How not to broke your savings while Traveling
- Teresa Jardin
- Apr 1, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 1, 2021
Traveling, for most of us, has always been considered a luxury. When I was young, I used to imagine myself going places, experiencing culture, tasting different cuisines and feeling the vibe of a foreign land. It took a while before I actually realized that dream, of course I had to finish college, get a nice paying job, and consistently set aside a portion of my salary to fund my dream destination. I can vividly remember my first out of the country tour. It was Hong Kong, way back in 2014 for a company outing. I was this new addition to the company, so it leaves me no choice but to show camaraderie, and just say yes to whatever there is. My supervisor then told me that the package alone would cost almost Php15,000 excluding pocket money and Disney Land. Yes! You heard me right the travel package my company get doesn't include a tour to Disney Land. The itinerary comprises a classic city tour and a round-trip day tour in Macao. All in all, the experience is fun because of my officemates, but the travel expenses alone made me broke for the next six months that if it wasn't for the Christmas Bonus, I won't be able to get my savings uplfoat.
After that savings breaker travel, I opted to go for local tours. I told myself, maybe travelling internationally was not for me yet. While drafting my itinerary for the 5-day Ilocos Norte adventure I stumble upon the Facebook page of DIY Philippines. It in an exclusive group for people who want do travels in budget. This page revolutionizes domestic tourism as a whole. You can literally find every bits of information you might need before actually going to your travel destination. With that, I spent the next two years travelling locally, putting into practice all those travels tips and hacks I read from a blog and slowly I learned not to spend too much while traveling without sacrificing all that touristy experience. Then towards the end of 2016, travel became an upward trend, commercial flights are no longer luxurious, aviation companies are offering promos left and right giving more people the chance to not just see the beauty of our country but to experience it as well.
Through years of traveling domestically, I soon discovered to myself an effective way to travel without getting your wallet broke. And then I made a decision to apply those learnings on foreign travels simply because why not? I realized, if we have public transportation, so are they; if we have carenderias, our Filipino version of hole-in-the-wall kind of food house, so are they and if we have cheap hostels, I am 100% sure they do have it too. I first tried all this self-made theory when I volunteered to organize a Do-It-Yourself group travel for my company outing. Yes we are doing it again after 4 years! And this time, it is going to be Taiwan. I picked Taiwan for a lot of reasons, especially because it's a laid back Chinese community with great food (I love Chinese food, that's no argument), nice view and cold weather. We opted to travel on first week of April, the perfect season for it's the beginning of Spring in Taiwan. And as I mentioned volunteer, I did all the research involved on where to stay, what food to try, where to go and all the errands that might happen along the way. Also, I told myself I am not going to spend more than Php5,000 for this trip, that excluding airfare and accommodation since it's been subsidized by the company. In the end, I go a little over my budget but still additional Php1,000 isn't that bad for an emergency fund.
After this successful Taiwan trip, I gain the confidence to plan another out-of-the-country travel via DIY. Whenever I felt afraid about the thought of a possible mishaps due language barrier, I would think of the time when a crew served me a hot tea instead of cold milk tea and I decided to let it slip, since both are drinkable and that is an opportunity to extend kindness to other people. Whenever I felt anxious about the thought of getting lost, my mind automatically went to that night in Taipei when I and my closest officemate decided to tour around the night market via commuting the public train. And when unexpected things get too overwhelming to handle, time and time again be it domestic or foreign travel, humanity will always be your rescue. That actually is the beauty of traveling, to experience kindness and joy from people you just met. Two years after, I was able to score a Php2.00 round-trip base fare to a 5-days, 4 nights stay in Bali, Indonesia. Another year later I did travel for a week with a Php2,500 pocket money including meals and transportation in Hanoi, Vietnam. All and all, just before shuts down the tourism industry, I am grateful that I get to experience traveling around Southeast Asian Countries and can truly say to myself that going places need not to broke your savings. You just need to have a detailed budget and stick to it.
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