an awesome way of hacking this.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and I think too a lot of the jobs
Speaker 5: that do require travel are more accessible than people realize,
Speaker 5: but you have to be willing to be like a people.
Speaker 3: Person a lot of times.
Speaker 5: So the jobs that I think require the most travel
Speaker 5: often are sales jobs, business development fundraising, which is great
Speaker 5: in that you don't need like technical experience, but you
Speaker 5: need to be able to show your ability to build relationships. Essentially,
Speaker 5: those I feel like are something. And then there's like
Speaker 5: the highly technical skills where it's like you have to
Speaker 5: go somebody in another part of the world. That or consulting,
Speaker 5: I mean consulting, especially you've you know, if you've got
Speaker 5: to go to a new location to train some folks
Speaker 5: on something or consult them on operations and things along
Speaker 5: those lines. I think that those are usually some of
Speaker 5: the best travel gigs. And what's nice too. I used
Speaker 5: to travel when I was in a fundraising role and
Speaker 5: I loved it. But I will say traveling for work
Speaker 5: got very exhausting very quickly. So the nice thing about
Speaker 5: trying it out is you may scratch that itch and
Speaker 5: I'll be like, all right, never mind. What I will
Speaker 5: say is that when I traveled with the company or
Speaker 5: the nonprofit that I worked for, it was never an
Speaker 5: issue extending my trip and it was paid for. So
Speaker 5: it was like the nice thing was if I decided, okay,
Speaker 5: well I finish up work on Friday, I'm not going
Speaker 5: to come back.
Speaker 3: Until Monday, like the flight was still covered.
Speaker 5: The only thing I had to pay for was what
Speaker 5: happened between Friday and Monday. So that can be a
Speaker 5: really accessible way for folks and shout out out to
Speaker 5: the fundraising career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people so often forget about.
Speaker 4: That is not an easy job.
Speaker 3: It's not an easy job.
Speaker 5: But I it gave me a lot of really good skills,
Speaker 5: and so I always say, sales is just for building relationships. Okay,
Speaker 5: have you considered house sitting? Was my next favorite, which
Speaker 5: is number fifteen on the article. The reason I wanted
Speaker 5: to shout this one out is because there is this beautiful.
Speaker 3: App that a lot of people like to gatekeep. Have
Speaker 3: you heard of this one?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 3: Trusted House Sitters?
Speaker 4: WHOA, yeah, probably, but so it's not used it.
Speaker 5: I might get attacked for sharing it because on TikTok
Speaker 5: it's a very very gate cup. But essentially and I've
Speaker 5: never used it because I when I was traveling, I
Speaker 5: was traveling with animals, so essentially Trusted house Sitters it's
Speaker 5: an exchange. So you're essentially going to someone's house to
Speaker 5: watch their house, to keep track of their animals. And
Speaker 5: sometimes the animals are like horses or pigs or like
Speaker 5: like just or dogs and cats, but people are looking
Speaker 5: for people to come house sit for them, and in exchange,
Speaker 5: you get to stay at their place for completely free.
Speaker 3: You just have to watch their dogs.
Speaker 5: And so everybody gets verified in things along those lines.
Speaker 5: But it's really cool if your plans are flexible. If
Speaker 5: you are like, oh, I don't have like any certain
Speaker 5: date that I can travel, or you know I you know,
Speaker 5: I'm just looking for my next trip, you could go
Speaker 5: on to Trusted house Sitters. And you do have to
Speaker 5: pay a membership fee for Trusted house Sitters. I think
Speaker 5: it's like one hundred and fifty dollars for the whole year.
Speaker 5: But then you get to go and like scroll through
Speaker 5: and be like, Okay, where do I want to take
Speaker 5: my next vacation based off of this house sitting availability.
Speaker 1: I love that you've got all the test, Like, I
Speaker 1: hope no one comes for me.
