For most travelers, hitting the road is their first time experiencing true, unrestricted freedom. Nobody is making choices for you but yourself, and nobody is going to allocate money for you but you. It’s manageable to make a trip throughout South America last eight months with $3,000, and easy to do a two month trip with $8,000. Most expenses can be feasibly reduced to nearly nothing, and the smaller the budget is, the more opportunities to experience a contrasting, challenging and growth-promoting way of life can be found. HOWEVER, some money is sadly still required for traveling safely and efficiently. This page is applicable for anyone hoping to save money, try new and beautiful experiences, and challenge at least one part of themselves.
Score Veggies and Bread For Free
The smaller scale the business which you approach, the most human the people you approach will be. Whether in the United States or in Peru, if you approach your typical chain-grocery store employee asking for one of the hundreds of pounds of perfectly fine food they will consciously throw out every day, they will look at you as if you are a homeless begger speaking another language. They cannot comprehend that someone is actually asking for help with something they have no concept of.
Approach farmers at local farmers markets (or better yet, stop by an organic farm if it’s feasible for you to do so!). You’re looking for their vegetables which they bring to market and cannot sell, as well as any veggies which have gotten slightly damaged in transport.
Visit the town/village small scale bakery you’re passing through, and politely ask for an opportunity to get some of their excess or “bad” bread. Come in at the end of the day, be respectful. Some spots will hook up more goodies than you can possibly eat
DUMPSTER DIVE!!
I have had incredible successes with jumping past the fences and concrete walls put up to protect the average consumer from perfectly good food that has expired past its printed date. Dozens of pizza’s, hundreds of packages of beef jerky in boxes “damaged” during shipping, and more KrispyKreme doughnuts than I could possibly carry.
Note: This is illegal as fuck in my country. I’ve been chased away, threatened, had the cops called on me, etc. This is NOT accepted in my culture. I still highly recommend it and promote this. Salvage as much as you can from being wasted. This food is wasted because of unsustainable and corrupt food manufacturing, distribution and retail practices.
Do this at night, hide your face from cameras, bring a backpack for the food, and don’t damage their property.
Give Yourself Monetary Restrictions
Take a post-it note (or whatever sticks), and write on your debit card the date which you last withdrew money. Come up with a calculated time which you need to have your money last for and can reasonably manage before withdrawing again. Multiply that number by 1.5 and shoot for making it last. If you come up with a number which you need to spend less than each day, it will get ingrained into every purchase and bit of planning you do. [I use a daily budget, but place more value on a weekly budget. Some days, you just are gonna have to take those four collectivos to the trailhead, after buying six days worth of groceries the day before. But that daily budget exceeding will be used to bring your net expenses for six days of treking down to nothing. You will prioritize your spending in healthy, minimal ways which will build massive willpower and instill epic monetary values and perspectives.
Find Opportunities to Work and Volunteer Wherever You Are (Local Immersions)
EASY ANSWER:
Workaway.com is your best chance to find volunteer opportunities anywhere from wherever you are.
This is where long term travel works for your benefit. When you’re trekking in an incredible environment, hitchhiking through paradise, or just needing to slow things down, the freedom and opportunity to stop and stay somewhere is possible nearly anywhere you’re at. Immersing yourself to volunteer/work somewhere is a great way to engage with the local culture and save some cash in a room/board exchange.
Here’s an example:
I was supported and given a free meal/comfort by a family in a tiny village while completing a remote hike in Peru. I was in awe of their way of life, and heavily interested in building some life skills (as well as spending nothing for two weeks). They farmed avocado and coffee plants throughout the valley they lived in, and were at that point the happiest and purest bunch of hard-workers I had met. I spoke with them for a full afternoon, and at the end of it promised them that I would return to work for them after I returned with the rest of my things which were in Cusco. They laughed me off, but said that if I did return to work for them, I could have a place to stay and be welcomed to eat three meals a day with them.
I returned, and spent two weeks busting my ass, learning an insane amount about myself and the environment I put myself in.
The opportunities are literally everywhere, as are infinite ways to approach and hop into them.
Workaway.com is your best chance to find volunteer opportunities anywhere from wherever you are. Make it happen.
Give Yourself a Diet
The healthier (super subjective term, so I’ll make this quite general) you eat, the more you will find that you are forced to source local whole foods and prepare them yourself. This route (especially in poor countries!) works to keep costs insanely low. Vegetables and bulk grains in particular can be laughably low in price. Of course, other benefits include promoting your health and minimizing your carbon footprint.
