I have strange habits when I travel. On one hand, I refuse to add up the money I spend every year on plane tickets and other travel expenses, and I know it probably adds up to more than many peoples’ rent. On the other hand, for the sake of traveling to amazing places, I won’t mind spending the night at the airport, or having fruit and a cereal bar for lunch for the sake of having a better diner and sampling local food. After university, I even travelled around the world for a year, hitch-hiking and camping as often as I could, just so I could dive or even take a £300 helicopter ride over Argentina’s famous Iguazu Falls.
Then when I go home, I often think of saving money in terms of how much travel it can buy me. That £5 pint? It’s a nice dinner in Thailand. A £50 night out I won’t remember three months from now? I can visit a memorable steak house in Brazil for half that price.
So when my friends ask how I manage to travel so much and apparently do so many cool things so often, it makes me smile. And the folks over at Oliver’s Travels are smiling too, as they put together an infographic showing you how easy it is to spend mindlessly on small items here and there, when the cost amounts to a nice slice of luxury in less time than you would think.
For example, you can drive a Ferrari for as little as £115. That is equivalent to going to the movies a dozen times.
For £280, you could either have a bottle of wine a week for 44 weeks, or a VIP helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. Put like that, is the sacrifice worth the reward? It is a no brainer for me. But if you are not conscious with your spending, that money just disappears weekly from your wallet and when comes time to go on holiday, you are stuck with everyone on a crowded low-cost beach.
Let’s scroll further down on our infographic. For £2,500, which is what it costs to smoke for six months, you could book yourself a nice first class ticket. Or for £4,300, you could go on 12 city breaks or on an African safari! If you see the short term, you’ll tell yourself “oh, I only have money to go to Dublin for three days. Africa will have to wait.” And then Africa will never happen, because Dublin will be followed by other short trips.
Life will only happen if you make it happen. And if you are truly motivated about buying that big ticket item, know it is not out of reach. Break down your monthly budget to see how much you spend on things that don’t really bring you value, and start saving! Keep your reward in mind, it will be much easier to renounce your morning latte or to cycle to work four days a week. You might be surprised how little time it takes to reach your goal.
Leave a Reply