28 Budget Travel Hacks When You're Broke AF

Hello and welcome to House Next to Globe. My name is Kristen Sarah and if you're new to this channel, welcome to the tribe. On this channel you can expect lots of travel hacks, advice, inspiration, tiny house living inspiration as well. So if you like all that, don't forget to subscribe and click that notification bell so you don't miss out when we release a new video. Using the incognito window. Websites have a cheeky way of knowing what they've quoted you in the past and will hike up the price when you return back if you have not booked yet. So in order to make things competitive and cheap, make sure you are browsing on the hush. Try couch surfing or stay in hostels or airbnbs if you want to save money. It's a great way to not just save money but also stay in local neighborhoods and get that local feel that us travelers seek out. Also in airbnbs and couch surfing or in someone else's house and hostels, you have access to a kitchen so you can go to a grocery store, a local grocery store, and cook your food back at your place so you don't have to spend three times, four times the money out at a restaurant. Take a free class or go on a free tour. One of the many amazing things about hostels, because there are quite a few things that I absolutely love, is usually at the front lobby there's a bulletin board and on that bulletin board they post things that are happening within the community, within the hostel, and many times those things are free classes that you can participate in or free walking tours of the city you're staying in. Just a way to get all the travelers together and create that sense of community that we all absolutely love when we travel. If you want to get an authentic experience and also save money, go where the locals go. The locals know best. They don't just know where the best food is but they know where the best bang for your buck is so get to know the locals or start a conversation with a local and ask them where the best place to get local cuisine is. And many times I've found myself at a little stall on the street eating like this delicious street food that cost me next to nothing and ends up being one of the best meals I've had on that trip. Work for a free room and board. Most of the time hostels are run by travelers who have been passing through, decide to stay for a couple of months, and end up working at the hostel for a free room and board. So if you don't really have a schedule and a time frame for your travels, you can extend those travels or save money on your travels by working at a hostel, working at the front desk, or making up the rooms or whatever. Another option is like woofing where you're working on a farm in exchange for food and a stay as well. There are so many other options and I've actually included those options in another video that you can check out. I'll leave a link in the description box below. Choose cheaper destinations. If you are on a tight budget, don't go to Europe because it's going to cost you a lot more and you're not going to have as much time to travel as if you were to go to somewhere like Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, where you can really really stretch your budget. I would say from experience that I would be able to spend the same amount of money spending maybe two weeks in Europe and doing like the same kind of activities eating the same amount of food as I could spend staying like two three months in Thailand. So if I don't really have a time frame and I just want to really travel as long as possible, I would stretch my money by going to places like Southeast Asia. And to add to that, traveling in the off season will also save you. Usually when people travel, they don't have an endless amount of time. Maybe they have a couple of weeks or up to a month and they want the best weather possible. So you're going to choose what's called high season. This is when the most travelers are traveling in that destination because of the weather, for example, is going to be the best. But if you're more flexible and you have more time, traveling the low season will save you so much money. In the high season, hotels or tour companies will really hike up the prices. So you're going to be paying like double or even more if you're traveling the high season compared to the low season. Another great thing is that there's not as many travelers. It's less crowded in the places that you're going to visit. Talk with other travelers. If you have other friends or family members who are into traveling as much as you are or reach out to bloggers or YouTube creators, hey, just talk with other travelers because a lot of the times they'll have advice or maybe they even know of some deals to the places that you want to travel to. Perhaps they know someone you can stay with in the destination you're going to or they have a friend who owns a tour company. You never know until you talk to other travelers. It could save you money. Sign up for travel bloggers newsletters like ours. We do have a bi-weekly newsletter where we share deals as well as giveaways and updates on our travels. So if you want to know more about travel deals, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter. I'll leave a link in the description box below. Quick little plug there. Use a VPN to book things like your flights to get good deals. If you've never heard of a VPN, it's basically a plug-in that is tricking the internet to thinking you're in a different location. I'm going to give you an example. Okay, so there's... Okay, this is Bob and this is Louise. Bob is in London. Louise is in Toronto. They