How To: Save Money

Somewhere on the list of questions people either ask or WANT (but are too shy) to ask is:  “How are you paying for all of this?” Well, there are a couple facets to this question for us: points and saving cold hard dough. Let’s take a closer look at saving money.

Analyze Expenses

The first step for us was to analyze our current living expenses. Look at how much you’re spending on rent/mortgage, utilities, food, clothes, etc. Map it out as accurately as you can. We used Mint to track our finances, and over a couple of months we were able to develop a pretty good snapshot of our typical budget. This allowed us to easily look for opportunities to cut our current expenses and get a better handle on where our money was going. We analyzed our budget with a fine-toothed comb over the course of 6 months to really understand our spending and fine tune our plan for decreasing expenses. Knowledge is power!

Plan Ahead

The next piece to this is planning ahead; for us this meant VERY far ahead. We’ve known we wanted to do something like this long before we even got married. Week 2 of dating went something like this…

Kelly: I’m planning on living abroad again or at least going on a really cool giant trip.

Adam: …aaand we’re probably already behind in saving for a goal like that.

Having such a long prep period for our big “something” has really helped us have a financial focus to squirrel money away. Even if we didn’t know the structure the trip would take, we’ve had a separate “travel fund” since our first joint checking account. We’ve worked to save money over the years both with big ticket items and small ticket items. Here are just a couple examples:

Car: We both drive old cars. Current total estimated value – about $3500. For both cars. Old cars have low insurance and cheaper cars tend to have cheaper upkeep. Sure, the AC may not work, no power locks, and we’ve been fearful at times that we wouldn’t make it home from a long distance vacation drive… but dang, having junkers has helped us tuck some major money away. Even if your sister-in-law begs you to buy a new one because you have the money, or people have stopped you in the mall parking lot asking if you’d like your car dents fixed… stand strong… you’ve got a trip to save for! Bonus perk – they help you blend in more at Aldi!

Aldi/food: Aldi could have it’s own dedicated post on savings, but I will control myself. Aldi is amazing. Seriously, if you’ve never gone – stop reading this article and go straight to Aldi. It’s LIFE CHANGING. It has helped us drastically cut grocery costs. We also still frequent Kroger… which is usually pricier than Aldi, but remains less expensive than if we had a penchant for Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. Additionally we’ve focused on not buying food out if we already have it at home. An excerpt from a real conversation:

Kelly: Hey Adam, I noticed on Mint that you got some breakfast at Au Bon Pain this week. Did you not notice the fresh delightful Aldi brand bagels I bought for you?

Adam: Argh! It’s a bagel! Leave me be, woman! 

(Notably he did eat the bagels the following week and didn’t get breakfast sandwiches out).

So plan early and save save save – there are TONS of online resources out there to help. Adam particularly enjoyed some of the finance subreddits on Reddit, as well as videos on Khan Academy for learning more about financial basics (he actually got quite obsessed for a period, which ended up being super helpful). Learning, studying, and saving years in advance of the trip has helped us have our ducks in a row.

Partnering Up

Another key for us was having the same focus. It was a true partner effort. Adam ran the monthly spreadsheets to keep an eye on our savings, and we explicitly discussed any large ticket purchases in terms of how it might impact our trip. Additionally we both worked hard to cut extra cost, and if we both hadn’t been on the same “saving” page, it would’ve been a much harder effort. Adam even drew one of those segmented goals thermometer posters on the fridge that I got to color in as we went along to help keep me motivated to save. I stalked Mint like a weirdo and cut out some of my bigger spending areas that would help save money and help form new habits (make-up, clothes, fancy shampoos, etc.). We helped each other stay the course.

Responsible Saving

We didn’t want to be fiscally irresponsible with our trip planning by going into debt or not being able to contribute to our retirement accounts, so the years and years of saving have also allowed us to be as smart as possible in this regard. Had we just decided last year to go on this trip, it wouldn’t have been possible to do it as responsibly as we are. Or we would’ve had to travel to fewer countries to save money. We let our savings help determine the pace of our travel. We prioritized debt reduction and retirement savings over the number of countries. I wouldn’t advocate taking a trip like this without having a solid financial foundation in place.

In short… it takes time. Start early, save often, and stay responsible. (And cut up that Starbucks rewards card.)

-Kelly