Ways I Saved for My Trip To Korea

Knowing this was going to be my first trip to Korea, I accepted I was going to be spending a lot. Whether it was on food, events, shopping, accommodations, traveling, etc. My goal was to save between $3,000 – $5,000. Those are intimidating numbers to look at. Trust me, I didn’t think I would be able to save that amount because I was sure normal everyday life would pop up to force me to take away from the travel saving goal. But I was determined to save.

I will also say using cash made it a lot easier for me to save. Out of sight, out of mind. If that is not your thing, these are probably not going to be the saving options for you.

It did take me close to two years because, yes, life did end up making me dip into the funds a few times. I was still thrilled to be able to accomplish the goal either way. I tried multiple ways to save and these were by far my most successful. You can find materials to start your own savings journey here on my Amazon Storefront.

Cash Stuffing: I do this differently than most people who use this method, but the basic concept is taking money from your paycheck and separating it into envelopes that are for designated bills and other funds for a fully budgeted paycheck. Most people take out their entire paycheck to put it into the cash stuffing. I, however, do not use my entire paycheck and I don’t do it for all my bills. I take out a standard amount from my paychecks and I only have envelopes for BIG expenses. Examples: Home Renovation, Travel, Emergency Fund. And depending on where I think more money needs to be designated that week, I will put either $10, $20, or $40 into the envelope. Once I reach $500 in the envelope, I move the money to another location, so I don’t feel tempted to spend it when I see it. Like I said before, out of sight out of mind.

100 Envelope Challenge: This was one of my favorite ways to save. It was fun and I had added cute stickers to my box and all the envelopes that gave me a fun little surprise when I would pull an envelope. Again, everyone can do this differently, but I tried two ways. One, I would shuffle the envelopes and pick them at random. But this didn’t work for me because I didn’t always have the amount and would have to go and take more money out of my bank account. The way that worked best for me was keeping them in numerical order and depending on how much I had left over from my cash stuffing was how much I was able to put into the envelopes. If you can complete all 100 envelopes, you will have saved over $5,000! I never was able to hit all 100 BUT I did get very close once and it felt so good to be able to have that money for both my trip and as an emergency fund.

52 Week Challenge: This one takes time. A whole year to be exact. 52 weeks = 1 year. You put the amount of money as is the week of the year. So, week 1 gets $1, week 2 gets $2, so on and so forth. This will amount to just over $1300. This is one I do every year. I made a goal list on the side to be able to cross things off as the money helps accomplish those goals.

I hope these ideas help you save for whatever big plans you have in your future! If you have tried any of these let me know in the comments and did they work for you? If you have any different ways to save I would love to hear those as well!!