„How do you afford to travel so much?“

A question I get quite regularly so I’m touching upon this topic as I like to talk openly about these things and I always appreciate it when other people do.

First of all: No, I’m not rich, I don’t have rich parents and no one but me pays for my travels.

Before doing lots of travelling this year I haven’t really been anywhere for 2 years after my last trip to Morocco in 2016. Back then I finished studying, got a job and stayed in that job (which I hated btw..) for 2 years just to save up money. I didn’t go out a lot anymore, didn’t buy anything but the things I really needed and kept on living in my cheap student room in a shared house. After paying off my car I basically just had to pay for my room, fuel, food and insurances. Those 2 years haven’t been the best ones of my life, not gonna lie, and I’m not sure if I’d do it that way again but it definitely is one way to do it. Just work, work, work, save up money and go.

Whenever I travel I don’t stay at fancy accommodations but do couch surfing or airbnb. I’m also not a fan of doing all the tourist tours and stuff like that but prefer getting to know the locals and hang out with them, basically just doing what they do.

In April when I travelled through Finland for 3 weeks for example which is a rather expensive country I still didn’t spend a lot of money as I just did couchsurfing which means no accommodation costs, I basically just spent money on food and transport.

[More about my Finland trip here.]

The 3 months in Bali where I did my surf instructor course have been an exception as this was quite expensive for my standards. However, adding everything up, in the end it wasn’t too much money for what I did there with all the included trips, surf lessons, massages, scooter, meals and so on. Plus Indonesia is super cheap so that apart from what I paid fort he surf course with everything included, I didn’t really spend too much money there. You can definitely live very cheap – cheaper than I did – in Bali if you want to. I know I could live in Bali for about half a year with the money I usually spend in Germany in 2-3 months.

[More about my Bali trip here.]

Anyway, after Bali I was close to running out of money, also because my credit card got misused and I lost over 1000€.

So when I arrived to Australia with my Working Holiday Visa I started worrying and was quite desperate to get a job which took me about 3 weeks. So when I had a job again, I was fine. You can make really good money in Australia, even with a job that just pays okay.. okay in Australia is still pretty good. You can definitely save up a bit of money there – if you live cheap and don’t spend it all right away again, of course. With my last job in the outback, accommodation and food was even included which often ist he case with jobs out there.

So with that job I could save up quite a bit of money to not have to worry about that for a while now. I still need and want to get another job right after New Year’s if possible to save more money and to get my 2nd year visa. Could be a bit of a struggle with what I’m looking for but I’m pretty sure something will pop up.

I also have to admit that I’m always pretty lucky with the people I meet while travelling. I’ve stayed in places for free a couple of times. Right now I’m staying at a beautiful place for Christmas, having a family Christmas and I’m so grateful for this. Not sure how I always seem to end up meeting the most wonderful and helpful people but somehow it just happens. Maybe it’s just because I’m open, don’t really make any plans and just go with the flow.

So well yes, that’s my „secret“: working and saving up money. Fancy, ey?