Budget Travel: Why you Don't Need as Much Money as you Think

My friends keep asking me where I get all the money from to be able to travel as much as I do. I must be rich to afford all this. Oh, how wrong they are to be thinking that. (Sorry, friends!).

Here's a little secret: I'm not rich. My monthly budget is about 750€ (you wouldn't call that rich, would you?). Yet, I travel. I travel a lot. So how do I do it?

Don't see traveling as an expense, see it as a long-term investment into your future. When I'm buying a plane ticket, I'm not really thinking about the money I "had to" spend. Instead, what I see is how that new journey, those new adventures, will actually make me RICHER. I'm not 'losing' anything. That's the thing about traveling, you can only gain. There's this cheesy quote telling you that "Travel is the only thing you buy, that makes you richer" - I fully agree. Traveling changes you. You grow with every journey. Your horizon widens. Your priorities change. At the end of each trip, you'll be more independent, more appreciative, have friends all over the world, and you'll simply be a happier person - truly rich.

Reconsider your Priorities

Consider this: Why not save on that cute little dress? Anyway, it's the 20th in your closet and who are we kidding: If you happen to live in one of the colder countries of our world, will there ever be enough sunny days to wear all those 20 dresses, 10 hot pants, 5 skirts and 50 tops? And you always end up wearing only your favorite pieces anyway, right? If you make traveling your priority and save on things like that huge flatscreen TV or the new iPhone, you'll end up having those 700€ you need to buy yourself a plane ticket to pretty much anywhere in the world.

Personally, I'm happy without a TV - instead of wasting my time on watching all this bullshit on free TV (in Germany, we call it Hartz IV TV), I much more enjoy reading through travel blogs or remembering my own adventures while going through my collection of travel photos. Try tracking your expenses a little and figure out where you can save some money. Maybe you don't really need that monthly magazine subscription? Your winter coat is good enough for one more season?

Original Article Source:  Budget Travel: Why you Don't Need as Much Money as you Think