MAKING YOUR TRIP HAPPEN

I really appreciate this article. I have been trying to figure out how to save money for the trip I want to take next year and this has some great tips. I’m pretty frugal with my money anyway, since I never had much of it, but I’ve been struggling to find a job recently after graduating from college and I now FINALLY have one (start tomorrow!!!) so I will finally be able to start saving up for my trip! I am going to take that advice and take a certain amount out of my check every time at the beginning to put in my savings and not even touch it, that’s a good idea!

this is great!!! we have planned a year in advance but saving has been an issue. jobs are also hard to come by where i live. I am hoping to get enough money by the time my trip comes along but i honestly dont know how much to bring. if my travel partner/ best friend and i cut down where we are going ( london, paris, venice, rome) for a month and austria, switzerland, and liechtenstein we are staying for a week or so and that is paid for all by my best friends family how much money will we need to take?? for plane, train, hostels and food and some must see items like the louve, eiffel tower, london castles and italian stuff like the museums and such?? we are trying to do the bare bare minimum as for funds. how much do u think we need?? since you know so much about saving i figure you can help us with how much to have as a grand total

its 2 people, the places i mentioned above, the activities i mentioned above, and trains, and so far i have seen the open jaw flight we need for 12-1400 bucks…can we find any better deals???
thanks so much and sorry this is so long.

I would just like to add

SAVE YOUR CHANGE!!!

it really does add up in no time.
unfortunately living on my own doesn’t allow me much money to save
which is why i’ve given myself over a year to save for it.

but i also keep all my change in a jar, and when it’s full roll the coins when i’ve nothing else to do, and deposit it in my euro trip account.

i’ve filled it up twice in the last 4 months, and have gotten roughly around 500 dollars.

and another tip

roll your coins don’t coinstar

they take away a pretty big percentage when you’ve got a lot of coins.

Great article! Another great way to make and save money for your trip is taking advantage of things you do well. For example, my husband and I are both artists, so to help fund our 3 month trip to Europe in 2011, we are selling artwork. This could work for a lot of different things! If you are a musician, play for tips or at bars for payment. People who are good at organizing could advertise your organization serves around your neighborhood for a set rate. If you love to cook, set up a small catering service for your office, or someone else’s, where employees can choose from a couple of home made items for lunch, everyday. There are a lot of resources out there for you, just be creative and do it!
—Nikki Welch www.artpieceaday.blo… www.helpshopgallery….

In regards to michellekay, my bank has a thing which is pretty much just like a coinstar except it is free to use for members at that bank. I’ve never used it but see people in there ALL the time when I go in. They don’t charge very much for non-members to use it either, maybe like 1% tops.

Also, I’ll just say this article has really helped me save alot of money I started out with about $800 in my savings account in September, and i have over $1600 now! I usually put about $100 a month in, or a little more if I can afford it. I don’t do automatic because I never know when my hours at work might get cut down for a while, but I do take money out every check and put it in my savings as soon as my check is deposited.

I am putting at least $500 per month away and the 2 months that I get three cheques the entire amount plus the $500 of that month goes away. I am lucky that I have no credit card debt or loans so it makes it easy to save. I will have $9000 when I go away for 6 weeks plus I have already paid $1400 for all my flights (to Europe plus inter Europe ones). As an added bonus I am staying with friends or family for 14-18 days of my trip so there is no cost for accomadation other than taking them out for dinner for a night.

I decided to go to Europe with friends and decided to make a little donation page to help us fund our trip. Please visit www.eurotripfund.com This is all legit. Any help is appreciated!

Hello everyone,

I am planning a trip with a friend this summer. We would like to visit Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Liverpool. I’d like to get some advices from you guys, travelers!! Do you think a budget of a 100 Euros per person a day is enough? Are we going to be able to enjoy our trip without always depriving ourselves ? We planned about 30Euros for meals, 30 for lodging and the rest for our activities and stuff. Should we plan a bigger budget ? I need some opinions!!

Thanks.

coolrachel, that sounds like a good budget to me. The euro is really low to the dollar right now so this is about $120/day for each of you, which is plenty.

BTW, just wanted to say I am definitely making my trip happen by following these steps. I have been diligently taking a certain amount out of my check every two weeks and putting it in my savings and now I am for sure going on my trip in the fall!! (Had about $1900 saved up before I bought my plane ticket last week, now I have around $1300, and still adding to it. I’m only going for two weeks though, so I only need about $1300-1400 anyway.)

I am pretty frugal anyway, so it’s been easy to save, but that doesn’t mean you have to just sit home not doing anything. I’ve still been able to go out a little and I’m also going to the beach next week with my boyfriend (granted, the condo is paid for because his parentals own it).

coolrachel95 :
when it comes down to meals its better just to find a local grocery store or even food market! they are way cheaper than 30 a day, you can even have your friends split the total if you all agree on a meal. you might be able to cut down 20 bucks if you can do it like that.
(:

hi everyone i plan on taking a eurotrip for three weeks in may… i was wondering how much money should i be saving just for expenses.. and does anyone know cheap airfare into london? ive heard of lufthansa and ive flown with them before.. please help me!

if you are a student go to www.studentuniverse…. for amazing deals on your flight, hotels, umm activities everything! i am fb friends with kayling05 and i saw that she booked her flight to london using student universe. i plan to go to london, paris and amsterdam for new years and i am booking my flight through them. i hope this helped out a little!

Yeah, Sam is right, I did use student universe, and I got my flight for 2 weeks in September (leave next week! yay!) for less than $600!!! They have really AWESOME sales sometimes, although definitely check other places in case. But you only have to be <26 years old to book the flights on SU.

i was just curious what do you think is a good amount to plan for spending a day? obviously on a budget, like $150.

oh you dont have to be a college student? thats awesome!!! now my friend Mona can travel SU!!!

Nope! I’m not a student anymore (I graduated last year) and it was really easy and simple to book it. I just had to email them a picture of my photo ID with birthday displayed (I sent them a copy of my driver’s license) and it was that simple. This is a relatively new thing they’ve started (last year maybe?) so not too many people know about it I guess. But yeah, now y’all can both try and get cheap tix on there!

to alyssalynne, depends on where you’re going and what you’re doing. On average, I’m planning to spend about $80 a day (55 pounds). That does not include my city-to-city transportation or a tour that I already bought. It does include hostels, food, and attractions and any form of intra-city transport like the tube in London. That is an AVERAGE though; in some places you’ll most likely go over, and others will probably be under. I am couch surfing in Wales so I won’t be spending near that much there (maybe $50). But in London it will probably be about $100-115 a day. It helps that a lot of the things I want to see in London are free too (British Museum, Natural History Museum, etc).

SWEET!!!! Im totally excited because my friend can get her ticket at a discount!! woo hoo!!! I think around 80-100 bucks is good too, because some thing are going to cost more than you expected and then some things you will get a break on.

I appreciate this article very much. here are many useful message, thank you!

I don’t know how it works anywhere else, but I am a Canadian student and I used my tax refund to pay for some of my trip. Now, I don’t usually get very much back from taxes but I printed a new tax form and filled in that I wanted an extra $50 a pay cheque to be given to my taxes. That way, come income tax season, I got all of that money back (because I knew they wouldn’t use that money because I make hardly any money as a student working part-time).

I LOVED doing this. I got around $1500 back (after doing this for a year) which is for the trip. It’s a great way to save money as you don’t even see that $50 until income tax season, it’s all deducted from your paycheque before you even get it. I’ve tried a “savings” account before, but if you are a bad spender like me then you know you will dip in! This way, you don’t even have the option!