Budgeting: The Adventure Fund Jar (A soda a day keeps the Swiss cows away)

I hear this one all the time: “A trip overseas is soooo expensive. I would never be able to afford it.” Well let me let you in on a little game that will get you halfway to seeing cows milked in the Swiss Alps. And boy, can they ever milk cows in the Swiss Alps.

First of all, I should mention that most trips are much more affordable than people realize. After going through our money-saving expense calculator and budgeting tips, you’ll find that most trips can be doable. But there’s always the challenge of how to stretch the money you already have to get that crazy adventure.

Adventure Fund Jar 101

So here’s the little game I play. I get a jar. An actual jar. (I wash it out first…no one wants to put money into a jar full of tomatoes).  An envelope would work if you’re dead-set against jars. Then it gets a cool label, of course, and my ADD side spends way too much time on that.

Now if you’re like me, you like money. But you probably also like chocolate too. And fancy coffees. And watching reality shows on cable tv. No? Umm…well forget I said anything then. The point is, we like spending money. We don’t realize how much our spending adds up. But who wants to just up and give up coffee?

So I assign a value to all of the things I’m splurging on. For instance, I love drinking soda at Mexican food restaurants. I have no idea why, but it tastes good. That’s a $2 soda. So any time I order water when I would normally order soda, I put $2 into the jar. If I make my own coffee instead of the fancy stuff? $1 into the jar. Extra change in my wallet? Into the jar.

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Now you need to actually put the cash into the jar – or there are apps to do this as well. But there’s just something about seeing the money adding up that is very motivating. (I should add here that at a point, you need to deposit money into a safe location. I had thieves break in once, but luckily they didn’t see the large envelope labeled “cash”.)

You’ll be surprised how quickly the money adds up. Do this a couple of months, and I’ll bet you’ll have enough to add some fun extra things to your trip. My splurge was taking a cable car up to the top of a mountain. As the car slowly moved to the top of the Swiss Alps, I didn’t miss the soda at all.

What are your tricks for saving money for travel?

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