How Do I Afford To Go Travelling SO MUCH – What Are My Secrets?

This is something I thought about doing a blog post on before. As every once in a while, without fail, someone will say this to me How Do I Afford To Go Travelling So Much??

My friend actually said this to me just last week as I was boarding my plane to Lanzarote “Wow Alex you must be loaded – YOU ARE GOING AWAY AGAIN! Already”. I mean I kind of hate it as I don’t want to ruffle too many feathers, I guess you could say BUT I DO kind of get it – travelling can be quite expensive, and here I am not even 1 month since my last trip and I’m off again.

I should not brag I know. Some people must look at me and think I am rubbing their noses right in it – whilst they are at home struggling to pay their bills in cold, miserable England here I am sunning it up on the beach AGAIN!

So, yes I know sometimes me doing this might look bad. I am inclined to think otherwise but It is a tough one. On one hand I do believe that whatever someone’s situation is – if they are not pulling the trigger to make something like a holiday happen then that is a big part of the problem.

Although, I do understand just because I manage to afford it this doesn’t mean that everyone else can. Except I do definitely believe that travelling can be a lot more affordable than most people think – They just don’t know it! and actually the question “How Do I Afford To Travel So Often” – Well, the answer I think might be helpful for people to actually pull that trigger!

So, I guess many people reading this will wonder what they can do themselves to make International travel more of a reality?

Well, I really don’t want to give people bad advice here. I am not saying quit your job or to do exactly as I do no matter what the consequences – but maybe you can take some pointers.

This will be my best advice I hope – you might have some of your own that you would like to share but anyway – here goes…

How Do I Afford To Go Travelling SO OFTEN – What Are My Secrets?
(Some Ideas To Think About)

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*Now, so the screenshot above is a post on Facebook I see recently. Maybe you could say this was the real motivation for me to write this lol, BECAUSE – I thought when I see this THAT THIS must be what it is like for people I have on Facebook to see my go on so many International trips!

*In all honesty, (as of now) I haven’t been to any of the places in the picture above (I don’t think) – there are a lot of places that I have been to though and my point being IS this is like me TOTALLY.

And I like that thought – one month I’m in Egypt then next I’m in Italy and then 2 months later I’m in Spain or Greece lol I mean I think I’m a bit off being able to afford this as of now but what I do do already I think is still pretty impressive, for sure.

So, if you are wondering how I manage to do this all – my first secret I will share. Here goes…

I Travel Cheap As Possible

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Perhaps this may not come as a big surprise to people but when I go away I am looking to find low prices on both flights and accommodation.

As an example, my most recent trip to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura – I booked the flights on Black Friday for £33.00 total and I booked at times I knew I would be able to get to the airport for £4 each way.

Now, if you put this perspective I am getting to Lanzarote and back for £41.00. I mean there is other costs too but this is how cheap you can do this for. You may think OK that is cheap but what about everything else?

1 weeks accommodation has cost me £160 but here is the thing some places I go to I will pay nowhere near this. I stayed in Budapest last year for only £5 a night and EVEN got fed one night as well for free.

It is like this really – it depends on what your standards are. Before I had to get by with NO MONEY whilst away. I slept outside on a deckchair and got burnt alive. You could actually do this but I don’t recommend it lol

I actually do pay for meals and tours whilst I’m away but I’ll also just walk for miles with just a bottle of water. Not drinking alcohol as well is a great tip.

Self catering is something else – in theory you probably could have a nice cheap holiday that is quite comfortable by just doing this – I see many people do this when I travel and it could cut the money you spend whilst away DRASTICALLY! Although, to be fair I never actually stop working!

I Make Money Whilst I’m Away From eBay and Other Sources – SECRET #2

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I have personally sold on eBay for over 10 years now. It is a nuisance at times finding places where to put everything around my home I have to say but whilst, I am away even though I won’t typically sell as much this helps me out big time. I really don’t know what I’d do without it.

I will say that typically having consistent sales day to day helps.

