The 7 mindset shifts that’ll help you save for your upcoming travels

If you’re already trying to conjure up ways to fund your travels faster, we won’t bother you with the obvious. You don’t need us to tell you to set aside a certain amount every month to go toward travel goals or to opt for frugal accommodations over luxury hotels.

The following practices and mindset hacks, on the other hand, might be the missing key to unlocking the funds required to enjoy an unforgettable trip abroad. Sometimes all it takes is a new way of looking at your situation in order to expedite a goal, whether that’s travel-related or otherwise.

These tried-and-true mindset hacks help us travel regularly without constantly stressing about finding the money. From switching up your social media following, to decluttering your space at home, here are seven clever hacks to fund your travels faster:

Practice gratitude

The biggest difference you can make when working toward a financial goal is to cultivate a regular gratitude practice. You have to be grateful for what you’ve got in order to get to where you want to be without unnecessary stress.

Practicing gratitude for what you’ve got and the path you’re on allows you to see exactly what matters in your life—and in turn, will make it easier to focus on non-material things in your life.

It might sound a little woo-woo but bringing the focus back to the small things you love—whether at home or abroad—through gratitude for everyday life allows you to improve your focus and put the blinders on to filter out unnecessary or distracting noise.

Consume financial literacy content every day

It’s not all about finances and budgeting—but being at least somewhat knowledgeable about the financial landscape and your own personal finances will certainly help push the needle further toward your monetary goals.

Whether it’s financial podcasts, Facebook groups, financial YouTubers, business-focused literature, or all of the above, the amount of finance-focused content out there makes it incredibly accessible for people at any level of financial literacy to improve and foster a better understanding of how money works (and how it can work for you).

Consuming even just a few minutes of finance content everyday will help keep you motivated to save and create a sense of community that you can lean on when you feel like you need a sounding board.

Re-think your social media use

Social media is a great tool for planning travel—but it can also be the difference between having a budget-friendly trip or accidentally overspending on Instagram-famous activities or restaurants.

If you like to plan your trips using social media for recommendations or inspiration, consider unfollowing the travel influencers that flood your feed and instead join destination-specific Facebook groups or opt to follow locals instead.

This shift in your social media feed means you won’t be exposed to the same volume of hosted trips in five-star properties nor pricey venues made famous for their aesthetic. Following everyday people who live in your dream destination means you’ll get on-the-ground recommendations from those who know the place best—which are almost always going to be a fraction of the cost of what you see from influencers who are paid to promote specific places.

Consider journaling

Don’t knock it until you try it—journalling can be an incredibly powerful tool for working through roadblocks or simply zeroing in on your goals. For example, if you’re struggling to squirrel away the funds as quickly as you like, journalling on your favourite travel memories can be a great way to take the focus back on why you’re making sacrifices in the first place.

If you’re running into roadblocks with your savings goals (like getting distracted by impulse purchases or losing motivation) it can also be worth writing out what you’re feeling during those times and reflecting on what emotions or events might be triggering the urge to pump the breaks on your savings plan in favour of short term dopamine-driven spending.

Declutter your space

Decluttering your space can be a direct path to increasing your travel funds if you take the time to list and sell the items you’re no longer using.

But working toward a more minimalist lifestyle is worth even more than the pocket change you’ll make from selling your unwanted clutter.

If you take a serious look at the items you have in your home and work toward paring down to only the items you actually use and love, it’ll start to unlock a deeper understanding of what you actually need to be happy and in turn you’ll likely want for less, spend less, and shift your priorities to collecting experiences over material items.

Consider slow travel

If you’re fortunate enough to take extended time away from work, or even better, if you’re location-independent and can work remotely, one of the best ways to fund a trip is to slow travel your way through a destination or country and simply live like you would at home.

This is especially economical if you don’t have overhead to pay back home (see: rent or a mortgage) but even if you do, it may still be feasible.

Depending on where you’re travelling, the cost of a month’s rent might be little more than a couple nights in a mid-tier hotel. As many backpackers have discovered, there’s also the option to volunteer in exchange for accommodation and if you’re slow travelling, you’ll have the time to spare without feeling like work is causing you to miss out on adventure.

Create a budget (hear us out!)

Okay, okay. We said we wouldn’t state the obvious. If you’ve made it this far, you probably already have some kind of a budget in place. But try and take it one step further—track your spending line-by-line on a daily basis and break down exactly what you spend with each transaction.

This will allow you to see where you might be overspending; there could be habits or routine spending you’re not aware of until you come face-to-face with it.

For example, you might have a set amount in your budget for groceries, and sure, you stick within budget every month, but take a closer look and you might find you’re actually spending more on conveniences like pre-made meals, those sneaky packaged snacks at the checkout, and booze or other indulgences. These things that are hiding in your larger budget category could be cut from your grocery list and put toward your travel funds.