how do people travel extensively with no money?

tuomas, thanks - and beware, i may take you up on that! i have dreams of scandinavia and friends in st petersburg, so i hope to make it to finland eventually.

Or possibly you have a vastly different notion of how much money you really need to live on, and what is really "essential" to keeping you alive. For instance, I don't have a cell phone, a credit card, a car, a house, a family, a regular job. But I do travel. I'd imagine the people here calling me "wealthy" do have most of those things. If they're in the UK, perhaps what's tying them down is the need to make mortgage repayments on over-priced property. Perhaps they don't have friends in foreign lands they can stay with. Or perhaps they think you need $100 a day just to live.

I've moved half way across the world to live in the city with the lowest rents I could find. I live mostly on chick peas and rice. I buy the rice in a big sack, and it lasts all year! You can sustain yourself on a few dollars a day. And if there's an art opening, all the better: free wine!

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

Haha! Yes! Didn't he also enlist in the Dutch army and then go AWOL on some Pacific island or something?

Next year I want to take advantage of the Argentine financial collapse and go to buenos aires to eat beef and maybe teach english. Budget travel is the greatest idea ever

Momus, I don't think that going to Paris while broke is ridiculous due to living standards once you get there. The missing step between being absolutely broke with no money at all and going to Paris would be finding a few hundred dollars to buy a plane ticket. Even one-way it costs more than no money at all.

Hmm. As far as getting there plane fare goes, if I were willing to give up an entire year, I could probably get a job teaching English in St. Petersburg and travel from there if I get time off. I don't know if I'm employable for anything anywhere else though!

otfm! this defn includes STUDENTS WHO GO TRAVELLING. if you're going travelling stfu about your tuition fees.

No, Momus, what I mean is that my definition of "broke" includes not having enough money to book a flight to France. Call me crazy. My notion of "broke" includes collecting all the loose change from the corners of your apartment and dividing them up to figure out how many nights you can still afford to have a 99-cent can of chunk tuna for dinner. At which point the last thing on your mind is going to fucking France, and besides, you're too busy scouring your surroundings for any sort of public reception you can sneak into and steal cheese and crackers from.

So, like, yeah, there's no use pointing out that people can get by on not much money. I'm well aware of this: that's why my definition of "broke" is HAVING PRETTY MUCH NO MONEY AT ALL.

not to mention figuring out how you can EARN some money so you STOP being broke, as opposed to going on sodding holiday.

*whistles idly*

Meaning that I think the terms we're misunderstanding one another on are the following: "no money" (which has been used to mean everything from "no money" to "$6000"), and "really want to" (which could mean anything -- want badly enough to go into debt for? want badly enough to give up jobs and homes for? want badly enough to take personal losses? Or just "want?").

THEN I AM GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL.

MY PENIS DEBT IS BIGGEST ARRR.

I'll buy your train ticket if you'll come catalog and pack up all our books :)

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), August 22nd, 2006 5:49 PM. (Ned) (later) (link)

When I become homeless I will dress him up like a hobo clown and he will panhandle for me.

I, on the other hand, agree with nabisco's deep fear of being financially busted, and I've never been anywhere near it. I think it's an inherited fear from my dad, who seems to strongly believe that he'd be in the gutter and the world would fall apart if he quit his job or stopped paying attention at work.

I also think questions about Momus and healthcare are amusing. The guy has a nonfunctional eye, remember?

obviously in certain parts of the world you should be a little careful...for example, countries where premarital sex is taboo are more likely to have some skeevy guys offering a place to stay for a young girl from the west. however, those guys are not at all smooth about their hiding their intentions so you will know right away. the usual practice on hospitality club is to meet up in a plublic place to make sure you will get along with your potential host.

as for the other discussion about not being able to take off because of obligations, it is true that these things can be hard. maria, you're in such a great position to take off. like i said, if you can find free places to stay and keep to the cheaper parts of the world you'll be fine.

i actually was quite ambitious and circumnavigated the globe...however, i was conservative with my spending (not to say that should shy away from indulging in some cultural experience like going out to eat the national dish of whatever country you're in) and did a lot of extensive research and nerding around to find the best travel deals. i especially made sure i had free places to stay in all the western countries.

despite having no family money to speak of i was able to take off because i lucked out and score a "leave of absence" at my company. they gave me a letter contract stating that they had to take me back once i returned to the states. basically what happened was that i tried to leave my full-time job for a higher paying contract job that would enable me to travel a bit once i finished. they counter-offered with a raise to beat the other job, which i still turned down. then they said they'd guarantee me a job on the condition that i stay through the busy season. that made me decide to stay on the condition that they acknowledge the high level of work i had been doing prior to that point and to give me a retroactive bonus going back a few months. so i had a big lump of money to begin my savings with, plus a bigger paycheck every two weeks for the next 5 months, plus my annual bonus.

anyway, the point of my babble is that you never know what kind of windfall you may encounter. i'm certainly not a privileged kid. believe it or not, i pulled it off because of hard work (and touch negotiation).

...and now i'm back in the real world and had to return to my uber stressful 10-14 hour a day job because i was too lazy to find another one while traveling. if anyone wants to hire me (especially any company in europe that is willing to sponsor a hardworking and cunning american citizen) then please feel free to write me!

I'm the same about home ownership. I get constantly angry wondering why my brothers (for eg) manage to have 500k houses and 2 kids and still cope. I conveniently forget their extreme stress over even making the mortgage payments, paying the bills etc.

A thought occurred too: DL, are you regarding the globetrotting you see people do as a complete and utter *holiday*? No work, no stress, do what you like in the city you end up in? Because I suspect some of those you mention and some who post here who have travelled a lot have done so a) on an extreme shoestring and b) working while doing it.