My main tips for selling on eBay whilst on holiday are;

• #1 – Run a campaign with an ad rate of around 4%,
• #2 – End items that are ending soon manually and relist as sell similar with slight change to title and any improvements you can make
• #3 – Send offers of 5-10% off to help get items sold
• #4 – Message ALL CUSTOMERS ASAP to check they are aware you are on holiday and are happy to wait till you get back.

I have had buyers say before that it is wrong that I do this – Accept orders in the full knowledge that I WILL NOT post them until I get home from my holiday – whenever that will be but I wholeheartedly disagree – I believe that as long as you let your customers know right away this is OK to do.

They can then request to cancel if they wish to do so. I am typically asked to cancel around 10% of my orders when I do this but the best thing is that because I do this I typically don’t get bad feedback.

In my experience this is why you absolutely must check with each customer after they complete each purchase so they can make other arrangements if needs be.

So that is my main thing to share I guess but it is not all. There are many ways to make money online when your travelling. Any good hostel should have WIFI so it really is quite possible if you know how.

Ways To Make Money Online Whilst Travelling

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OK now I don’t currently (really) make any other money online besides eBay but you definitely can and I will share some ideas with you that may help;

• Sign Up For Appen.com for Online Work
• Use Social Media & Other Methods For Affiliate Marketing
• Make Profitable Investments (If You Can Find Them)
• Complete Work As A Freelancer On Fiverr etc.
• Start a Blog and Monetize it (My Future Plan)
• Find Products That Sell on Amazon FBA (Drop shipping)

So, I think going away just to work does sound like a waste of a good time, and It definitely can be. However, I do think personally – if you can do something that you know how to do well enough ONLINE that is guaranteed to pay then this will be very important for affording future trips.

Keep trying different things at home and like the saying “keep chucking mud at the wall until something sticks” that is my advice but anyway…

How Else Do I Afford To Travel?

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For my last few holidays (including this latest one) out has come the credit card. Like this I think is a terrible thing to do – its a very hard trap to get out of.

I mean I guess you could say that I can’t really afford this as well as I make out. You definitely don’t want to be becoming over reliant on loans and credit cards. Credit cards are good to have for emergencies but that is really all they should be used for.

So this is one thing but there is another thing too. Sometimes certain Duty Free products can be resold for a profit (not tobacco or alcohol – you can’t sell this without a license) but basically Retail Arbitrage you can do with other items bought from Duty Free. Perfume, Aftershave etc.

It can be a good investment to recoup some of the money you spent whilst on holiday. On YouTube there is a guy from the UK called Jon Luc (an eBay reseller) – I see last year he bought a load of baseball caps from Dubai airport for quite cheap and he was selling for about £20 a hat.

That is what I mean if I can I will keep a bit of money for the airport so I can try make some money back to cover things like my credit card.

Saving Money Whilst Away (Very Important)

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This is important too – avoid costly mistakes. Take precautions to stop you needing to pay for things that you otherwise wouldn’t have to pay. For example; missed flights, coaches or trains. Last minute arrangements, lost property, not being able to find your accommodation and so on.

I think back to my 2nd time in Prague – 5 flights I didn’t use to get home and the one I did finally use I had to owe my friend £100 for. This is no lie it was during COVID and was an absolute nightmare all because I never charged my phone – It was actually good I stayed longer but this left me with £4 to 500 debt and how easy could this have been avoided.

Also, losing my phone – I’ve done this on 3 separate occasions and this has always cost me more than just a new phone. I think forward planning can save a lot of money with travelling thus making it more affordable.

In Conclusion

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So there you have it. The cat is out the bag – about how I afford to go travelling so often lol. I think actually there is much more I can do to make this work better for me. I’m very keen to master this laptop lifestyle lark so whatever I can to make this more possible I’ll be working on.

I will be sharing another post soon about finding cheap flights – these methods mostly I am yet to test out but yes (read the post here when its published).

I mean I don’t think I’m quite there yet with comfortably affording to go away every month – at least not with getting in more debt but anyway – yes I hope this post can inspirational and helpful!

If you have any questions please ask away in the comments.

Also, if you would like to show your appreciation for my work consider buying me a coffee HERE<<

Many Thanks and Bon Voyage;

From Alex, Teddy and Colin!