Welcome back to our traveling like a rockstar series. As you can tell by the depth of this series, I love to travel. I also love to help others travel and then discuss travel plans together. There’s nothing that excites me more than planning a trip. I love the trip of planning a trip. The euphoria kicks in once I book my flight ticket. Then I get more nervous/excited as the date gets closer.

Whenever discussing plans for my next trip I’m always bound to run into someone that’s going to say:

I wish I could travel like you do.

Guess what? We can all travel. You just need to make some lifestyle changes to help you cut back on your spending. If you’re serious about traveling more in 2010 you need to take this post seriously. If you slowly apply the following tips to your life you can find yourself traveling like a rockstar.

Let’s jump into the lifestyle changes that you need to make at home so that you can travel more in the future:

Go out to less expensive places.

I’m not going to tell you to never go out because then you’re going to hate me. I will tell you that you need to stop spending your money at expensive places that don’t add much value. What I mean by this is that you don’t have to go to some club that charges $20 to get in just to have a good time. You also don’t need to be buying $10 drinks. You can have a blast by going to house parties and making your party instead of spending large money for a night out.

The less money that you spending on going out, the more money you have to travel and see the world. Would you rather hit a bar in Budapest, Hungary or some expensive place downtown?

Learn to prepare your own meals.

Food is the biggest budget killer for most us. We either convince ourselves that we don’t have enough time or just forget to plan and we end up buying food. The problem with this is that the average take out meal can cost about $10 when we factor in the drink and whether we actually want to eat something healthy. On the other hand, if you prepare your own food you can find yourself putting together a solid meal for a few bucks.

What are some solid meal options if you want to prepare your own food to save money?

• Egg whites.
• Buying your own chicken.
• Eggs and toast.
• Homemade wraps with chick and your choice of wrap.

Give this a try and see how much money you save by not eating out. Then take this money and put it in your trip account in ING Direct or where you keep your savings. Grow this account until you hit $1,000. Then you can plan your next trip.

Delay your gratification

In other words, stop being so damn spoiled! Can you not wait until you buy expensive crap? You need to delay your gratification so that you’re not always buying the newest crap that comes out. You don’t have to deprive yourself from the fun stuff. You just need to delay the time it takes you to buy something new. I want an iPad, but I’m willing to wait until I see a massive price drop. If you want to increase your income while delaying spending, I always recommend finding one of the many online jobs for college students.

At the end of the day, if you’re willing to follow these tips most of the time, you can save some serious money that you can put towards your future travel plans.

Check out the other articles from the Travel Like a Rockstar Series:

Can I Travel When I’m Not Rich?

4 Little Known Ways of Saving Money While Traveling.

3 Things You Must Know About Traveling

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I don’t want to give irresponsible advice about suggesting that you need to travel in your 20s. The reality is that not all of us can afford this. Some of us that can’t afford it might be tempted to use a credit card. Traveling should not be another frivolous expense that you put on your credit card. It needs to be a once in a lifetime experience that you remember forever.

Traveling shouldn’t be done by those that aren’t financially prepared. You don’t need to be rich to travel, but you also don’t want to go in debt because of that trip. You don’t want to stress about working two jobs to pay off some trip that you took a year ago.

Let’s explore what you need to do before you start traveling:

You need to earn your freedom.

If you have debt you need to pay it off. You can’t just feel that you’re entitled to travel. You need to work for it. You need to earn your financial freedom so that you can leave home stress-free.

What can you start doing to earn your freedom?

• Start making more money.
• Put more money towards your debt payment.
• Pay down your credit card debt.
• Take bold moves with your finances.

How you earn your freedom is up to you. All that mattes is that you don’t go into debt for your next trip.

You need to save some cash.

How much money do you need to save? It all depends on where you plan on going and for how long. You do need to save a few dollars if you want to have fun on your trip. Once again you DO NOT need to be rich to travel. You just can’t be flat broke either.

How can you save some cash before you start traveling?

1. Get rid of some crap of Kijiji.
2. Ask for a raise for the time being.
3. Work two jobs.
4. Get your ass off the couch.

