I WANNA TRAVEL...BUT I GOT NO MONEY!

Did you know we are not trust fund babies? (If you are, we don't have beef with you, power to ya). People can often jump to their own creative conclusions about how we travel so much. It's no special secret and it's certainly no hidden pile of money or endless incoming funds... it's simple. It's called budgeting and sticking to it. We work for what we earn and as you can imagine, traveling is not cheap. A lot of times it seems impossible to do those dream trips we keep pinning on Pinterest. It can be discouraging as we drown ourselves in social media and see other people doing fun things and start thinking our lives are rather boring or uninteresting and that we're "stuck."

If any of this resonates with you, we are here to tell you to STOP! YOU ARE NEVER STUCK. We always have a choice. We always have the power to change. And if there's something you don't like about your life or yourself, change it. Do something about it. Quit wallowing and take action. It takes motivation, determination, and commitment.

In past posts, we've talked about budgeting. We've even offered our readers a copy of our budget sheet template to use for themselves when planning a trip or trying to gain control of their finances. It's something I think even we ourselves forget about, but we get emails trickling in over the years requesting for a copy. A new email today reminded me of what a great resource it is to have a budget template.

I have made our budget template downloadable for free HERE. If you want a copy, check it out. This is a great way to get started on planning your summer dream trip! Even if it takes you a year or more to get there, somewhere! ANYWHERE! You can DO IT. 

Start saving today. Practice saying NO. Doing without. 

Forgoing something good for something better. 

That's the secret. 

TRAVELING FOR TWO

One of the challenges of traveling with a spouse/partner - or with two triplet sisters - is making sure your travel is as stress-free as possible. You want your trip to be memorable because you enjoyed it, not because you had a blow-out fight on the steps of the Louvre Museum. It takes a bit of advanced preparation to make a shared trip stress-free. Here are some steps to take before you pack your bags.

1. Share your expectations
Many people save all year for a single vacation. Even if you apply the Traveling Triplets' budget tips, like saving 10 percent of your income every month, you're still probably limited by vacation days or other obligations. That means both you and your husband have lots of expectations about what your vacation should be like. The only way to make sure these expectations don't contradict each other, and to plan a trip that includes both of your needs, is to communicate.

Try this exercise: sit down with your spouse/partner/friend and take 10-15 minutes to write down everything you want or need in your upcoming vacation. Include anything on your list that is important to you. My typical list might look like this:

• Time in the sunshine
• Physical activity 
• Plenty of nature
• Quiet
• Bodies of water
• Unstructured days
• Lots of sleep
• Lots of snuggle time
• Good food

...and that's only the start! As you can see, this list revolves around relaxing and being outside. But imagine if your companion wrote a list like this:

• New cultures
• New cities
• New food
• Exploring architecture
• Practicing a new language
• Nightlife

It looks like your companion wants a trip to Rome or Istanbul while you want to go hiking on the Oregon Coast. The way to solve this problem is to plan a vacation that addresses both your needs. In this case, you might want to consider something like a German castle tour, taking a week to explore ruined castles (physical activity, nature, architecture, new cities) and having a few nights of German disco combined with a few nights of hotel-room snuggle time.

2. Outsource the planning
Travel planning is much easier than it used to be! Sites like Hipmunk and Orbitz take a lot of the work out of booking flights and evaluating hotels. Still, it's often nice to hand everything over to a seasoned professional. An all-star travel agent like Jeff Bartel is the ideal person to go to because they have the experience to steer you in the right direction. They are going to know which hotels are nice and which hotels only have nice websites. This is also the person who's going to be able to tell you which German ruined castle is a must-see, and which one is best to remove from the list. 

Outsourcing the planning is one of the best ways to reduce travel stress, as it saves you and your husband from arguing about who's going to do which booking, and how much you're going to spend on the whole process. Just give your travel agent your budget and proposed itinerary, and watch as he takes care of all your needs.

3. Plan every day and go with the flow
It's important to have some kind of plan for every day; my husband and I learned that on a trip to Disneyland early in our marriage, when we spent the first day wandering around the park not knowing what to do first. You have to have some kind of plan, like "let's do Tomorrowland first, then have lunch in New Orleans Square," otherwise you end up halfway through the day overheated, hungry, and frustrated that you haven't done anything.

On the other hand, you have to be ready to go with the flow. When the Jedi Training Academy show starts and your husband looks excitedly in that direction, it's time to leave New Orleans Square behind, grab a space burger, and watch the Jedi show. Planning ahead helps make sure you don't forget to have lunch; going with the flow means discovering a new restaurant.

4. Agree to let go and make memories
A trip where you've decided in advance that anything is okay - losing your luggage, eating at a bad restaurant, or getting lost on the way to a castle - is much better than a trip where you feel like everything has to be perfect. Once your vacation starts, agree to let go. Unexpected things will happen: like many people, I got really sick to my stomach after Space Mountain, but that didn't ruin my vacation. It became a memory that my husband and I now share, one where he helped clean me up and then bought me a silly Space Mountain t-shirt from the gift store to replace the one I ruined.

This is probably the most important key to a stress-free vacation, especially one shared with a husband or another loved one. Once you're on the trip, let the trip happen and collect the experiences and the memories as they come. That's the way to enjoy travel.

Do you have other tips for sharing a stress-free vacation? Let us know in the comments below!

4TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

On the 4th day of Christmas

Traveling Triplets gave to YOU

4 traveling tips

1. Set aside 10% of your income each month to save for your dream trip - requires self control and discipline, you can totally do this and it is beyond worth it

2. Have an emergency savings account - you never know what may go wrong in this economy today and your health or safety, especially while traveling so be prepared to dabble in it when needed

3. Document your expenditures while traveling - very important to make sure you don't spend more than you earn or in this case, have saved and budgeted for your trip (use a travel size notebook)

4. Do the monetary research prior to arriving in another country to understand exchange rates - it is vital to understand the monetary system in which the country you will be visiting abides by as far as conversion factors, equality rates and numerical values (this will save you from a lot of hassle and a lot of rip offs)

HOW TO: BARGAIN, BARGAIN, BARGAIN!

Ever wonder how people get things so cheap when they travel?

Well, you do not have to settle with the first price you hear---haggle!

Here are the suggested steps:

1. Find something you really like.

2. If you can, look for it in several different places.

3. Ask one place what the price is, and walk away.

4. Go somewhere else with the same item and offer them your preferred price.

5. If they say no, start to walk away, they will almost always call you back to buy it (unless your price is absolutely ridiculous).

6. If they say no, find it somewhere else, because chances are it is somewhere else.

A few more tips:

-Ask a price, then always try to go less.

-You can haggle with almost anything: hotels, taxis, souvenirs, tours, etc.

-You can't really haggle with fixed prices like buses and food.

-If you arrive somewhere and it feels like thousands of taxi drivers and hotel pushers want to take your limbs in every direction, wait until it dies down and then get to work.

We'll go ahead and walk you through a scenario. Say you are traveling in Belize and you don't have any reservations. You arrive in Caye Caulker and you have nowhere to stay. If there are two of you, have one stay somewhere with the bags. If you are alone, try to have a shop or hotel watch your bag while you "hunt." Without your bags you have a better chance of getting a deal and you are able to walk around longer without getting tired. Then just go from hotel to hotel. Ask if they have any rooms and if you can see one of them. After they show you, ask them how much it costs. Haggle with them. If they accept, stay. If they don't, leave. Chances are they will want you back.

***Remember, there are dozens of hotels and taxi drivers in each town, and they are usually never full. So you can ALWAYS get a better deal!***

Last tip: Ask around to find out what people usually pay for: (hotels, taxis, bus rides, souvenirs, etc.) so you don't get ripped off.

This is how Traveling Triplets score big traveling on a small budget.

HOW TO: DO IT!

hhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooollllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaa!

we are back from central america and it was an epic adventure! when we get back from trips like this a lot of people tend to ask us questions like, "how do you do it?" and "how can you afford to travel?" often times these questions follow with statements such as, "you guys are so lucky." "i've never had an opportunity to do something like that."

well no offense taken, we're here to tell you that's a bunch of poo! with that mindset you may always be looking at the jonses green with envy. we are "normal" young adults/students/employees with bills to pay just like everybody else. but traveling isn't limited to a certain lucky sum of people nor does it have to be something you just dream about. that is why the traveling triplets are here to help you, to show you that traveling on a small budget is possible. if we can do it, you can do it!

i recently read a wise article and it said something along the lines of making a decision doesn't limit options, it just changes the new choices you get to make. many people make decisions that may lead them to thinking they are now unable to do the things they dream of or if they get lucky they'll get to do them when they retire. i do understand that everybody has different circumstances and conditions to where this truly may be the case, and that is totally okay if that's your chosen path of happiness or situation you've come to peace with. but with the choices we make we do not have to think our options are limited. now is the time to re-evalute your thinking people, because you never know what excuse you'll have next to not go on that vacation you've been planning for years.

i (triplet #3) am proud to say my husband and i were able to visit four countries in central america during a months time, and live on the SAME budget we live on at home! vacation does not have to be expensive. yes, you will have to save some money so you will be able to live on your regular monthly budget during your travels as well as pay the bills (unless you're a nomad?). in our case, we only had to save for the plane tickets to make it work! we figured if we would have stayed in one country for the whole month, we easily would have spent half as much if not less. the fortunate thing about central america is you can travel very cheap from country to country and everything else is reasonably priced. traveling triplets have also traveled throughout asia and been able to have unforgettable experiences for only around $700 (aside from plane tickets)!

helpful budgeting hint: if you are able to put aside 10% of your income a month into a savings account that builds interest (even though the interest rates are currently not that great), you will seriously be amazed at the options available to you! Even if you can't start there; putting aside ten dollars a week, fifty dollars a month, or whatever it may be depending on when you plan on traveling will help tremendously. before you know it you'll have yourself some plane tickets with a huge childish grin on your face!

HOW TO: DETERMINE EXCHANGE RATES

Today we're headed to Central America! We will visit Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras. Something very important to know when traveling is your American dollars are not universal, so you will need to understand the exchange rate; especially if you're traveling on a budget like us. Unlike Panama and El Salvador, the remaining countries in Central America have their own currencies. Here is what you will need to know for the countries we will be visiting:

Costa Rica: colones, 1 USD = 520 CRC

Nicaragua: cordobas, 1 USD = 21 NIO

Guatemala: quetzales, 1 USD = 8 GTQ

Honduras: lempiras, 1 USD = 19 HNL

iGoogle has a simple currency converter that can help you. It might be your best bet to go to a local bank or a Casa de Cambio to get the official exchange rate available because you risk not getting a fair deal by going to businesses or stores. Also, don't forget to call your credit card company before you leave the country so they don't think it's fraud!

There are several helpful websites out there, but here is one you might also find beneficial: http://www.exchangerate.com/

Good luck, and go adventure big on a small budget!