Also, filtering what you eat fits into an effect which is relevant to every kind of purchase of cheap goods in a poor country. You will find that the prices of certain luxuries like sweets, baked goodies, street foods and snacks are extremely manageable. You become inclined to get full from snacking on several tiny purchases throughout the day (largely on food which is not healthy or sustainable), and at the end of the day, you will become amazed to find that you are spending more money on several quick-fix snacks rather than two or three solid, local meals which will sustain you twice as much for half the cost.
Implementing a diet and developing a conscious awareness towards what you eat is beneficial for loads of reasons. The budget aspect of travel is one of them. Weighing the options you have for what to put into your body gives an incredible perspective on how far you can make some cash fuel you and make you feel great.
Negotiate Everything You Can Negotiate
This can get ridiculous. From street food to accommodation to bus tickets to hospital costs, you ARE going to get duped and stuck with a higher price than the locals. It just happens, and there is a certain level of it you need to accept. I have zero tolerance for this, whatever the extra cost I’m paying, and have spent (and sometimes wasted) so much time playing the negotiating game with locals.
I’ll write up a whole article on the art of negotiation. But just know that you are expected to negotiate for most things around the world if they don’t have the price written on them (and even if they do). Follow what the locals are doing, know what the locals are paying, and learn to read the expression of people who know that they are scamming you!
Don’t Pay For Hostels Until You Arrive (When Possible)
Sometimes you will have to book hostels. If you’re arriving to a city in the middle of the night and want to keep your life easy, book whatever hostel you are most interested in for one night.
The prices and costs of hostels on Hostelworld and Booking.com are not the accurate cost of the hostel. They are bumped up and sometimes come with ridiculous taxes. When you’re physically at a spot, you can negotiate, bargain, and scour the local scene for cheaper accommodation (knocking on doors asking to stay in a local’s spare room for 1/2 of what you’d pay in a hostel). Don’t stick yourself in a spot you may hate by booking a week of non-refundable accommodation.
Arranging Long-term Accommodation Discount Agreements
When you DO arrive to the hostel, be a responsible guest. Help out a bit where you can, and make a good (sometimes that means invisible) presence. Approach them after responsibly paying for your stay on time. Ask whoever is working the front desk if they can negotiate the cost of an extended stay. If they can’t, get yourself to the manager or owner. (This can result in the same throw-away-food affect. Some people ((locals)) simply do not have the brain power to wrap their minds around the fact that you are asking for something which they have never been asked before. They will respond “no”, because they have zero clue what to do or say. Just get their manager and hope they can actually process your request.)
If you’re into it, I highly recommend you sell yourself to the hostel. Tell them what you can provide for them, and come up with a demand for services which you happen to be able to provide (in exchange for a cheap/free place to stay).
Get creative! I befriended a guy in Panama (Yes, YOU, Camino de Coco!) who wove palm-leaves into shower curtains and bowls for a hostel in exchange for a free meal and place to stay .
Hitchhiking
This will be it’s own extensive blog post.HERE! Hitchhiking is an incredible way to engage with locals, test yourself, and score free rides for unlimited kilometres. Do it. Crush it. Don’t pay for shitty buses and shallow experiences.
Flights
Use Skyscanner and Google Flights. Compare prices from multiple airports to multiple destinations over multiple dates.
I’m still trying to figure out how to hitchhike on airplanes… When I figure it out, I’ll come back and put a link to that article here.
Sailing Opportunities to Travel Between Destinations.
Again, this deserves it’s own article in the Blog section of this website.
Walk the docks, check Crewbay.com, get yourself in a community of people who sail, sell yourself, and seek opportunities to cross oceans for free (or get paid for your time). This works, and is perfect for long-term travelers. There seems to always be a disruption of plans on sailboats. Go for the adventure and a free place to stay. Not for time-efficient transportation.
Trade Your Skills, Create, Promote Yourself.
This extends to hostel opportunities, finding farms/local work gigs, and loads of companies. It’s thinking out of the box, and practicing self-sufficiency at it’s finest.
Create. Provide. Bring valued energy into this world, and you will be compensated for it.
Seek learning opportunities and throw yourself into opportunities to grow. Through working with and for more people, you’ll meet more people who will in turn be able to provide some of their skills and experience for you. By giving nothing, you will receive little. If you can wrap yourself in an energy which attracts people and leaves them with something more, I promise it’ll come back to you.