How Low Can You Go?

I’ve been a wallet-watcher most of my life.  Before I pull out the old wallet, it had better be something I really want and am willing to pay the price.  Most of the time, I’m not willing to part with the dough.

Traveling with a travel hot-pot to boil water for coffee or ramen noodles has been standard operating procedure for ages.  I hate waiting for room service more than I hate instant coffee!  (I always carry my favorite teas anyway.)  I also refuse to see anybody until I’ve had my coffee, and resume some state resembling human-ness.  If anybody has a source for a dual-voltage travel pot, please, pretty-pretty-please, POST it here!  The old one bit the dust – mourn, mourn.

Eat local?  Of course.  Find “cheap Chinese” – hawker stalls and little take-out places?  Yum-yum!  Swedish meatballs at IKEA?  They’re actually very good, and totally superb for the price.

There are oodles of ways to economize while traveling.  If you’re a business traveler on expense account, you probably have a limit per diem, or per meal, or per-something.  If it’s your business, you are absolutely on a budget or bust your biz.  There's hardly a Road Warrioress anywhere who does not need to watch some pennies, pence, rupiah, and yen somewhere.

So grazing some other travel blogs, I came across Nomadic Matt, a Perpetual Traveler – backpack variety – who lives & travels off income from his travel website and blog.  He survived 5 days in pricy Stockholm on US$100.  Of course, it can be done.  If you impose on the kindness of friends for an extended period.  If you do your work out of an internet café for as long as you can nurse a lemonade.  If you walk everywhere.  If you miss the best a city has to offer – the real reasons for exploring abroad.  Even Nomadic Matt admits it was a bummer.

Here’s his story, not a pretty one:  http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/the-myth-travel-is-expensive-how-5-days-in-stockholm-cost-me-100-dollars/

Skip the appetizer, but not the entrée.  Skip the liquor, and sample the local brew.  Yes, you can slash travel costs.  But why bother traveling if you are going to miss the best a place can offer?  You could have stayed home and seen it on TV!  It’s the experience which matters more than the money.

Got any budget-friendly tips you use?  Share – share – share!  We all care about our budgets, but still want to get our work done, see the real sights, and live a fruitful Road Warrioress life.

May your road rise to meet you!

Ann