$$ Saving $$

O the joys of saving. At first I didn't know if I was going to put a deposit on a house, buy a new car or travel but I knew I wanted to invest in something this year. I have been saving for nearly 8 months now and when I say saving I really do mean SAVING. I moved home and started putting 3/4 of my wages away each pay leaving just enough for petrol and some spending allowance. Over time you realise just how much you don't need that daily coffee, or that delicious pack of sushi for lunch, that awesome night out with your friends (you will be going out in Europe soon enough after all!) The biggest inconvenience for me was constantly saying to my friends 'I can't go out, Im saving' or better yet 'I can only go out local and I'll just drink water.'

I worked out that in 8 months I would have saved around 13-14K and it will all most likely get blown in 3 months by the time you book your tour / flights / accommodation / buy food / activities etc it all adds up. Again I am very fortunate to have my whole extended family over there so I don't have to worry about the accommodation side of things until I move to London where I only have a few couches to crash on for a limited time... (this is where the rest of blowing my money will come in - getting set up in London!) Another tactic for saving was consulting my two travel buddies before any purchase, if I got two yes's I could buy. You begin to crack after 8 months of practically no shopping.... so its important to have people to keep you in check and remind you of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...

Also annoying things will pop up, like only needing your car for 6 more weeks, having your first car crash ever in that time (not my fault btw!) having your W.O.F expire and having to pay $300 to get it back on the road just for 4 weeks and then having your registration run out 2 weeks prior to leaving. All inconvenient, all require your hard earned money that you 'could' have saved. You do have to get to the point where you just cannot stress out about every single penny - you just have to do the best with the money that you have and accept that things still do cost, even when your saving.