Enjoying simple but cheap pleasures like a boat ride in Brunei Bay helps me to save money for more travels in the future,
Note: Between Deadlines is a series of posts that I wrote, while literally chasing deadlines as a working journalist, last month when I joined Bootsnall's #Doyouindie travel writing challenge. Every day, for 30 days, Bootsnall emails a question (and challenge) which a participating travel blogger has to ponder on and write about. Everything of course is related to independent travel. I joined the challenge because I want to kickstart my travel blogging mojo again, which has been sidelined by other concerns. I unfortunately wasn't able to publish any of this last November (again too much work and a bit of procrastinating). But with work slowing down for the Christmas season, I am finally posting them. Nope, I didn’t answer all 30 questions, but only chose those which I believe are personally relevant and can help all you Gypsy Gals craft your own journeys.
QUESTION: When you are getting ready to travel what can you do to cut back on your expenses? Is there anything you do differently before you travel versus during?
When it comes to travel money – either saving money for my travels or making do with what I have while traveling – I have three simple rules:
1. Splurge on things that I care about and scrimp or forego things that aren't important for me.
2. Increase my income so that I'll have the luxury of indulging in my travels.
3. Practice gratitude for my financial blessings.
This year has been especially tight for me as I'm now more financially-conscious as I just got a mortgage to invest on a shop house, building an ermergency fund and paying off some credit card debts. Of course financial mamagement also entails cutting down on travels, but it is something also that I didn't entirely give up this year as I even had to fly to KL twice this year to attend a workshops conducted by spirtuality teachers (This is simply non- negotiable).
In order to save up, I had to either give up on things that I don't care about or look for cheap or free alternative to things that I want.
The joys of cooking and brown bagging:
I seldom dine out and often brown bag my lunch and dinner. This is of course not much of a problem as I live near the office, hence giving me enough time to prepare meals. I also cook big batches of food that I keep in the fridge (pesto, tomato-based pasta sauces, adobo!) and just reheat a portion when I need them. I have a bamboo steamer (yup that one used for cooking dumplings) so I just cook a big batch of brown rice on weekends, put them in a friedge and reheat a cup rice in my bamboo steamer. There's also a grocery nearby hence it's easy to stock up.
I'm a fairly average cook but managed to improve my culinary skills by reading old cook books and food blogs, watching YouTube videos, asking friends for advice. Aslso lots of trial and error mostly because I had to twist recipes by using substitutes as some of the ingredients listed in the recipes are either not available or too expensive in Brunei. For example, you can't buy basil leaves here, but I learned from a friend that I can use the widely-available (and cheap!) parsley to satisfy my craving for pesto. And yes, it works!
No new bags, no new shoes:
This is to me the easiest as there aren't a lot of options here in Brunei. Usually I just shop when I travel and even with that, I either buy the more affordable brands (no designer brands for this Gypsy Gal) or trawl some street stalls for unique but cheap stuff.In fact, one of my all-time favourite buys is this hippy dippy pants I bought more than 10 years ago at a street stall in Khao San.
It also helps that I use either cash or debit cards when shopping for fashion items as this keeps me from spending a lot. I know that credit cards are my weakness. I tend tro treat them as free money, always forgetting to thibk that if I carry a balance, the interest alone will kill me.
I also used this cool money saving trick I just picked up from Kate Northrup's book "Money: A Love Story". It's called the "money for me account" wherein you open a separate savings account, and every time you stop yourself from spending money on something unnecessary, you put that amount of money that you were supposed to spend on the "money for me account", hence saving that money. I tweaked it a bit by using cash and use my ang pao envelopes. Whenever I stop myself from buying another cute top, I put that amount in my ang pao envelope which I has since christened as blessings for me envelope. I actually managed to save about 30 dollars by the end of the month. Not much but 30 dolars here can buy me groceries for a week or two (if I stretch it).
Forget the gym, get into zumba instead!
Gym membership costs over $100 a month – which is ok if i go to the gym every day (which I don't ), hence my decision to do more zumba instead at a nearby studio which only charges $5 per session. If the zumba sesion doesn't fit my sched I either jog or bellydance in front of my net bok using this dowloaded videos from Moroccan bellydancer Tizza Rose. Sometimes, instead of munching mindlessly in front of the TV, I do jumping jacxks or run around the living room or get out my yoga mat for some ab crunches.
Do the side hustle
Writing has always been my best and most marketable skill. Thankfully, that skill- combined with my passion for journalism and connections with other editors – has allowed me to get some 'rakets' on the side. Recently, however, I limit my side projects to once or twice a month as I want to have a more work-life balance, take better care of my health, travel and write.
Altar of Goddess Lakshmi – the Hindu Goddess of Abundance and Prosperity at House of Kite in KL. Goddess Lakshmi helped me have all the abundance in my life.
Trust the Goddess and perform abundance rituals
I have a gratitude journal where all the things I'm grateful for every day. Yup every single thing – whether big (like getting a raise) or small (like having the time and money to buy myself a latte while doing nothing during my day off). I pray and offer candles, incense and fruit to Godesses in my personal altar and manifest my financial needs with the help of the Goddess energy.
I again took a leaf from Kate Northrup's book by getting a printout of my ATM statement, staple it at my journal and at the bottom of the page write: "Thank you for blessings received." No matter what is the amount. I'm always thankful that money is coming into my ATM because I have a job that pays the bills, keeps me healthy and happy and indulge me with my love for travels.