Speaker 5: My name is not Chloe, so that's a It's just
Speaker 5: a really cool tool I have. You know, I have
Speaker 5: clients and I have followers who have told me and
Speaker 5: who have used it long term. But again, it's one
Speaker 5: of those things where both are verified. So it's like
Speaker 5: you are a verified person in the house sitting situation
Speaker 5: is also a verified person, so it's safe from what
Speaker 5: I can tell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I house that for a couple and I
Speaker 1: didn't find it through online. It was more like connections
Speaker 1: within our network. And the couple didn't want to rent
Speaker 1: the house out because they wanted to be able to
Speaker 1: come back for the holidays. But they're going to be
Speaker 1: gone for over a year and they wanted someone to
Speaker 1: still be utilizing their pipes they're in their water and
Speaker 1: flush the toilets, and I'm like, I can do that.
Speaker 1: I flush some toilets, and you know, people will ask, well,
Speaker 1: how do you find these things? And I know it's
Speaker 1: out there, but that's a helpful tip. And there's others
Speaker 1: other than what Chloe has mentioned. So the next on
Speaker 1: this list is number eighteen. This is an obvious one,
Speaker 1: but I do love it because I think so many
Speaker 1: people don't know how to do this. Number eighteen look
Speaker 1: for inexpensive flights. So this too, is another situation where
Speaker 1: having flexibility is useful in when you.
Speaker 4: Choose to travel. The days of the week that you.
Speaker 1: Travel will often play into how inexpensive your flights are,
Speaker 1: and also knowing how to search for flights. So if
Speaker 1: you've been listening to the podcast for a long time.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're aware, but I love to tell all
Speaker 1: of my friends and all of you listeners who are
Speaker 1: also my friends, to search for your flights in an
Speaker 1: incognito window. And that's as easy as typing incognito up
Speaker 1: in your search browser, and then this button will come
Speaker 1: up and say do you want to go incognito and
Speaker 1: you say yes, I do open an incognito window. Because
Speaker 1: the more that you search for the same flight, the
Speaker 1: more that the prices for that flight could go up.
Speaker 1: It's that classic kind of supply and demand situation. So
Speaker 1: if they're picking up on the fact that, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this same person is searching for this flight over and
Speaker 1: over again, it can jack up the price of the flight.
Speaker 1: So first of all, I would say, don't start looking
Speaker 1: until you are actually ready to pull the trigger, but
Speaker 1: then do it in an incognito window. I love using
Speaker 1: Google's just Google Flights for searching. Of course, this would
Speaker 1: be a great thing to use any points that you
Speaker 1: may have on, especially those longer flights you know, getting
Speaker 1: you across the ocean. This can really help in cutting
Speaker 1: down what is usually a massive expense of traveling.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I love the tip on the Google flights
Speaker 5: and the incognito mode. The other app that I like
Speaker 5: is sky Scanner. That's kind of been my og and
Speaker 5: one that I've used forever because it'll always tell you
Speaker 5: if it's a good time to buy or not. It'll
Speaker 5: give you like an idea of like, oh yeah, these
Speaker 5: might go down. And I always love apps that have
Speaker 5: the feature of like this is the airport I'm leaving from,
Speaker 5: and then you can put anywhere like as your destination
Speaker 5: and then they'll show you like what are the cheapest
Speaker 5: flights to.
Speaker 3: Pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 5: Credit card hacking I do love, but I'm not like
Speaker 5: a serious credit card hacker because I think you can get.
Speaker 3: You can get real deep and it's real.
Speaker 5: Complicated, and I'm like, no, thank you, I don't have time.
Speaker 5: I'll just pay full price. I don't care, but but
Speaker 5: it is. I do love my Chase credit cards because
Speaker 5: of their Ultimate Rewards program. I feel like if you're
Speaker 5: a lazy credit card hacker or a lazy travel hacker,
Speaker 5: like I am, the Chase credit cards and obviously this
Speaker 5: is coming with the disclaimer of like only do this
Speaker 5: if you're good at using credit cards and you pay
Speaker 5: them off every month, but their ultimate rewards makes it
Speaker 5: so easy to find whatever you want and pay for
Speaker 5: it with their points.
