How has Poi been saving?

Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by Kirsty in Blog, Saving

Saving for a Backpacking Round the World Trip.

You can’t have everything so you have to cut back on something right?

So how have I managed to save for our trip, or tried to save anyway, as a pretty normal 22 year old English lad.

Beer/Going Out – This is really my biggest expenditure maybe even on par with rent and food both of which I unfortunately can’t go without. I’ve tried to limit myself as to how much I go out lately, It’s been kind of successful. I’ve tried to stick to the nights where I know its going to be good rather than going out at any opportunity as done previously. I’m still pretty easily convinced after a few drinks though. I try to stay at home and drink with my friends as we live together, it’s all right most of the time but sooner or later a guy needs to boogie.

Bro Times!

CD’s/Books – I’ve been cutting back on adding to the music collection and library for a while now. Buying two or three cd’s and books a week soon adds up to a lot of pennies. Friends are always good to steal from and of course there’s that library place I’m yet to make use of.

Food - As said in our About Us page I live on a pretty poor but equally cheap diet, I’m living like a student but working full time. It’s not the best but spending lots of money on food just doesn’t seem right to me. This includes take-outs as well, I used to be nice and healthy during the week and it would all collapse at the weekend and take-outs and beer were the food and drink on choice. So the idea has been to skip the pizzas and KFC and try to cook at home over the weekends, again, it’s working most of the time.

The final plan before we go is to move back in with my parents for a couple of months, hopefully this will mean I can save a bit of extra cash as well as have some more time to do some last minute planning. It might mean I also start eating real meals again.

These are the things I’ve tried to cut back on whilst saving. I would say its all the little bits and bobs that add up, the things that you don’t remember buying and have no use for but show up on your bank statement. Now I just try and ask myself “Why am I buying this?”.

Check out how Kirsty has been saving

My saving is going a lot better recently, especially now its only a few months until we go, it seems a lot more real and easier to sacrifice (most) things.



Tags: planning, tips