Are you saving cash? If you don’t save up right now you’re going to be stressed out when you do finally start to travel.

You need to create a new income.

How will you survive on the road? You don’t need to be making six-figures or to become the next cool lifestyle design blogger for you to travel. I do advise that you figure out how to make a few bucks on the road.

What are some quick ways that you can create a new income?

• Freelance writing. Pick a niche and start writing.
• Ask your employer if you can work from a remote location.
• Online tutoring. People always need help.
• Serving drinks. You can always find a gig serving drinks where you get to meet lots of cool people while you travel.

It’s important that you look into making money on the road. You don’t want to be incurring all expenses with no income.

What did you do in the past before embarking on a travel journey? Did I miss anything?

Check out the other articles from the Travel Like a Rockstar Series:

Can I Travel When I’m Not Rich?

4 Little Known Ways of Saving Money While Traveling.

3 Things You Must Know About Traveling

“We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what. ” — George Santayana.

Traveling is one of the greatest experiences. I highly recommend it to everyone, rich or poor, shy or outgoing. Traveling will expand your mind and show you that there’s simply so much to do out there. You just need to go into your travel experiences knowing a few things.

There are 3 things that you must know about traveling before you leave home:

#1: You’re not at home.

This heading may sound silly at first. When you think about it though it makes perfect sense. It doesn’t matter how cool you are at home (or the opposite) because you’re now in a new setting. It doesn’t matter what you do at home. It doesn’t matter how many friends you have back home.

What I’m getting at is that you can’t behave the same way you do at home when you’re on the road. You’re in a different world. Cultures are completely different around the world. Perfectly normal behavior can be taboo in other parts of the world. The onus is on you to realize that you’re out of your elements and in a new zone.

#2: You need to learn to adapt.

If you can’t adapt then you’re going to have a tough time traveling. If you can’t adapt at all in life you’re going to have a difficult time getting by.

The reason that you need to adapt rapidly is that you’re going to encounter completely new situations. For the first time ever you’re going to be inside of a grocery store where you don’t understand any of the labels. For the first time ever you might have to share a room with strangers. There will be many firsts when you travel.

A few of my first experiences that I had to adapt to while traveling through Europe last month were:

• Sharing a room with multiple strangers.
• Not knowing where to find food.
• Trying to find a local gym.
• Taking a bus for over 6 hours.
• Not understanding the language.

Just like with personal finance, we all need to adapt. Times will change and circumstances will shift. If we don’t grow we will fall behind. There’s no fun in falling behind.

#3: You can make money anywhere in the world now.

I’m not going to turn this into a make money blogging sort of article. I will tell you that you that technology allows us to stay connected to the world at all times. Technology also opens up many gates for us to earn money. Simply put, there are many ways that you can make online now so that you can afford to maintain your travels for longer.

While my new friends spent their time on Facebook I was able to write articles and work on my online projects. The best part is that I almost love to write as much as I love to travel. I was able to do two things that I love simultaneously.

These are three things that everyone needs to know about traveling for the first time. Stay tuned until next week!

Check out the other articles from the Travel Like a Rockstar Series:

Can I Travel When I’m Not Rich?

4 Little Known Ways of Saving Money While Traveling.

Last week I addressed the whole issue of traveling when you’re not rich. A common myth in society for years has been the idea that only the rich can afford to travel. We all dream of traveling. We get excited about the thought of leaving home to see the world. Then we never do anything. Why’s this? We don’t think that we can afford to go home.

Here’s a news flash: traveling isn’t just for the rich any longer.

Today I wanted to share some practical tips that I picked up while spending a month travelling through Europe. These are things that I learned the hard way on my own. I hope that you learn from this and are able to start traveling. You don’t need to become a lifestyle design blogger or anything. You can just travel for cheap in your spare time or when you have a vacation coming up. Let’s look at 4 little known ways of saving money while traveling or when planning to go away for an extended period of time:

1. Consider going off-season.

You don’t need to go during the hot months on your next trip. Going on season costs so much more than it does going off season that I can’t even begin to fathom the numbers. I paid $800 for a ticket to Poland off season. During the middle of the summer this would’ve easily cost me $1,500 or so. The flight is usually the biggest expense of any trip. If you can cut back on the cost of the flight you’ll be smiling.