Speaker 3: My final one from the article was be like a local.
Speaker 5: So it kind of ties into a lot of things
Speaker 5: we've already said, which is that slow travel really allows
Speaker 5: you to kind of soak in the vibe of the
Speaker 5: city what it feels like to actually live there, which
Speaker 5: was really my main goal this last year.
Speaker 3: And it's great.
Speaker 5: Because it's more inexpensive when you're living like a local,
Speaker 5: but you also get the experience of like, Okay, what
Speaker 5: is grocery shopping here? What is it like to prepare
Speaker 5: a meal? How is it getting around and going to
Speaker 5: a gym? You know, all of those things, And personally
Speaker 5: now these days, that's kind of how.
Speaker 3: I prefer it is. It's just I'd rather.
Speaker 5: Just go to experience what it's like to live here,
Speaker 5: and like, you know, I'll go see the nature stuff
Speaker 5: and things along those lines. But a lot of the
Speaker 5: times I don't end up doing a lot of the
Speaker 5: touristy things or traditionally touristy things, because my goal is
Speaker 5: usually just to like understand how it feels to live here,
Speaker 5: and like I like just going for walks and seeing
Speaker 5: what the vibe is, and that can be pretty inexpensive
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 1: I agree, that's where the experience is and just soaking
Speaker 1: in the environment that you're in. My last one on
Speaker 1: here is number fourteen, which is reduce unnecessary expenses or spending,
Speaker 1: reduce nuser spending. And this is just a tip across
Speaker 1: the board whether and that you choose to travel. I
Speaker 1: think it's always good to be asking our question, like
Speaker 1: asking that question of do I really need or even
Speaker 1: want to be spending on this thing? Do I value this?
Speaker 1: And in spending on this, is it keeping me from
Speaker 1: something that I actually value more? And so I think
Speaker 1: that this is a great thing to explore pre travel
Speaker 1: and in the midst of travel and post travel. And
Speaker 1: if you never travel, but if this is something that
Speaker 1: you're considering of, oh, in the next two to five years,
Speaker 1: I really would love to explore another place for six months,
Speaker 1: nine months, not pregnant or pregnant however you want to
Speaker 1: do that then beginning now, because for most of us,
Speaker 1: this isn't something we can just decide to do. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to go travel for a year. There does
Speaker 1: need to be planning in prep that goes into this
Speaker 1: where do I want to go? Do I want to
Speaker 1: stay within the States? Do I want to travel abroad?
Speaker 1: And what can I be doing now that's going to
Speaker 1: help me get to that point? Is there spending that
Speaker 1: I'm doing now to kind of fill in whatever adventurous
Speaker 1: gap that I might be feeling inside myself that is
Speaker 1: ultimately potentially going to keep me from doing this really
Speaker 1: cool thing in the future. So cutting for that greater why,
Speaker 1: that greater purpose to be able to have the money
Speaker 1: set aside in order to travel for whatever set amount
Speaker 1: of time that you want is awesome. So I think
Speaker 1: this is the ultimate budgeting tip I think is beginning
Speaker 1: as soon as possible, because I think if this is
Speaker 1: something we have our sights on, we've got to start preparing,
Speaker 1: cutting in different ways, then setting that money aside for
Speaker 1: this purpose, and start planning and do it if you
Speaker 1: want to do it.
Speaker 5: Right well, And I think too with the it's such
Speaker 5: a good ending tip because it's like, if you are
Speaker 5: mindful of your spending in your everyday life, you're also
Speaker 5: going to be mindful of your spending on a trip. Now,
Speaker 5: obviously things are going to be a little bit different,
Speaker 5: and you may be splurging, but it's all that baseline
Speaker 5: of being mindful with where your money is going. And
Speaker 5: I like too that that really ties into the like
Speaker 5: being like a local or kind of what I had
Speaker 5: said earlier, because one of the things that I had
Speaker 5: to discover for myself was in terms of touristy things.
