How I don’t buy things, but pay for comfortable experiences
One of the most popular posts on my blog has been ’10 Common Sense Ways to Save Money for Travelling’. In that post, I shared my basic bookkeeping habits, inspired by Japanese Kakeibo and common sense. I have taken this approach for quite a while now and you would be surprised how well it works. Whatever I save at the end of each week, I consider to constitute comfort tax – the money that will cover for all the unreasonable and unforeseen expenses that naturally arise when you travel.
I don’t buy things, I buy experiences. And above all, I buy comfort. Travelling on a plane? I will pay for the aisle seat, because I don’t want to end up stuck at the window or in the middle with a gigantic sleeping neighbour blocking me in. Arriving late? I’ll pay for the taxi. Arriving in a new place? I’ll ask the hotel to send a pick-up.
Whenever I chose the ‘cheap’ option in the past, it stressed me out to the core. For pick-up options, I ended up wondering where that dingy old van was going to take me. I remember having a pick-up driver I booked through the booking platform (because it was cheaper) demand that I “come to the parking” rather than actually picking me up as requested at arrivals. It was late and I did not know my way as it was the first time that I arrived at Milan Linate airport. The fact that I am even trying to justify myself here is not right. I paid for a pick-up service, not a taxi. While I did successfully refuse this and made him come pick me up, it was unpleasant and uncomfortable. Often the prices for the real deal are unreasonable, no question. But when you travel, especially when you travel alone, it is not worth risking it in my opinion. And apart from paying for comfort and security, you always need access to emergency cash in case you get stranded.
Money can literally buy you peace of mind. And this is the approach I learned to take in the past couple of years.
I went for a coffee in a café this morning – a flat white – and kakeibo style, I paid cash. It was shocking to see that 5 EUR note leave my hand for a single cup of coffee with next to no change in return. I didn’t regret the coffee. That’s not my point. My point is that you can get better at saving money for what you value most by visualizing the mindless spending. By swiping our cards or phones, we just do not realize where it all goes and at the end of the day, we feel we cannot afford to travel because there’s not much left in the account at the end of the month. That’s when travel takes a backseat and if you do decide to travel, you likely end up having to go for the cheap option, cutting the comfortable corners here and there. If we reduce our spending to a more mindful spending, there is more money for travelling. You just have to be disciplined, as with most things that are worth attaining and working towards in life.
While I am absolutely not qualified to give you financial advice, I wanted to add a little follow-up on my earlier post: What can we implement on a regular basis to optimize the budget we have at our disposal when we are finally embarking on that trip? All those coffees I did not have on the go might pay for all my taxi fares. All those impulse purchases I did not make might have enabled me to get a room with a view. All the make-up I did not buy, might finance overprized, delicious hotel breakfasts.
I had a follower write to me asking what I did in life and how come I was so rich to travel all the time. I am not. I am just careful about what I spend of my weekly budget, and I collect all the surplus as comfort tax. I put that tax away, so that it can be used for buying me comfortable experiences, it’s as simple as that.
The comfy traveller's diaries 