Going off season also means that I need to address the obvious issue of the differences in night life.

For those that are curious, you’ll always have a great time while traveling. It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is. When you go during a normal time of the year you’ll run into more locals and more long-term travellers. It’s just a different crowd. The party is fun as always.

2. Try taking night trains.

At home I never take trains because they sort of suck. Europe has the whole rail system figured out. You can go move around Europe very easily via train. If you want to save money while riding trains you can do so by taking advantage of the night trains.

I personally started to enjoy the night trains. Depending on the distance and the type of train you can have more fun on your commute than at your destination. Some trains are designed so that you’re in a room with a few other people. You never know who you can meet and how much fun you can have spending the whole night chatting with complete strangers. Give it a try.

You also save money with night trains because you don’t have to book a hostel for a night. If you’re totally exhausted you just pass out and wake up at your destination.

3. Prepare your own food for massive savings.

Whether you want to admit it or not food is usually the biggest expense. We all spend lots of money on food when on a trip. I won’t lie, food is my greatest expense. This is why I highly advice that you prepare your own food.

This might sound lame at first. You know, why would I cook while on vacation? It’s actually really fun, especially when staying at a hostel. Cooking is a sweet group activity and it allows you to save money while eating well.

Are you ready to cook your own food?

4. Go with the flow.

If you’re not open minded then you shouldn’t even bother with traveling. Being open minded will save you money because this will determine where you stay, how you travel, and how you react to things. I was able to have a blast on a budget because I knew not to complain about anything. I ran into many miserable travellers. They would complain about the most minor issues. I don’t even know why they even bothered leaving home.

If you follow these four tips I guarantee you that you can save a good amount of change on your next trip abroad. Drink a cold one for me!

Are there any strategies that you’ve used to save money on traveling in the past? Don’t be shy and join the discussion below…

(photo credot: markstopover_002)

“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” — Anatole France

Is traveling only for rich people? Can a poor college graduate get some traveling done?

We finished off with the small savings series last week where I put up a big list of small savings. We’re now moving forward with a series on traveling and all of that fun stuff. Just to give you a little background information. I returned from a month long trip to Europe last week and I wanted to address the concern of not being able to afford to travel in your 20s.

Can I travel in my 20s when I’m not rich? Yes. Let’s see how. How can you travel when your budget is tight?

Plan in advance.

My best advice is to look at flight/hostel/hotel prices in advance to see what the prices are like in ahead of time during different time periods. I determined that it would be far too expensive to travel during the summer months. This is why I decided to head out in September instead. Chances are that you won’t be able to afford to go during the busiest time periods. That’s cool.

Did I mention that I still had a blast off season? There’s more locals and less tourists. You also meet more of the long-term travelers. Definitely worth the experience. Just by planning in advance and finding cheaper flights/accommodations you can travel when you’re not rich.

Go to places you can afford.

When I was in Budapest it was about $1 for a beer when you did the conversion. The stay at the hostel I was at was costing me about $17/night. The price of a decent meal was roughly less than five bucks depending on where you went to eat. This is highly affordable for most of us. The trick with planning any sort of first time long distance trip is to figure out where you can afford to go.

For your first trip post-college you won’t be able to afford a stay in Milan, Italy or a month in Thailand (due to insane flight prices). Most of us can afford a trip through Eastern Europe or other places on this planet where the prices aren’t through the roof. If you go to places that you can afford then of course you can afford to travel (what a statement, eh?).

Save up slowly.

You don’t have to come up with two grand in one shot. You should start to save up slowly for your trip. You can’t plan on leaving for Greece next weekend. If you plan to go in 6 months then you can totally afford to go hit up the Greek islands and party until 7 in the morning baby!

I’m a huge supporter of saving up slowly for your next trip. You can start off with $20 a week or more depending on how extravagant you want your trip to be and when you plan on heading out. I took $20 from a friend of mine every week until we could afford to hit up the Dominican for Spring Break. He was pretty damn happy that he agreed to this. As were the young ladies that he met.

Look for work abroad.