Speaker 5: There were some things that I felt like I had
Speaker 5: to do or had to spend my money on because
Speaker 5: it's like the thing to do, but deep down I
Speaker 5: had no interest in it. Like this may offend some people,
Speaker 5: but I have zero interest in ever seeing another cathedral.
Speaker 3: Ever again, I don't care anymore.
Speaker 5: I'm like, there's no I don't need to see another cathedral.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of museums I don't care about. But
Speaker 5: there's like this thing in the back of my mind
Speaker 5: that used to be like, well you should. You know,
Speaker 5: this is something you should want to do. Everybody else
Speaker 5: does this, and you have to really recognize that thought
Speaker 5: because it's going to cost you more money. You're not
Speaker 5: going to enjoy it because if you don't want to go,
Speaker 5: you're not going to just magically be like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: so glad I did this.
Speaker 3: Sure you may be like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the pictures were pretty or whatever, but you really
Speaker 5: really have to be honest with yourself and like, am
Speaker 5: I doing this because I feel like I have to
Speaker 5: get this Instagram photo or because I if I'm here,
Speaker 5: I'm supposed to be doing this thing?
Speaker 3: Figure out what is it that you actually what do
Speaker 3: you actually care about? And if you don't care about it,
Speaker 3: don't do it.
Speaker 5: You get to travel on your own terms and sometimes
Speaker 5: going off the beaten path and doing your own thing
Speaker 5: that was never posted on on Pinterest or never posted
Speaker 5: on on Instagram. That is going to be the thing
Speaker 5: you cherish the most. The thing I cherish the most
Speaker 5: for my travels are those random experiences. It's almost never
Speaker 5: Oh I loved going up into the Sistine Chapel where
Speaker 5: I was surrounded by people, could not move and it
Speaker 5: smelled like.
Speaker 3: That's not my favorite memory.
Speaker 5: Sure, I'm glad I did it, but you do have
Speaker 5: to really check yourself and be like, what do I
Speaker 5: care about?
Speaker 1: And that's just another lifetip on Honestly, speaking of being
Speaker 1: like a local, Chloe, are you ready to be like
Speaker 1: a local a local? Frugal Friends podcast co host we
Speaker 1: Wei yell that it is time for.
Speaker 3: The week.
Speaker 6: That's right. It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 6: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 6: is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 6: car died, and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 6: that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This
Speaker 6: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 3: Hi Jen, Hi Jill.
Speaker 7: My bill of the week is the monthly cost of
Speaker 7: the clothing rental subscription that I have. I have a
Speaker 7: pretty public facing role, so I have lots of high
Speaker 7: level meetings and panels, and I'm in front of people
Speaker 7: quite a lot. That used to cause me a lot
Speaker 7: of stress because I was always worried that I wouldn't
Speaker 7: have something to wear, or something wouldn't fit, or I
Speaker 7: wouldn't be as professional as I thought that I should be.
Speaker 7: So I went ahead and invested in the subscription, and
Speaker 7: I cannot overstate the value that I've gotten from it.
Speaker 7: It makes such a difference for me to not have
Speaker 7: to worry about my appearance, to be able to wake
Speaker 7: up and know that I have something in my closet
Speaker 7: that is professional, that will help me to look polished,
Speaker 7: that will help me to feel good in what I
Speaker 7: have on and I used to feel really silly about
Speaker 7: spending money on clothes that I don't own, but I
Speaker 7: think I've gotten so much value out of it and
Speaker 7: thinking about the way that frugal friends talks about values
Speaker 7: based budgeting and prioritizing the things that really make it difference.
Speaker 7: My career matters a lot to me, and this is
Speaker 7: a much better investment in my career than spending thousands
Speaker 7: and thousands and thousands of dollars on a full business
Speaker 7: professional wardrobe. So thanks for everything y'all do bye.
Speaker 3: That got me like choked up.
Speaker 4: I was like, Oh, aren't these bills amazing?
Speaker 5: I like, I love you, Jessica, that's so like amazing.
