travel

Weekend and Wanderlust-ing

on/20 comments

Happy Monday everyone. Quick update on my weekend before getting to the point of this post. I was so proud of myself Friday and Saturday – I was super productive and learned so much in regards to my new business. I spent some time outside, and even got some writing done too! But then Sunday came. A few friends wanted to come over for a fish dinner. Great I thought, we can grill the fish and have a side of steamed broccoli or something to go with it. They were all down for that, but of course only until they got here.

Grilled fish turned into deep fried fish and broccoli turned into macaroni salad and garlic bread. Oh – and of course water turned into wine (not in the biblical sense ha ha).

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Plus waking up with the DADS (Day After Drinking Shits) wasn’t fun. At least I have a little more time before summer to reach my goals. My stomach needs to see daylight, but not scare people off…

Anyway – we were sitting around chatting about life and how we end up where we are – and we were all baffled. Not a one of us was doing what we really want in life. I told them I started blogging and obviously that I’m working on writing books and opening my new business. Even though I’m working on creating a better self and going after my dreams, I’m still not able to do my main one – Traveling.

I want to see the world and explore every inch of it’s beauty before wars and people ruin it. I want to visit the places that people forgot about. I want to travel to countries where I could help people and learn about their culture at the same time. I want to ride a gondola in Venice and speak Spanish in Spain while watching the bullfights. I want to dangle my feet off a dock in Polynesia. I’m not married, I don’t have kids, and I do not have a career – so now is the perfect time!

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But I’m broke. Beyond broke. Half of me just wants to pack up and go for it – try to survive off the kindness of people and my skills. But there’s a few problems with that thinking. I have student loans and other debts that won’t wait for me until I get back. They’ll go into default and then it will just spiral out of control. I need to make money while traveling. Sure, I can write wherever I am, but I’m not an established author (yet) and make exactly zero dollars doing what I love. My new business isn’t off the ground yet so I can’t hand it over to someone while reaping the income benefits to travel. Actually, I’m paying out right now for start-up costs. I can try to get jobs where I go – but there’s no way I can make enough to survive, have fun, and still send money back home for bills. And I’m not opening up any more credit cards.

People have said to couch surf to save money on hotel stays. I love the idea of that, but it also scares me to death. I’m a short little blonde girl, and although chubby right now, could easily be snatched up! I’m a paranoid person.

So the only thing I can think of to do right now is wait. Keep going with my debt payoff plan, hustle and work as hard as I can to get as much money as I can – save up and then go. Maybe do a few domestic trips to take the wanderlust-ing edge off. I just hope it doesn’t take years and years and years.

For all you travelers out there – any tips? How did you make money? Where did you stay? How did you delve into the culture without breaking the bank? Anything is appreciated!

Hey wealthy and generous people! If you finance a trip for me I will send you a picture a day, and bring back gifts and stories! winking-smiley-face-clip-art-xcgnL7kcA

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There are 20 comments

    1. Renee

      Thanks!! Glad to be able to teach you something new ha ha (even if it was probably a little bit more than you wanted to know!) 🙂 What exactly do you mean by little and often? Like traveling a little bit and often? I plan to! There has to be good deals. But man those plane tickets are crazy!

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      1. pocketfullofhappy

        Yeh, like I would love to travel but money just doesn’t allow. So it will have to be trips spent seeing the world spread out over the years, rather than one big travel for a year. Where do you want to go the most?x

        Liked by 1 person

  2. kentinorius

    Nice story.I think you can learn some basic skills of “how to be a teacher” and your English can pay off your bills..in elsewhere.I was trying to find a site- there you can talk to people from different countries and they could offer you a roof and warm meal for your experience and a tiny help (it depends).I`ll ask my friend about that link and I`ll share with you later than(if you are interested).

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Elisa Z

    I do like the idea of couch surfing, I wanted to try it out but I got scared. Maybe one day I’ll give it a go.
    You could teach English abroad or work in hospitality (waiting, battening) it’s not that hard to get in to.
    One day, our writing dreams will pay off hehe 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  7. allroundbetterme

    I have used the couchsurfing website to meet people in different places, but I’ve never actually used it to stay with anyone yet. It’s fun though. And I’m sure that if you want to stay somewhere for a few days, you can book in a hostel, then meet someone from couchsurfing and if you get a good vibe, then spend the other nights on their couch? You could always try being an au pair (nanny) in Europe (if you like kids).

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Hobo

    My best friend and I have been using Workaway.com. It’s similar to WWOOF but with Workaway we’ve eaten more than 3 day old lasagna and we haven’t had to sleep with our knives out. The great thing about Workaway is there is one flat fee of about 30 bucks which lasts you two years anywhere across the globe. It’s a work exchange program that allows you to search for hosts and them to search for you. The work is anything from farming to house sitting, teaching English to babysitting, carpentry to culture exchange, and everything else in between. Most hosts provide accommodation and 3 meals a day for about 25 hours of work a week. It’s a great way to share culture on a shoe string budget with plenty of time to explore the surrounding area. HoboandLefty.com will be posting a blog post about our Workaway experience sometime after Friday.
    Jason and I (Lefty and Hobo) are just like you, still riding out student debt, poor in pocket, and with just enough cash to buy 2 plane tickets with $1200 left over we decided that the student debt and the bad jobs will still be waiting for us if we ever decide to come back.
    Good luck to you and hopefully safe travels.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Renee

      Thank you so much, I appreciate the info! “but with Workaway we’ve eaten more than 3 day old lasagna and we haven’t had to sleep with our knives out.” HAH! That’s exactly what I’m aiming for – so this could be my calling. I’ll check it out, and look forward to your blog posts about it! Thanks so much again!

      Like

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