The best way to travel for any extended period of time is to find some part-time work. You won’t make a fortune but you’ll immerse yourself in the culture. You’ll get to meet some local folks and you’ll extend the duration of your trip. The more money you earn on your trip the less that you have to save in advance. It’s worth giving a try!

These are just a few of the ways that you can afford to plan a decent trip when you’re pockets are empty. I’m positive that if you get creative you can think of a few more ideas.

I want to conclude this post by asking you this question: when do you plan on starting your travels? Is money holding you back?

(photocredit: earthworm)

Are you going on vacation this summer, but you’re a bit low on cash? Do you want to check out some great city attractions without going broke? I’d like to make a suggestion – take advantage of some of best museums on their free days.

Free Museum Days

Some people associate museums with boring places with only art hanging around, but there are some wonderful museums in the United States that offer more. If you’re into astronomy, then planetariums may be more your speed or perhaps you love aquariums. Being open to trying new places can enrich you and keep your wallet from being drained.

Start by deciding which major city you’d like to visit. Many of them have plenty of options with museums and some of them have some wonderful free or cheap deals. I decided to get you started by finding out what deals are currently out there now. Here are some museums that have free days around the country:

Boston

• Fuller Craft Museum 455 Oak Street, Brockton, MA 02301 (508) 588-6000 Free Days Every Wednesday 5-9pm
• Institute of Contemporary Art 100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA 02210 (617) 478-3100 Free Days Every Thursday 5-9pm, last Saturday of every month for families
• MIT Museum 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 253-5927 Free Days Every Sunday 10am-12pm

Chicago

• Adler Planetarium 1300 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605 (312) 922-7827 - Free Days June: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 2011
• The Art Institute of Chicago 111 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60603 (312) 443-3600 Free Days June: 1 & 8, all day
• Chicago History Museum 1601 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614 (312) 642-4600 Free Days June: 6, 13, 20 & 27
• Shedd Aquarium 1200 S. Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605 (312) 939-2438 Free Days June: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 2011

Los Angeles

• Griffith Observatory 2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027 (213) 473-0800 Always Free
• Japanese American National Museum 369 East First Street Los Angeles, California 90012 (213) 625-0414 Free Days Every Thursday 5-8pm, third Thursday of every month
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 621-1745 Free Days Every Thursday 5-8pm
• Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 900 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (213) 763-DINO Free Days First Tuesday of every month

New York City

• Children’s Museum of Manhattan The Tisch Building, 212 West 83rd Street, New York, NY 10024 (212) 721-1223 Free Days First Friday of every month admission (from 5pm to 8pm)
• El Museo del Barrio 1230 5th Ave @104 St, New York, NY 10029 (212)831-7272 Free Days Every third Saturday of each month and every Wednesday from 6pm-9pm
• Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53 Street  New York, NY 10019 (212) 708-9400 Free Days Every Friday 4-8pm
• Studio Museum in Harlem 144 West 125th Street New York, NY 10027 (212)864-4500 Free Days Every Sunday

San Francisco

• Asian Art Museum 200 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 581-3500 Free Days First Sunday of every month
• Cable Car Museum 1201 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA 94108 (415) 474-1887 Free Days First Sunday of every month
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 357-4000 Free Days First Tuesday of every month
• Tech Museum of Innovation 201 South Market St, San Jose, CA 95113 (408) 294-8324 Free Days Second Sunday of every month

It doesn’t hurt to go to your favorite museums website and see if they have a free day or a pay what you want offer. You may be surprised by the results. I would just want to remind you to call ahead and confirm the deals as they are subject to change.

Thoughts on Cheap Attractions Around the City

If you want some more ideas, there’s a recent post on cheap yet cool activities that will help you brainstorm. By the way, if you’re planning a vacation, don’t forget to check out some related posts on the topic here on GPT:

• Campsites vs Hotels
• Where to Find Good Cheap Hotels
• Enjoying a Debt Free Vacation
• How to Save on Food: Restaurants vs Grocery on Vacations
• How to Budget for a Vacation
• Staycation- Having Vacations at Home

Wherever you go for your next vacation, I hope you enjoy it!