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One of the worst things to do is to get stuck in the routine of everyday life. We get up, go to work, have dinner, and go to bed, only to wake up the next day and do it all over again.
Sometimes it feels like we are just stuck in a rut.
To get out of this rut, it helps to change things up. We could go on adventures in our own town, go on a short weekend trip, or just take a day off from work. But sometimes, to really change things up, we may want to go on an Epic Adventure!
I’m talking about an adventure that we will remember forever. Maybe it’s a hike on the Appalachian Trail, a trip to Thailand, or biking down the coast of California. We want to see the world and go beyond the confines of our own town or state.
My family and I did this two years ago when we went on a 23-day trip to the western part of the United States. In just this 3 week time period, we saw 5 national parks, Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, and even a solar eclipse. It was an epic adventure that we will remember for the rest of our lives!
We are also planning on a similar adventure when we go to Hawaii this summer for 13 days. Although our exact itinerary isn’t known yet, we know that our adventure will be absolutely EPIC!
However, there are two huge things that stand in the way of epic adventures; time and money. Even though my wife and I are both teachers, it is still difficult to get away for weeks at a time, especially since our kids are getting older and getting involved in more activities.
Although time is an issue, money may even be a bigger thing that stands in the way of our epic adventures. For instance, taking a family to Hawaii for 13 days could easily cost $10,000-$15,000. To a middle class family making $80,000 or so per year, this epic adventure to Hawaii will be extremely cost prohibitive and may never even happen.
However, with the philosophy of Life Before Budget, I realize that we should never have money stand in the way of anything that we truly would love to do.
Therefore, it makes sense for us to find a way to have an epic adventure without having to pay for it with debt for the next several years. Here are just a few things that we can do to save for our next epic adventure.
Saving Option #1: Question the Cost
Probably the most important thing is to first question the cost. I mentioned that it may cost $10,000-$15,000 for a family to travel to Hawaii, but does it have to cost that much?
This amount may include a helicopter ride, private surfing lessons, staying at an all-inclusive resort on the beach, and attending a luau. Although each of these might be ¨typical¨ things that a Hawaiian vacation ¨should¨ include, perhaps they are not right for you.
Instead of a helicopter ride, you may want to hike or kayak, so that you can truly get a feel for the landscape. Instead of staying at an all-inclusive resort or getting private surfing lessons, you may want to rent someone´s house who already owns some surfboards. A luau would be a lot of fun, but you can probably get a similar cultural experience by looking for a free show in the park or a shopping mall.
Definitely do not forgo things that you really want to do on your epic adventure, but also do not do something just because everyone else is!
The last thing that we want to do is book our trip so full with activities that we forget to have any fun!
Saving Option #2: Save Money Every Month
After we question the cost of our epic adventure, we will probably realize that we will still need to save some money for our trip. Although my wife and I were able to travel to New York City for $22.40, this is definitely not typical for most vacations.
One way to save for our epic adventure is to save money for it every month. We can do this by treating it just like any other normal expense, such as the mortgage or the electrical bill.
If we want to go on an epic adventure that will cost $4,000 next year, then we need to save $300-400 per month.
I put money that my wife and I save into an online savings account like Capital One 360 so I can earn a 2% interest rate on it, but you may just want to put it in a shoebox in your closet. Either way, by treating our adventure fund as a normal bill, we will be able to save enough for our Epic Adventure.
Saving Option #3: Save Money From the Normal Budget
Sometimes it might be pretty difficult to find money to set aside every single month without slowing down our debt repayment schedule or making it difficult to pay our normal bills. Despite this, we still want to save up some money for an epic adventure.
If this is the case, then we may try to eliminate some of our smaller, daily expenses and save money more gradually. Just by lowering our grocery bill by 20%, not going out to lunch so often, or driving a few less miles, we may be able to save $20 or $40 per week.
Saving a few bucks per week may take a little bit more time than saving hundreds of dollars per month, but eventually this will allow us to save enough money for our epic adventure.
With our upcoming trip to Hawaii, we have been trying to save $50 extra per week. Although, this does not place a huge dent in our weekly budget, it will allow us to have $1,500-$2,000 extra saved by the time we actually go on the trip.
Savings Option #4: Use Reward Points
No matter where we decide to travel, our biggest expense will usually be the transportation to get there and accommodations. If we can save money on these two items, the price of our epic adventure will decrease by 50% or even more.
Often we can save money on our transportation expenses by driving instead of flying. We can save money on accommodations by staying in less pricey hotels, condos, or houses.
We can also save money by using credit card reward points to get free flights, rooms, or large discounts on these items. These savings can often be the difference between being able to go on an epic adventure that is a bit more pricey versus being forced to settle for something that is in our price range.
For my family, it would be real difficult to spend $10,000 or $15,000 on our trip to Hawaii. However, by using reward points, we were able to get 5 round trip plane tickets for $56 total. And we saved a substantial amount on our accommodations. This makes our trip much more affordable. It also makes our trip possible!
If you want to find our more about using credit card reward points for free travel, just check out this in depth article that I wrote. It will tell you exactly what you should do to get started. You can also find out more about one of my favorite cards called the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on your travel.
Savings Option #5: Replace a Fixed Expense
Even after reading about the first four options, you may feel like there is just no room in the budget for an epic adventure. However, you know that you really want to have one that may cost a bit of money.
At this point, it may mean that we have to take ¨drastic¨ measures so that we can save for our adventure. One of these drastic things that we can do is to eliminate one of our fixed expenses. After we eliminate one of these expenses, we can use the money that we saved to pay for our epic adventure.
Some of our expenses that we could eliminate include the following:
- Our car expense. Even if you do not have a car payment, selling an expensive car and buying a cheaper one will save a lot of money. If you do have a car payment, buying a more affordable car will eliminate this payment and allow you to save it instead.
- The cable bill. Even switching from an expensive cable company to a less expensive option such as Hulu or YouTube TV can save hundreds of dollars per year.
- Expensive home and car insurance. Just by shopping around, we will usually be able to save hundreds of dollars per year.
- A gym membership. Even switching to a lower cost gym can save a lot of money.
- An expensive cell phone plan. Switching from a company like Verizon to a lower cost provider can save a lot of money.
- Our debt. Once we eliminate our debt, we can save the amount that we used to pay on our debt bill.
Overall
Although it can be tough to save for an epic adventure, it will probably be one of the things that we remember the most in our lives. It can also be just the thing that we need to break us out of the everyday rut.
Keep in mind that we first want to lower the cost as much as possible by questioning the costs of everything on our trip and using credit card reward points. After that, we can use the simple strategies discussed in this article to save for this epic adventure.
So … have you gone on an epic adventure? Or are you planning one soon? Let us know in the comments.
And thanks for reading!
~Nathan
Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?
- You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
- You can get motivated and get out of debt.
- You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.
But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!
