When I meet people, they often ask me, why I like to travel so much, but also how I can afford travel so much. Especially whilst working full time, and fitting in a lot of other commitments.
This has many answers to it, but often my response is – how can you not afford to travel when you work full time?
Before you ask, I am not made of money. I do not get countless sponsored trips or free flights. I work an average paying job, but have just learnt to be a little savvy with where I travel, and where my money goes!
My timeline on Facebook is constantly being flooded with travel blogs, shouting at you to ‘quit your job and travel the world’ (and I did do that briefly, with no plans for what was next) and sure it was fun at the time, but I am now at the stage in my life, where I like to be grounded somewhere.
Similarly, there is a bit of trend in those who are travelling, whilst in full time work – the ‘9-5 travellers’ I like to call them, who are showing us all that it is possible to travel on a full time job.
Last year I travelled overseas six times – that is six holidays in one year, and so far this year, I have plans set in place to go to 3 new countries, and we aren’t even halfway through January yet!
If you’re in full time work, here are some ways you may be able to afford to travel
1. Planning makes it perfect!
Ok, so I have a bit of a history for not really planning. Normally, I book a flight and some place to stay and then try and “figure the rest out”. However, this has often landed me into trouble (mainly getting lost), or taking silly overpriced tours, when I could have done it myself.
The moral of the story is, actually plan and save yourself some money
- Check out reviews of your accommodation prior to going – a good place to stay, always makes for a better trip
- Check how easy/cheap it is to get from the airport to the city centre, and the price of travelling around
- If it is a short trip – create a plan, with key places you want to visit
- Look online and see if anywhere has discounts, or if there are free events happening
2. Make use of annual leave and bank (public) holidays
If you are working full time in the UK, you are entitled to 28 days of holiday per year, your employer may choose to give you bank holdays as part of this entitlement. However, as I work in the public sector. I get 27 days, plus bank holidays – that is a staggering 35 days of leave per year, in comparrison to our neighbours in Canada, which is a minimum of 9 days, plus public holidays.
So if you are in the UK, you have no excuse! It doesn’t take a genuis to work out that you can take off a Friday and a Tuesday (with a public holiday being a Monday), and have a super long weekend somewhere in Europe (I’d avoid staying in the UK, the weather is notoriously crap)
At times my life is pretty hectic, and I do travel a lot, but I truely do enjoy it, and I still get to come back to a base, a home that I am settled in, and have friends to share my stories with.
3. Think about what you spend
If you take a look in my wardrobe, you’ll see I don’t have many clothes. I can fit all of what I own in a small car, and could easily pack up my life fairly quickly. I am not attached to having stuff, and I think carefully about buying things. I buy what I need to sustain me, and for my enjoyment, and am not sucked in to buying clothes, shoes and unnecessary things.
Ways to save money to travel
- Have meal plans and only buy what you need in the supermarket for that week
- Take your own lunches to work each day (you’ll save on average £5 per day – that is £100 per month – a return flight to Europe!)
4. Use a flight comparison site
Skyscanner is my best friend – I use it almost daily. I live 10 minutes from an international airport, and so love the function of selecting ‘everywhere’ in the search, and seeing where the cheapest place to travel is. If you are flexible enough, you can easily get a cheap enough flight, for the price of what you would pay on a night out anywhere.
5. Work overseas
If you still want to travel and work a full-time job, then you may want to consider working overseas. I lived and worked (full time) in New Zealand for over two years, and loved it. In that time, I travelled the whole of the country, at my own pace, and really got into the culture there, rather than whizzing through it on a three-week break.
I also got to travel to Fiji, South Korea and Australia during my time there, which I wouldn’t have done if I was still living in the UK.
If you’re considering this, then check out my post on how to get a working holiday visa for New Zealand.
Do you work full time, but still travel? I’d love to hear how you do it too!
Some great tips for shorter trips, however working abroad really seems like the way to go, especially if you have a powerful passport! I have a few friends from South Africa and working abroad is not an option for them in many countries.