Speaker 5: And I can hear it in your voice of just
Speaker 5: how good you feel doing this clothing subscription. And I
Speaker 5: don't know if it's like a rent. It sounds like
Speaker 5: it's a renting. I think she said rent the runway.
Speaker 5: I mean that's also sustainable, so you're also saving the
Speaker 5: planet earth.
Speaker 3: Good job, Jessica, did.
Speaker 1: You tying in all these frugal principles? Yes, Jessica, I
Speaker 1: affirm everything that Chloe just said. And you I think
Speaker 1: this is this is exactly what we're talking about when
Speaker 1: we say use base spending, and it is frugal because
Speaker 1: it is making wise, good stewarding decisions with what we
Speaker 1: have that are based around the things that are important
Speaker 1: to us. And to hear you be able to connect
Speaker 1: your spending to some of those deeper reasons of My
Speaker 1: career is really important to me, and I want to
Speaker 1: put my best foot forward and this helps me to
Speaker 1: be able to do that. It helps bolster my inner
Speaker 1: confidence the way that I feel about myself, which helps
Speaker 1: me in the way that I engage with those around
Speaker 1: me and my workplace. And I too, I have chills
Speaker 1: right now just even talking back what I've heard from you.
Speaker 4: And yeah, you get it, and you.
Speaker 1: Have found the freedom to spend on the things that
Speaker 1: are important to you. And well done, and I bet
Speaker 1: you look so good and polished. I love that word
Speaker 1: when it comes to talking about a wardrobe of clean,
Speaker 1: polished wardrobe.
Speaker 4: Ough. It just feels good and it's.
Speaker 5: A thing like it's a stress that is off your shoulders.
Speaker 5: You spend time worrying about something else.
Speaker 4: Because time is money too.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be out there shopping and feeling
Speaker 1: like you need to be getting everything dry cleaned and
Speaker 1: changing out your wardrobe regularly. It's coming to you. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you're paying for an efficiency as well.
Speaker 4: I just love that.
Speaker 1: I love that for you, Jessica. Thanks for calling it
Speaker 1: in and I appreciate that you are taking like the
Speaker 1: shame around something that I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: might be, like what you do well with clothing and
Speaker 1: it's just like no, and I have full confidence in
Speaker 1: this and here's why, and well done. And if you
Speaker 1: all listening, have a subscription that you don't mind paying for,
Speaker 1: or you just are a person named Bill, you know
Speaker 1: what we like. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill,
Speaker 1: leave us your bill. We are ready to listen to
Speaker 1: it and get choked up and get chills or just
Speaker 1: laugh with you whatever you want to do.
Speaker 4: And now it's time for the lighting around.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: I was not expecting that. Thank you for that.
Speaker 4: Your forehead bounds.
Speaker 3: You're like, oh my god, oh what is happening? She
Speaker 3: is possessed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we yell, we yell a lot in like the
Speaker 4: back end. Hey, it's great, you can do it next time.
Speaker 3: Chloe deal.
Speaker 1: Jen's not on board for the lightning round. She always
Speaker 1: just whispers, but someday. All right, So this question is
Speaker 1: just a fun one that we're going to ask each other.
Speaker 1: What's something that you're willing to splurge on when you travel.
Speaker 1: I'll add the caveat that you're splurgeing because you have
Speaker 1: the money. You're not going into debt for it, but
Speaker 1: you're willing to spend more than maybe what others might typically.
Speaker 5: Spend accommodations without a doubt. I just I am a
Speaker 5: homebody without a doubt, and that even extends to when
Speaker 5: I am traveling, and so I am willing to spend
Speaker 5: a lot of money on my accommodation now not an
Speaker 5: unreasonable amount. Like my brother, we were just at a
Speaker 5: all inclusive resort for my brother's wedding last weekend and congrats,
Speaker 5: and it was it was.
Speaker 3: A beautiful resort.
