When you have the chance to visit foreign lands and discover new cultures, meet interesting and exciting people and get away from your normal surrounding, you realize the richness and true reason for living.  Each of us has a dream trip in our minds that allow us to do this and if you ask us about it, you will be met with smiles and great reasons why we have to get there.

But the reality is that these types of trips, where none of the amenities is off limits to us, are very expensive and require our either having large savings or that we save the money by whatever means necessary. Saving for the trip of your dreams may seem impossible, particularly when you need to continue to paying off the bills you currently have in the meantime. But take heart because what can get you there are some tips and tools that we can provide. Here is a list of them that will get you to your dream vacation.

Understand Your Income and Expenses

The way to get from point A to point B financially always begins with budgeting. You need to get a sense of your income and expenses and find out how you can improve the former and lower the latter. So do a quick assessment of all the ways you make money and add up that money based on what you actually take home In other words work with the net amounts since that is what you actually see each month. If you get a tax rebate from the government add that in as a one-time income event as well.

Your expenses will be more complicated because most people never take the time to become aware of and add up what they actually spend each month. You are going to need some tools here and the best one to get is a receipt tracker app. This tool will not only help you to put all of your receipts in one place for easy viewing, it will also get you discounts and cash back on many of the services you already use and pay full price for. So you can both be aware of your expenses and lower them at the same time.

Declutter and Sell It!

If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that we have many things that we no longer use or need, taking up space in our homes. How about going through your clothing, furniture, electronics, books and other valuables with an eye on selling what you don’t use any more.  You can have a garage sale or go to a second hand shop with these items, the result will be less clutter and more money for your dream trip.

Save on Shopping

One of the biggest expenses most people have is their food shopping. In addition to paying too much for food, many never eat what they buy, it simply goes bad in their refrigerators. So spend a few minutes to find out what you can save on your shopping bill. One supermarket will sell several products cheaper than another, and in this case only buy those things from each market that is the cheapest. Also look for brands that are on sale and cheaper than what you normally buy. If you make a few trips and shop smarter chances are you can save a large percentage of your food costs. This will amount to hundreds of dollars each year. By the way, use this same tactic when you go clothing shopping and when you eat out and you will save a comparable amount of money.