03
Mar
Dear Kathryn: All of my friends are starting to plan their summer vacations already. I’m not going to be able to take my family on vacation this summer and I’m feeling pretty depressed about that. We also didn’t get to go on our usual Christmas vacation because money is too tight right now. Is there any way to fit in a family vacation even though this year’s budget says that it’s not going to happen? If not, can I do anything to stop feeling so jealous that other people have money to spend on their trips?
Hi! This topic is something that’s been coming up around here a lot lately. Travel is something that people realize is a luxury so they know that it is one of the things that needs to be cut out of the budget when money gets tight. However, we also know that we need travel breaks in order to give some fun and adventure to our lives. We get that travel bug inside of us and end up spending a lot of money on impulsive vacations because we just can’t stick to our commitment not to travel anywhere this year.
There are definitely a lot of things that you can do to save money if you do travel but it sounds like you’re pretty sure that a vacation isn’t in your near future. This can be disappointing but it’s also manageable. The best trick that I have found in regards to this is to find inexpensive ways to curb the travel bug so that you don’t feel cheated out of travel entirely but you also don’t blow a lot of money on big trips.
Here are some of the things that I do on a regular basis to curb that travel bug. Maybe some of these things will help you to feel better about not taking a vacation this year.
Put together a travel scrapbook for a destination that you really want to go to someday. I believe that the easiest way to curb the travel bug is to convince yourself that eventually, someday, there is going to be enough money to travel again. One of the ways that I do this is to create travel scrapbooks for places that I’d like to visit. I spend a little bit of time each week doing research to put together the scrapbook so that it feels like I’m doing real vacation planning. I look up restaurants and hotels and attractions and tours for the place that I’m interested in visiting. I put together a few different alternative itineraries. I hunt down pictures from people who have been there (Flickr is a great resource for that) and print have great scrapbooks for Reykjavik, Iceland and Buenos Aires, Argentina. It will be a little while before I can actually afford to go to those places but it was really fun planning them out. And I’ll have some insight into how to travel frugally there when I do finally have some money to make those trips!
Join or form a travel book club. One of the things that I have always really loved about travel is that I get to meet new people from diverse backgrounds who share some of the same interests that I do. A travel book club is a great way to get that benefit of travel without actually spending the money on a trip. Reading travel memoirs and then discussing them with a group can bring the same kind of adventure and newness to your life that you get from a trip. And you can do it every week or every month without spending almost any money at all!
Become a tourist in your own city. Another great thing about travel is that it gives us an excuse to go do those things that we don’t otherwise do – go to museums, check out historic landmarks, hike obscure trails. We do these things during travel because we have the downtime to do them and because we feel compelled to participate in the tourist activities at our destination. But why not invest the time to be a tourist in our own hometowns? All towns have little things that people visit when they come to the area for the first time. Think that’s not true of your place? I recently visited a small town in Midwest America where everyone told me there was nothing to do. As a tourist there, I discovered a really cool jewelry making shop, a tour of a local farm, a set of antique stores and a wilderness trail that were all fun to check out. Don’t underestimate your hometown or the towns close to you. Head to your local visitor’s center and start taking mini-vacations in the place where you live.
Travel in your own kitchen. I don’t know about you but another thing that I love about travel is food. I don’t remember much about my first trip to San Francisco but I do remember the amazing lemon crepes that I had in a French restaurant there. And sometimes I find that recreating exotic foods from interesting travel destinations in my own home can give me some of the sense that I’m traveling even though I’m not leaving home. Investing in a good cookbook for foreign foods and the ingredients for a great meal is usually a lot cheaper than travel and well worth the cost.
Host a themed party for a favorite travel destination. This combines some of the great things about the book club idea with some of the nice things about foreign foods. Throw a party in your home – preferably a potluck to cut on costs – that is themed around a destination that appeals to you. Make your own decorations based on the area. For example, if you want to go to Mexico but can’t afford to, make some piñatas and get some beach decorations and do up your home Cancun-style. Invite your friends to come in costumes themed for the night and make your own cheap costume to get in the mood. Food and music from the destination will complete the night. This is something you can probably afford to do every few months and you may find that your friends are soon talking more about their parties than their own vacation plans!
The main reason that most of us want to travel is because we want to have new experiences. However, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to explore new worlds. You simply have to use your imagination and start getting excited about visiting places in your mind and in your hometown. This doesn’t mean that you won’t ever travel again but it will help to hold off that urge until there is more money in your bank account. Hopefully you’ll get so immersed in making travel scrapbooks and going to your book club that you don’t feel any kind of jealousy when your friends are planning their same-old-same-old annual vacations for this summer.
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