Speaker 5: And I looked at upgrading the room just because and
Speaker 5: the room upgrade would have been like five hundred dollars
Speaker 5: extra a night, and I was like, yeah, no, that's
Speaker 5: where I draw the line. But my brother did it,
Speaker 5: and it was like I was like, you spent an
Speaker 5: extra twenty five hundred dollars just to like have a balcony,
Speaker 5: And I.
Speaker 4: Was like, no, thank you, but I got it's his wedding.
Speaker 3: It's no, no, no, this was my other brother. Oh.
Speaker 5: So I was like, I realized that my willingness to
Speaker 5: spend on accommodations has its limits, which actually is comforting.
Speaker 1: You were able to see, like I'm still able to
Speaker 1: stick with a boundaries.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, Like if I really wanted it, I would have,
Speaker 5: but like.
Speaker 3: That just felt unreasonable.
Speaker 4: So that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think similarly, like I want to feel really comfortable.
Speaker 1: I want a beautiful setting, but I still want it
Speaker 1: at a relatively reasonable price, Like I want the best
Speaker 1: of both worlds.
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, someday, someday, maybe I I'll be unreasonable, but yeah, Jill,
Speaker 5: what about you?
Speaker 1: What's Oh John, this is so silly and it's probably
Speaker 1: not like my ultimate final answer, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: go with it.
Speaker 4: Food at the airport.
Speaker 1: I feel like in your classically, like the way that
Speaker 1: we classically understand frugal people, there's always the folks who
Speaker 1: pack to go to the airport. The prices are so high,
Speaker 1: like it's like Disney World when you go to the airport,
Speaker 1: and I just don't care. I am so willing to
Speaker 1: spend an extra fifty percent on my food at the
Speaker 1: airport to keep from needing to pack tupperware of carrot
Speaker 1: slices and apples. Like, if I'm traveling, I want to
Speaker 1: be able to buy a glass of wine and enjoy
Speaker 1: some food before I get on the plane. I I
Speaker 1: will spend their guilt free.
Speaker 3: You know what.
Speaker 5: CO sign on that because it's like it stresses me
Speaker 5: out to pack too much, and like I feel like
Speaker 5: I'm always pushing it. So if I had to like
Speaker 5: jam some snacks in there too, there's just no way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, there's just no room for the carrot slices.
Speaker 1: No problem. No. Oh man, Well that's traveling full time
Speaker 1: for you folks, traveling full time with Chloe.
Speaker 5: Yeah that was fun. Well, thank you guys so much
Speaker 5: for listening. Many of you know your Frugal Friends have
Speaker 5: a membership for the listeners who are paying off debt
Speaker 5: where they do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups.
Speaker 5: We want to congratulate one of the members for a
Speaker 5: big win.
Speaker 3: Michelle B.
Speaker 5: You had a huge win, so Michelle said you guys,
Speaker 5: I'm so excited thanks to Frugal Friends, I've gone from
Speaker 5: having such poor credit that I wasn't approved for a
Speaker 5: Marshall's credit card. How is that even possible? She said
Speaker 5: in parentheses a year ago to today being approoved for
Speaker 5: a Capital one event V your card.
Speaker 1: Whoo.
Speaker 5: I am so thrilled. My fiance and I are going
Speaker 5: to put all of our upcoming wedding expenses on this
Speaker 5: card and use the points we accumulate to go on
Speaker 5: a trip to celebrate our big day. Thanks Jenna and
Speaker 5: Jill and all of you for helping me get here.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Shell, that's huge, Michelle, congratulations, this is
Speaker 1: exciting and also how fitting about travel. We'll be able
Speaker 1: to use those points. Hopefully there were some nuggets. I
Speaker 1: know you're not talking about traveling for a whole year,
Speaker 1: but hopefully there's some nuggets in this episode that will
Speaker 1: help you to travel, but also just improving your credit score.
Speaker 1: It's so amazing to see what can happen within the
Speaker 1: course of a year. How much I think sometimes we
Speaker 1: think about credit scores, being like it's going to take
Speaker 1: a decade to get this thing turned around. But the
Speaker 1: decisions that you made and the things that you were
Speaker 1: able to shift in your finances just within a year,
Speaker 1: that's amazing.
