Travel Financing: Flight Or Fight?

I have spent the past two and half months, sharing accommodation with people from all other the world. Sharing stories of travel, the ups and downs and all of the crazy things in between. The pros commonly being the enriching experience of meeting new people, from different Ethnicities, different cultures and with a different outlook on life and one of the common downsides being, financial strain, limiting your future adventures. If you began to fall into the red zone, what would do? Would you chose to get a flight back home or fight?

This is never an easy to decision to make, after all it could completely change your life. It is hard not to let emotion cloud your judgement, try to look at this situation from an unbiased perspective, assess your options and do not be afraid to ask others for help.

The most important factor in all of this is keeping good health. Make sure to check your financing a couple of weeks in advance and ensure that you will have enough cash for the necessities such as food and take into account emergency expenses that might pop up. If you feel as if your going into red zone, you have to decide whether the hardship on you financially is going to be worth the trip and what I mean by the red zone is only having enough money to last you a couple of weeks. You should never dive into a travel plan with only enough cash to get your destination. I have seen this before and it doesn't typically work out, not to mention that you would be taking a serious risk that could potentially cause you harm.

If you find yourself in a tough situation abroad try to stay calm. There are always options.

Couchsurfing: Websites such as couchsurfing.com provide a platform for travellers to interact with locals and stay in their homes. Opening a basic account it totally free, with a limit of 10 requests for stays. If you are struggling to get replies, make sure to read over the profile of the host. Be personal in your messages and ensure the host that you haven't just used a copy and paste message. It might be difficult to find a host without references it being a review based platform. If you have friends on couchsurfing.com you could ask them to write you a personal reference, this will give your potential host reassurance from a third party. If you don't know anybody that could give you a reference then the only thing you can do is focus on your profile, be honest and make sure to upload a profile picture so that the hosts can see that you are a nice guy/girl and not a serial killer.

Work Exchanges: Websites such as worldpackers.com and workaway.info allow users to apply for work in exchange for a place to stay and possibly even your meals. Work on these websites range from hostels to safaris and there is something for everybody. Both of these websites charge a fee for membership, typically around the 50 dollars. If you cannot afford this fee you could always send out some emails in the area.

Earn Money: Provided that you can legally work in your location, the best solution to money troubles is of course by earning more money. If you want to keep on travelling but need more money you could apply for a temporary job or a private contractor job such as UberEats which allows you to work as a private contractor, meaning you get to choose your hours and even your breaks away. UberEats pays you to deliver food via bike, Scooter or car. Please bear in mind that this may not be available in your country and also you will have to have data on your mobile in order to deliver.

If you are currently looking for work, in the meantime you could use websites such as swagbucks.com to earn rewards on filling out surveys. These rewards include gift cards for Paypal and Amazon.

These are only a couple options to prevent you from a night inside a tent or eating road kill. There are plenty of other options out there and I am sure that you have some of your own, please feel free to share your solutions in the comment section! These are just my opinions and what I have learned having started to travel in the last couple of months. Also this is my first post so let me know what you think!