Every normal person has a bucket list. For most of us our bucket list is filled with travel plans. You do not want to be the one person who could only afford one day out of the five days planned for a trip by your friends. You also do not want to be the person who stays at home and has never traveled anywhere in their life. To be able to achieve most things that need a sizeable amount of money, you need to save up. To get the most out of your trip you will need money and this is how to get the money without robbing people or asking for help.
1. Use the Lock account Feature
There is this feature by Safaricom that enables you to save up your money. This feature gives you an option of specifying the number of months you want to have your money locked up. The money will be made available to you after those days are over. If you have a trip scheduled in three months’ time, you can lock up your money for three months and you will not be able to use the money before the three months are over. It is a pretty neat idea.
2. Cut back on unnecessary things
Sometimes just to make your friends envy your lifestyle or to make yourself look like you come from money, you splurge on unnecessary things. You may buy a vase or a flower pot that you do not need. I am talking about this because I almost bought a garden ornament and I do not own a garden. It was a really cute garden ornament. A second television that will not add any value to the house of one you currently live in. if you do not need an item, do not buy it and save that money for your planned trip.
3. Eat in
We like blaming fatigue and a lot other things on the reason we take pizza or dine at a hotel 3 times a week. Learn to cook if you do not know how and if you do, eat in. Buying ingredients for a home cooked meal will end up saving you a lot of money in the long run.
4. Carry food from home
Instead of buying food at your workplace cafeteria you can carry your own food. Most workplaces have an area with a microwave where you can warm your food. This will save you a lot of lunch money that can be put in your trip fund collection tin.
5. Utilize OLX
Remember the vases and flower pots I talked about that you never use because you don’t own flowers, post them on OLX. There are a lot of things that you can sell in your house. Find them, take pictures and post them on OLX and get some extra cash for your trip and de-clutter your house at the same time. It is a win-win situation.
6. Open a savings account for your trip
If your trip requires a lot of money, you can open a savings account and only deposit money towards your trip. This will require a lot of discipline so that you do not withdraw the money for something else.
7. Use your car less
The amount of fuel you use for your daily commutes is a lot compared to the amount of fare you would pay. Use public transport more, be it matatus or trains just use it and save up the difference. I do not promise for pleasant experiences but you surely will have more money saved up after this.
8. Try making money on the side
Find a way to make extra cash. It can be by using your talent or business acumen. You can be a freelance and sign up to sites like oDesk and get some jobs to do. You can also get a part-time job or an online job that pays something small that can contribute to your travel fund.
9. Save as a group
When you save alone you have the temptation of using the money for something else. When you save as a group, the other members will keep you in check. You can have a central location of where to put the money or you can just give each other motivation to save up.
10. Have a vision for your trip
Having a vision for your trip and knowing what you want to get out of that trip will make you save better. If it is the Mara, you might have gone a few times but have not used the Hot air balloon and this time you want to use it. This will make it easier to save as you can now picture what you want out of your trip.
These are tips you can use for your travel trip or for any other thing you might want to achieve in life.
