Lil Big Sister Travel Co. 

First of all for a savings plan. Reminder this was made for my little sister but you can still apply this post to your own plans if you’re creative. 

Before you go anywhere, make sure you afford everything before you leave. 

The following:

• FLIGHTS: one way £350-500
• To get in and to live off: £2,500
• Visa application:  £215
• Travel insurance: £300
• Extras and miscellaneous: £200

TOTAL: £3700. Ish

You will need to plan how long it will take to get this.  Then you will know what sort of date you’re realistically looking at going.

REMEMBER to add anything else you think of later on to this number. Travel can be full of hidden costs. 

SAVING PLAN

STEP 1 

1. List all your income ( what you earn a week)
2. Then list all your outgoings (so everything you spend money on every week) 

3. Subtract your outgoings from your income and down the total.  Even if it’s minus.

Remember to be honest with yourself.  You dont have to show it anyone if you don’t want.  Just remember if you lie. You are only lying to yourself. 

If you were guessing about your outgoings (everybody does)…

To get a more realistic idea. You will need to keep a diary of everything you spend.  Write it all down. Everything.  

Then add it all up at the end of the week. 

See if you were right.

Get a mini notebook and carry it everywhere. It might be difficult to remember to do. But try.

An example:

Income: £600 a week.

Outgoing: Rent – £150 a week. Food – £100. Bills – £50. Extras – £100. Social – £100.

What’s left = £100 a week. (SP).

STEP 2

Step 1 will give you an idea of your potential weekly savings.  That number you worked out will show you how long it will take to reach your goal. Don’t worry if it’s not alot or if it’s minus we’ll deal with that. We’ll call this number your SP or saving potential.

You’re goal is £3,700. Don’t panic, it’s achievable! Trust me! And we know you can do it! Shia la’Bouf believes in you too!

When we’ve broken it down it won’t seem as much.

In Step 2 we do a timeline check. If you need £3,700 divide it by your SP number (how much you can save in a week) and this will equal how many weeks it will take to achieve it.

For example.

The date is Monday 14th March I need £3,000 and I can save £100 a week. 

3000÷100 =30. 

So it will take 30 weeks. 

This means I would be able to afford to go on Monday 10th October! 

Figure out what day you can leave on!

And don’t panic if it says 2018. We’ll fix that in step 3.

TIP

You can add on any current savings you have.  Say you have £500 saved already. Now you only need £2,500 so use that number in your calculation.

REMEMBER 

Remember if you don’t understand or need help, just contact our 24/7 helpline on Facebook and one of our advisors will get back to you when they’ve finished running around the farm. (Only applies to my little sister… although if anyone fancies sending me an email it’s erin.reki@gmail.com or visit the contact page.)

STEP 3

If you’re SP number is a minus or not as high as you want it to be or maybe it might take you until 2029 to save the money! You need to look at increasing your income and spending less money.

First let’s look at spending less.  We’ll tackle increasing your income in Step 4.

What can you save money on?

Write a new outgoings list with how much you are going to let yourself spend every week.  Try and stick to it.

Every time you are thinking of spending ask yourself:

“Do I really NEED this? Or do I want to live at the beach?”

If you do need it ask yourself:

“Can I get it cheaper?”

Do your research. Freecycle is now a thing. So is ebay or just ask around if friends and family are willing to donate things you might need.  

Distract yourself away from places that might encourage you to buy stuff you don’t need.  Aka don’t go window shopping. 

Instead of eating out, make meals at home. 

Explain to people your savings goals so that they may support you. 

If you have a vice or bad habit now is the time to kick it. Calculate how much alcohol or cigarettes are costing you per week and get some help to quit.

Put your savings in a high interest rate saving account. I’ve gained over £100 in a year just from interest. Free money. Yay!

STEP 4

Increase your income. How? Let’s look at some ways.

1. Selling your stuff. 

Remember not to sell anything you’ll regret. Read my post about that. 

You can ask people if they would like to donate unwanted items too.

Carboots are great, but remember some things are worth a lot more on ebay. 

For any clothes that don’t sell on ebay put them on the carboot and for any that don’t sell on the carboot, you can weigh them in for cash. 

Books can be sold online. So can electronics. 

Friends and family night be interested in your stuff too.

2. Work extra hours. No one wants to hear this.  But you do what you must.

3. If you can make or do anything that people might want. Do that. Bake sales. Nails. Makeup.  Kids facepaint. Busking. Anything you can spare time to do. 

4. Don’t be afraid to research other ways to make cash 🙂 the internet has lots of good ideas. Market research, testing websites, audio typing etc.  And ask people too. Get yourself out there. People might need dogs walking and babies sitting. 

Step 5

You should hold yourself accountable and monitor your savings. 

Download from online or make your own savings chart. Every time you put a certain amount of money away colour in the box or tick it off. I made mine on excel and I usually tick mine off after I save £100. 

This is so you can see your progress. It motivates you and reminds you what you are working towards. Put it somewhere you will see it everyday! 

And that is your savings plan.

P.s 

I will post about applying for passports, visas, flights and insurance at some point. But the next post will be about what to pack because Beanie has been harassing me for it! 🙂