It isnt much of a footloose and fancyfree 6 month gadabout if yr spending every night in Prague/Sydney/Rio de Janiero sweating yr guts out working in a bar til you fall over exhausted, surely.

Although Waxy, that's particularly spectacular -- you must be one hell of a valued employee!

Mind you I spent 600 flight + another 800 on hotels just going to Perth a few years ago. Yay for living in a shitty huge isolated country!

It isnt much of a footloose and fancyfree 6 month gadabout if yr spending every night in Prague/Sydney/Rio de Janiero sweating yr guts out working in a bar til you fall over exhausted, surely.

this is pretty much otm. it begs the question of why anyone would do this!

travelling does appeal to me, but not travelling where i have to sleep on park benches, take jobs i wouldn't consider taking at home and eat crusts for nourishment. travelling shouldn't mean lowering one's quality of life! crucially though if i'm travelling i don't want to have the insecurity of not knowing where the money for food in a month's time is coming from - i really don't handle that sort of stress well. i can't imagine any benefits of travelling outweighing these costs.

I'm lucky to be finally in a position where I've paid off all my debt except my student loan (which frankly can wait). I've never got a credit card and picked up any consumer debt, mercifully, and I'm in a position now where I can make serious travel plans. These mostly involve saving up a hefty amount of money (which shouldn't be too difficult now), getting an extended period of leave from my employer with the ability to return at the end of it, and then filling in that gap however I want. This is a couple of years away I think, and there'll be opportunities to make other trips (including India in a couple of months), plus hopefully some work trips to the Far East. It's a very fortunate position to be in but I don't imagine there are many others that can get away with it.

Anyway, don't most people with no money just teach English as a foreign language or work as volunteers on charity projects, as a starting point if nothing else?

House trades are good I suppose, but I've never done it.

i guess im getting old, because i would rather shell out the dough to travel comfortably.

also, i used to travel a lot about 2-3 years ago and it was all on loans and credit cards, about $300 of my earnings a month go to my little jaunts of the past. DAMN DEBT.

It was an excellent arrangement - and served me and many other friends very well. Well, that was until a particular Trustafarian piss-taker decided to come and move in for nearly a month.

But you're right, the time to do that kind of thing is when you're young. I'm too old to sleep on a couch any more, I've got a bad back.

haha, you have it so rough. ;)

I'm with Beth and Mandee in the no interest in staying with other people thing. We even get a hotel when we go to visit my family these days.

Personally, I did a very stupid thing and planned not a whit, and somehow managed, so I actually do think it's a question of what you're willing to give up and live without--or be a student and have your parents pay of course (many people do this from what I see). Still, I only had a few hundred saved up and:

plane ticket to london(november is cheap): $300
hotel in london for two nights: $70
staying with relatives/friends the rest of the time: free
easyjet flights and trains around europe: $250 approx.

We could have had more meals and fun with less obsessive penny-pinching in retrospect, but avoiding tourist traps should be the goal anyway. Plus, if I hadn't gotten my wallet stolen I would have had loads of money to spare at the end of the month, so traveling on a budget seems quite feasible to me. Especially with a willingness to work, as that makes a huge difference in lots of small but significant ways.

Anyway, this is all rubbish. Just do whatever - dance in the streets naked, burn all your money, etc. As a little man once told me:
"short time alive, long time dead"

as for working while traveling...i did that once in sri lanka. i was a waitress at a beachside tourist restaurant for 6 weeks. it definitely was not stressful or that labor-intensive. i was friends with all the employees so it made sense to just work there. i also befriend people from all over the world who then helped me out as i continued on to other destinations.

it's weird how you'd think you'd never want to do something until you're somewhere different. there are many things i had never considered doing...like hanging out on a beach, waitressing, surfing or dating a vegan (i normally don't find non-cheese eaters sexy), but there's something about travel that makes you more open.

this isn't true at all in my experience.

I have a job that means I have to travel regularly! To, um, Scunthorpe. Hurrah!

(it's quite nice if they're doing a steel-blow at night - the whole town is lit up by the glow of the blast furnaces)

Where's that money-saving thread?

This thread seems like a good place to advertise for a cleaner. London based. I have bookshelves full of travel guides too. Kill two birds with one stone! But don't neglect the ironing.

Let me know if you're interested. We also need a painter to do the lounge and hall. Cash in hand.

That said a friend recently came back from blowing the £3000 she'd accrued from not paying her round and generally leeching off her mates at any given opportunity is now having problems finding full-time work.

re 'getting into debt', i guess it was too obvious to point out that most students in the UK are practically encouraged to get into debt and indeed it is inevitable given the costs of university unless your parents can pay for it all. debt is extremely common here and most people my age and social position (as opposed to 'class') have them.

the big stumbling block to travelling a lot in your youth comes down to your own attitude combined with the position you find yourself in. like doglatin i left university and finding full time relevant work (and then clinging onto it for dear life) was the only thing that really mattered. if i'd REALLY wanted to go off to Australia or whatever i suppose i could've - but i preferred to spend my wages on London living, computer stuff, gadgets etc.

my friend who didn't go to university worked in a high street restaurant (a job where you have to work weekend nights so you save money by not going out clubbing or whatever because you can't!) for a couple of years before moving out to australia for 18 months to do similar work over there but have an absolutely phenomenal time beforehand, doing all the cliched but fantastic stuff you hear about, scuba-diving, skydiving etc. - which he afforded with his savings. v envious of him for this but wouldn't really want to go through what he did beforehand. another guy who worked with me here did a similar thing 18 months ago. it doesn't matter what kind of work/hours you do even, just a matter of prioritising things and making the necessary sacrifices.

lol

think ill stick to the other thread not much useful here