Speaker 3: Well, done well.
Speaker 5: Also, we just have to point out you got such
Speaker 5: a better credit card than what you would have been
Speaker 5: approved for, so it's like that's also a win. You
Speaker 5: almost got like a crappy Marshal's credit card that wouldn't
Speaker 5: have helped you in any way really, and instead you
Speaker 5: got a Capital one Venture card that actually has points
Speaker 5: and is going to you know, allow that extra splurging
Speaker 5: on travel and things like that.
Speaker 3: So that's huge.
Speaker 5: Michelle, congratulations again, well to everyone, thanks for listening. If
Speaker 5: you want to check out our membership where we have
Speaker 5: all kinds of courses, interviews, challenges and more. Had to
Speaker 5: Frugle Friends podcast dot com slash club to check it out.
Speaker 4: See you guys next time to do Frugal Friends is
Speaker 4: produced by Eric Siriani.
Speaker 3: Kaloe.
Speaker 4: You've freading crushed it.
Speaker 3: Oh I thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid I'm going to get booted, Like Jen returns
Speaker 1: from eternity leave and it's like.
Speaker 3: Oh, don't you worry, I don't have time.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, now, don't worry.
Speaker 3: I will say no. But you are so sweet for
Speaker 3: saying that. I was like, I was like, am I
Speaker 3: talking too much? Like?
Speaker 5: So I have a podcast it's called The Money Bear
Speaker 5: b Are, and I like every time I have a
Speaker 5: guest on, I'm always just like, just so you know,
Speaker 5: this is casual, Like all I do is show up
Speaker 5: to chat with you, like I just want to hear
Speaker 5: about you want to hear about this topic. Like the
Speaker 5: other day, I had a post about how I spend
Speaker 5: four hundred dollars a month on health insurance and I'm
Speaker 5: still afraid to go to the doctor because of like cost,
Speaker 5: and somebody commented and they're like, oh somebody, like everybody
Speaker 5: was sharing their woes and the comments and they were
Speaker 5: just like, yeah, I had to spend nine hundred dollars
Speaker 5: for benadryl, like crap like that where it's just like
Speaker 5: it's atrocious. And anyway, somebody commented and I said, have
Speaker 5: you heard of dollar for Dollar four? And this is
Speaker 5: not sponsored or anything, but like dollar for is this
Speaker 5: new organization that will like fight for patients medical bills
Speaker 5: for them. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So I
Speaker 5: just immediately messaged them. I was like, I love what
Speaker 5: you're doing.
Speaker 3: This is so needed.
Speaker 5: I just heard about you today. Do you want to
Speaker 5: come on the podcast just so I can talk to
Speaker 5: you and it's like they were. But that's that's kind
Speaker 5: of how I roll on the podcast, where it's like
Speaker 5: I don't even have a script. I don't have like
Speaker 5: I have a general idea of the questions I'm going
Speaker 5: to ask. So I was like, I hope this is
Speaker 5: okay with them.
Speaker 3: This is my style.
Speaker 4: I love that style, just the dialogue.
Speaker 1: And yes, anyone who is still listening this post show,
Speaker 1: check out money Bear. Just check out everything Chloe has
Speaker 1: to offer Instagram.
Speaker 5: It's the money Bear. So on everything Bear is spelled
Speaker 5: b are because we get bear about our finances, we
Speaker 5: get bear about our income, we talk about mental health.
Speaker 5: So that's where that came from.
Speaker 4: You are so cool. Thanks, Well that's all I'm just fanning.
Speaker 5: Well, I appreciate you and this is fun. I was like, travel,
Speaker 5: I could talk about.
Speaker 3: This all day.
Speaker 4: Yes, and we almost did.
Speaker 3: Oh I know.
Speaker 5: You were like You're like, well, we're usually at forty
Speaker 5: five minutes, and I was like, I'll be easy, don't
Speaker 5: you worry.
Speaker 3: You worry, and here we are