15 tips on how to save money while traveling

Today on how to save money while traveling; I’ll tell you about some of my favorite ways to save money while traversing planet Earth.

Stay at hostels instead
I know you might enjoy a comfortable hotel more but have you ever tried a hostel?
Have the movies ruined it for you?
Try it one time, if you have a horrible experience fair enough but at least try it!
At first, I was iffy about hostels until I tried one and fell in love with them immediately!
If you’re traveling as more than one, a lot of times hotels are actually cheaper than hostels.

Eat at the grocery markets
When I started this, I enjoyed it a lot more than restaurants, especially when I’m with other people.
Eating at local grocery markets really immerses you into the culture a lot more than restaurants seem to do. You will REALLY feel like a local instead of a tourist.
As I’m sure you’re aware there are so many different meal combinations you can make with the use of the grocery markets. Best of all you can use local food and spices.

Ask the locals
The locals know best, they can assist you with what and where the cheap things are.
Any time I’m curious about some hidden treasures, I always ask the locals. This works almost 400% of the time
This might be my favorite tip for how to save money while traveling
Locals can also tell you things about the society most people don’t know about

Try to use Uber if they’re in the city you’re in. Try Blabla car, you’ll be surprised to know how many countries it works in now.
Not all taxis do this but many taxis can all of a sudden increase their fee when you notice you’re not exactly a local.
I’m not saying to never use taxis, I’m saying if there are viable alternatives to use them as a priority.

If you REALLY want to have fun, I mean be frugal, you can hitchhike!
This certainly isn’t for everyone; however, it can work very well!
If you’re under any sort of time constraint though, I would not advise hitchhiking…
I of course had to put this on the list for how to save money while traveling
Hitchhiking can take many, many hours sometimes.

This can seem like a very obvious one though why don’t we use this more often?
There are discounts everywhere we look! Do we even look though?
Find the deals on airplane rides, find the deals on food, and find the deals on rides.
Use and abuse these deals every chance you get!
The more you use discounting as a travel method, the better you’ll get at it.

AWF – Always have food!
Bring lots of snack bars so whenever you’re hungry you can just eat one… Or two!
This comes in handy especially before, during, and after airplane flights!
Put some in your pockets, in your bags, and even in your friend’s bags. Put them everywhere!
Also, try to bring a water bottle and keep re-filling it instead of buying drinks.

Pay attention to how much your bag(s) weigh before steering the course towards the airport.
Baggage fees can increase expenses by over 20%
Buy one of these so you’ll know before reaching the baggage department

Track every single purchase you decide to make.
Yes, that means that small bag of potato chips too!
If you track every single one of your expenses, you won’t believe the amount of money you save.
There are many tracking tools you can use now. Apps make the process very easy for example, Mint, Goodbudget, Everydollar, Pocketguard, and Wally.
You have many options at your fingertips. For the longest time, I was tracking expenses through ol’ fashioned pen and paper. Now I use apps and have gotten used to them quickly.

Avoid expensive destinations. You don’t have to go to places just because your friends have been there.
New York is great but it can be very expensive. What if you were to go to a different place?
This can be difficult, and if you REALLY are focused on a particular destination… I will encourage you to go there anyway! Sometimes you need to go to the places you want to go to the most.
There are other times when you are going somewhere just because it’s a place seemingly many people go to. In cases like this, I would advise you to find an area that’s even more fun!

Tourist areas are wonderful for people viewing and historical reasons. Tourist areas are not too wonderful when it comes to purchasing materials.
The further you get away from tourist areas the cheaper things get.
1 slice of pizza on the next street could mean the difference of $20+!
This is important to remember no matter where you are when traversing this beautiful Earth

Limit the number of times you have to exchange money
Fees will obliterate your wallet and everything in it over time.
You don’t have to be extreme and limit every single thing that you buy. However, try to at least limit the number of times you have to exchange money

Work in exchange for things, for example, food and a place to stay.
You would be surprised at how much you can use this to your advantage.
Just like the power of bartering, use your skills as a tool to obtain food and residence.
There of course are tools like WWOOFing and Aupair. However, there are so many more uses for a work-exchange program. Start off by figuring out your skills and find out who can use those skills.

Extra purchases that you didn’t foresee can also scavenge at your pocketbook
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten simple things like my phone charger. Then you don’t realize how much the phone charger cable is. It gets even worse because you also have to purchase the outlet plug too!
Of course, mistakes happen so you will probably still fall victim to certain objects. However, try to form a checklist before you leave so that you limit these situations.

This will make it so you don’t need an internet connection and can progress with your travels as long as you have some battery in your phone
This magical method is an app called Maps.me to which I of course absolutely endorse
Download the maps you plan on traveling to before you’re there. Then you can travel at a near worry-less state of mind considering once you open that map… You know where almost everything is!

Miscellaneous

Here’s a complimentary video of me traveling cheaply in Hawaii