both want to book the same flight from Toronto to London. But Bob is getting a better deal because he's located in London. That's it. That's the only reason. So by changing your VPN, you can act like you're in London when you're not actually in London and get that cheaper deal. Frequent flyer points. This one is one of my favorites because you're just spending the money that you would normally spend on a daily basis buying food, buying gas, etc. But you're collecting points that you can use towards travel. You can use on flights. You can use on accommodations. You can use on tours. There are many credit cards that offer different point systems. So you have to really shop around and find the one that's best for you. I use the American Express Platinum and love it because it not only gives me really good points, but I get access to so many lounges around the world. And there's other perks with the card that are just definitely makes it worth the annual fee. Some of the perks, for example, is I get $250 that I can put towards either a hotel or a flight every single year. I've also gotten $250 that I can use at duty free to get a crap ton of alcohol that I'll never drink. But my friends love coming over. Pack light to avoid baggage fees. I have been preaching carry on only for years now because that's how I've been traveling and it's benefited me in so many ways. One, I always know where my stuff is. Two, I don't have to pay those stupid baggage fees that cost too much. Three, I never have to worry about someone going into my bag or losing my bag when I get to a destination. And if I have a tight connection, I don't have to worry about my bag not making it to my destination and getting lost who knows where. But we're talking about money here. So we want to save as much as we can wherever we can and not having to pay baggage fees that's going to save you an extra up to even sometimes $100 on your trip. Get around by foot, by bike, or by public transportation. Taxis and Ubers are great. They're convenient and all but they cost money. They definitely cost a lot more than using your two feet and walking around or renting a bike for a day or taking public transportation which are all awesome ways to really immerse yourself in the culture and get to places where you can't get to by cars. There have been so many times where I've just been walking around a new place or biking around and I find like little areas that I get lost in and I wouldn't have been able to get there if I were to have been driving or taking a taxi. There have been times where I've found myself in little tiny like alleyway type places where I've discovered a really delicious restaurant or struck up a conversation with a local and those end up being one of the best travel stories that I have on that trip. Fly to one destination and then take public transportation to your final destination. An example of this for me would be flying from Toronto to London again. It is probably the cheapest way to fly out of Toronto to get to Europe but say I'm trying to actually get to Hamburg, Germany. So if I choose that cheaper flight to London and then I just take a train to Hamburg, I can still get to my destination but I'm saving money in the meantime. And to go with that, if you also take an overnight train or overnight bus then you're saving money on accommodations. This one doesn't work for everyone but if it does work for you it will definitely save you. Being flexible with your travel dates. On Skyscanner you have the option of looking at the overall month and seeing where the cheapest date is to travel to your destination. If you are flexible then you can choose that cheapest date to fly out and save money. Book a flight on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. The reason is booking flights on these days is lower demand so you can get better deals. Not many people want to fly in and out on a Tuesday. Usually they want to fly out on a Friday, come back on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So if you have the flexibility I recommend flying in and out on a Tuesday or Wednesday to save money. Sign up or continuously go and check out sites like YYZDeals or YVRDeals, Scott's Cheap Flights because these resources are some of my favorite for finding the cheapest flights ever. YYZDeals is my favorite because it's only flights leaving out of Toronto going everywhere in the world. So if you do live in the GTA this is specifically for you. Go and check out the website right now and it will blow your mind because the guy who runs this is amazing. He posts the cheapest flights however you find them. I don't know but I love him for it. The cheapest flights leaving from Toronto everywhere in the world and I'm talking like $150 all taxes in return to places like Morocco or Costa Rica. And what's also really great about it is it's not last minute deals where you have to leave within a week. You usually have a two to three month window where you have to travel to get that deal which I think is pretty great. Scott's Cheap Flights is another one I highly recommend signing up for because it's flights leaving from all over the world. It's not specifically leaving out of Toronto going to other destinations so it works for a lot of you watching. Kayak.com is also another great resource to find cheap flights. You can sign up for alerts. So say you're flying from Los Angeles California to Bangkok Thailand and you only want to spend anywhere under a thousand dollars for a return flight including taxes. So you can sign up for an alert tell them how much you're willing to pay and you'll get notified when there are