Furthermore, one could consider finding employment that allows you to work nomadically.
Jo Richards recently posted…Tribord EasyBreath Full Face Snorkel Mask Review
Hi Jo,
Thanks for your coment.
Yes I tend to agree with you. I found when living and working in New Zealand for 2 years helped me see a lot more of that side of the World, and when I decided to finally leave, I made my way back to the UK slowly via Asia, so got to see a lot more over a 5 month period.
I am not sure that I would ever consider myself as a digital nomad, as I have aged I value being in one place a little more, and making meaninful relationships.
Abbi recently posted…Why you should consider going to Prague this summer
This blog is full of inncorrect information about countries she knows nothing about. I posted a comment which has since been deleted politely detailing that in the UK the minimum holiday is actually 20 days plus 8 day’s bank holiday. I will continue to post this if it keeps being deleted until the post is amended to reflect the truth.
Hi Jessica,
Thank you for your comments, which I would like to address.
Firstly, your first comment was not deleted. All my comments sit in a moderation queue, so that I can filter out spam comments, which still happens despite having fliter plug ins. I hadn’t got round to reading your comment in which to respond to it in the first place.
Secondly, “this blog is full of incorrect information about countries she knows nothing about.” That is quite a statement for what is a minor inaccuracy on my part.
I have travelled to 45 countries, and I would say that what I have written is fairly accurate in all of my posts. I travel for my own enjoyment. It is my passion, and I write from my perspective of what I see and I do.
As for your actual annoyance with this particular post, yes I can see how what I have written is inaccurate from your point of view.
Having read information of https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights
employers should give full time employees a certain time off work:
“Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). An employer can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave.
Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days’ paid annual leave per year. This is the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of holiday.”
I recieve more leave as I work in the public health sector, and I’m aware that leave entitlement will vary slightly.
I have ammended my post only to reflect this.
I note your email addresses are different for each comment, so if you want to talk further about this, please let me know how to personally reach you.
Abbi recently posted…Come and Explore the Natural Beauty of Thailand
I was working full time in the UK and the minimum holiday your employer can give you is 20 days plus bank holidays. They can also make you take it when they see fit so my company always decide to close for 3 day’s over Christmas and made everyone take that out of their 20 days. This left me with just 17 days to do with as I wish. Could you please amend your tips as they are not achievable.
[…] I consider myself amongst the many who like doing this, and aim to be travelling at least once a month. […]
Another tip that I use a lot of the time is to leverage work trips whenever you can. By that, I mean see if you can either fly in the weekend before or come home the weekend after a scheduled work trip whenever you get the opportunity. The company is going to cover your flight, anyway, so you just need to find cheap accomodation (like a hostel or budget hotel), and be smart about what you see, do, and eat while in the area.
I’ve used this opportunity many times in the past 10 years with my former employers to see quite a variety of the United States ranging anywhere from San Francisco and Los Angeles to San Antonio, Indianapolis, and Atlanta just to name a few. Hell, I even leveraged a work trip to Paris by flying in the Thursday before so I could have a solid 4 days to explore the city with a few of my colleagues before our Sales meetings were to start the following Monday.
So yes, leverage work trips when you can and if you can!
Hi Ray – great tips! Sadly in my line of work, I don’t get many work trips – at least not overseas. One day maybe 😉
Safe travels
Abbi
Abbi recently posted…Brightening up winter with Lumiere London
I really do need to work on the spending one. Always spending money. Still, when it comes to planning trips, I become more and more frugal, while still enjoying life a bit. 🙂
Henry recently posted…Cairns! Bungee Jumping with AJ Hackett (Nov 9)
Hi Henry – I am totally with you. I try and save as much as I can on accommodation, flights and the actually travelling part of it, so I can spend the rest of my hard earned money on activities!
Safe travels this year!
Abbi
Abbi recently posted…Brightening up winter with Lumiere London