Eyelash extensions or a short hiking trip? A night out on the town or a jaunt to Europe?
Those are the kinds of trade-offs Lourdes Camacho began weighing last fall when the Miami-based nanny started scaling back her day-to-day spending to put more money toward traveling.
“I realized I spent like $300 to $500 in one weekend in Miami when I could be using that to travel to a different country,” she said. “You know, like, I don’t need to do those things.”
The 31-year-old cut back on beauty appointments and started staying home more, prioritizing visits to new places and exploring the outdoors, taking advantage of the flexibility her job affords. The frequency of her trips varies, but she took five in February to San Francisco, Honolulu and more, including a work trip with her employer for their vacation.
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Camacho is among a number of travelers who pinch pennies on everyday expenses so they can put more money toward their trips.
‘I have every memory from every trip I’ve taken’
A February survey of 1,000 U.S. adults commissioned by PayPal, in partnership with Edelman Data & Intelligence, found that 73% of respondents were willing to alter daily spending so they could afford to travel.
Among those surveyed, 42% said they would cook at home rather than eat out or get takeout, while close to 20% said they were willing to skip social events like weddings or birthday parties to save money, according to results shared by a spokesperson for the company.
Nearly 20% also said they were “willing to cut back on beauty services like haircuts, manicures or waxes.”
Rob Jackson, a New York real estate agent, has made his own compromises in order to travel more. The 36-year-old said he has been to over 40 countries, taking between five and seven international trips a year and travels domestically every other month.
“It’s definitely become a passion of mine over the past decade or so,” Jackson said.
As Jackson, 36, got older, he said he prioritized experiences over material goods. He lives in a studio apartment rather than a bigger space, for instance, and buys less high-end clothing than he did in his 20s.
“I like to say, ‘I don’t have the designer clothes that I bought when I was 22, but I have every memory from every trip I’ve taken,’ ” he said.
How do you save money for a trip?
When trying to save money, Dominique Broadway, a personal finance expert and founder of Finances Demystified, recommended figuring out what’s most important to you.
“I love traveling,” she said. “That is like one of my favorite things to do, so I’m always going to make sure that everything my in life is aligned to be able to support that hobby.”
That could mean deciding to live in a smaller or less expensive home if they are not going to be there as often, for instance, Broadway said.
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Travelers can also leverage travel credit cards to earn rewards, she said, especially if they’re strategic about it. For example, someone who lives in Atlanta, where Delta Air Lines is based, might want to sign up for a Delta-specific card.
By paying your bills using those cards – and paying the cards off at the end of the month or as soon as possible – Broadway said, “That’s going to allow you to be able to start traveling for free by doing something that you were going to do anyway.”
However, those who cut back on spending may not feel the benefits if they don’t set the money aside, Broadway cautioned.
“Essentially, you’re probably going to spend that money on something else,” she said. If someone stops going to get their nails done every Friday, for instance, for suggested transferring that money elsewhere as if they had, so they can start to see it accumulate.
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Whether you use that money to pay off credit card debt or put it somewhere else, such as a savings account, depends on your goals, she said.
“But you definitely don’t want to have it too close,” Broadway added. “You don’t want to have it necessarily linked directly to your checking account because a lot of times you’ll just pull it right back.”
As people form new spending habits, she suggested they check in with themselves frequently – as often as every day – to hold themselves accountable. “Because that way you can see quickly if it’s not working, and you can quickly make a change.”
In addition to saving money daily, Camacho makes a habit of traveling cheaply to maximize her investment. She searches for deals on Google Flights; stays in hostels or with locals she has met via Facebook groups for women solo traveling; and gets groceries to cook when she can or buys food from street vendors.
Camacho worked another nannying job that paid more but offered less flexibility and found she couldn’t put a price on seeing the world.
“It made me realize … it’s not worth it. I’m not living my life or enjoying life,” she said. “So I’m willing to make these sacrifices. I’m willing to go on a weekend and sacrifice sleep, too, just to see a view.”
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].