flights for a thousand dollars or less. I would highly recommend taking out money when you get to your destination using your debit card at an ATM. You will get the best rates this way. If you feel a little bit uncomfortable not having money on you when you get to your destination then you can always exchange just a little bit back home so you have enough to go from the airport to your hotel and maybe buy a couple of meals. Bring a reusable water bottle with you. This is especially beneficial if you're traveling for long periods of time. You'll be surprised how much money you can actually spend on bottled water. It really adds up especially if you're traveling destinations where the weather is really hot and you're drinking a lot. I was actually surprised in places like India or Indonesia Thailand how easy it was to find filtered water systems where I could fill up my water bottle. I thought it would be more inconvenient than ever and I would just have to end up buying bottled water but I end up using my reusable water bottle quite often so at least have it on you so you have that option. Eat a charge double for dinner than they would for lunch so you might as well eat as much as possible for lunch go for a later dinner. You can save money that way or eat lunch out at a restaurant food joint and then go and get some groceries and make your own food for dinner at your hostel or Airbnb and save money that way too. Fly when no one else wants to. I'm talking about those red eye flights those early morning flights where you have to get up at like 3 a.m and it sucks but if you can save money sometimes it's worth it. If you have a long layover spend the night at the airport instead of getting an airport hotel room which is going to cost you way more money than it should. There is a really wicked website it's called sleeping in airports.net and it tells you all the airports around the world where the best places are to sleep to eat to find wi-fi to lounge to shower it tells you everything you want to know to make your overnight stay at the airport super comfortable and get that rest that you need. Wash your dirty travel clothes in the tub or sink or if you're really lucky and have a whirlpool best washing machine. It actually makes me super angry how much hotels charge to do your laundry. Who's going to spend ten dollars to watch one sock? One sock. There have been times where we've stayed in places that have a whirlpool or just like a tub that has jets and we fill our tub with water we put our clothes in we sprinkle some like those tide packages you can buy at grocery stores and you turn on the jets and it starts like turning your clothes just like a washing machine would it's fantastic it works so well. Check for deals and coupons on websites like travelzoo or groupon you can find some pretty sweet deals in the destinations you're going to on tours or accommodations or restaurants etc. One of the many great things about travel are the people that you meet other travelers you build these connections with people that you can't you can't find doing anything else they happen really fast and they're they're like hardcore deep connections that you can find. A lot of my best friends today are people that I've met all around the world from all these different countries during my travels and now I have places all around the world that I can go and visit and stay with my friends and get a local's perspective save on accommodations and get to hang out with some of the most amazing people that I've ever met in my life. So the more you travel the more people you meet the more friends you make and the more places you have to stay around the world. Skip the travel size products I'm talking about those little toothpaste or little shampoos and conditioners. Get yourself go tubes which are reusable travel like 100 milliliter containers that you can reuse over and over again. Get yourself little containers and get the normal size toothpaste and just squeeze as much as you need into those reusable containers. Two things that are great you're saving money and you're helping the environment. Follow your favorite travel bloggers and travel youtubers to get the best recommendations the best deals connect with them reach out to them ask them. If you reach out to me I will be more than happy to offer my advice or help you out in whatever way I can. Reaching out to CNI for example this is what we do for a living this is what Hopscotch the globe is all about and not just us but other people in this community are willing to help you to help you plan that trip to save money doing it. The vision with Hopscotch has always been to be able to reach out to as many people as possible and help you realize that you can reach all of your travel dreams. You can travel the world no matter your lifestyle no matter your budget. So I hope that you realize that even if you're broke AF you can travel using these budget travel hacks I just shared with you as well as so many other hacks and advice tips that we've shared in other videos. I will leave a playlist I think there's a thing that's going to pop out right now here as well in the description box below I will leave a playlist of all the travel hack and tip videos that we've done they'll help you become a better more efficient traveler and save money doing it. Again if you're new to this channel and you have not subscribed yet be sure to do so click that notification button as well that little bell so you get notified every time we post a new video and if you have any questions leave them below and we will see you guys next time bye. I am so pregnant in case you didn't know