Where Would You Go With $10,000?

Quite the question, right?

I took me quite a while to decide. Do I split the money into $5,000 chunks and take two epic trips? Or do I spend it all on one location and live like a king? Or do I pinch every last penny and see as much of the world as I can?

Then it dawned on me that the question really wasn’t all that challenging to answer. My current savings goal is to save $10,000 to, you guessed it, travel. To New Zealand. And other places of course.

My plan is to spend a month in New Zealand. So how will I spend the 10k?

Unfortunately, flights to the island are not priced very friendly. A quick Google search of flights from Fargo, North Dakota to New Zealand pretty much makes me want to cry. I will be handing about $2,000 over to whichever airline will give me a better deal.

Cringe.

Okay, eight grand left. Unfortunately, my lovely SUV (it’s Cinderella blue :))(that is fully decked out with all the awesome features I could totally live without, but it was a killer deal) cannot come with me. And I can’t exactly rely on walking around the country when I will definitely need a car.

A quick search on rental cars shows that I can expect to pay about $2,000 for a decent sized car for the month. By decent sized, I mean not a clown car. I’m six foot two, clowns cars are torture.

$6,000 left.

I’m not one for planning things out in advance and having every detail figured out. Life is more fun when its a bit spontaneous.

I would fly into Auckland and make my way south along one coast all the way down to the southernmost point of the country. Then I would make my way up along the other coast back to Auckland. I would see and do everything that I could along the way.

One way to save money while I travel is to buy ham, cheese, bread, and mustard. I make sandwiches along the way. That way I don’t have an insane amount of money poured into fancy restaurants along the way.

It will be a whirlwind of a month, but definitely worth it!

Check back often in the coming months for some exciting news!

So let’s talk about saving money for a moment.

Saving money can be hard. Really hard.

Especially with the push from society to have the latest and greatest gadgets, clothes, etc.

I have a couple of tips that are helping me save right now. The first one is live with your parents. Living with your Mom and Dad can be tough, but rent is super cheap. Yes, my parents charge me rent. Before you get all bent out of shape, they are doing it to teach me responsibility. And as much as it sucks, I understand why. Maybe you can strike a bargain about doing chores around the house to knock off some of what you owe.

Say buh-bye to Netflix, Hulu, and whatever other streaming services you have. If you have both Netflix and Hulu, that’s $20 a month!

And there are many other ways to help you save money. Look for a post in the future. For now, though, I am going to direct you guys over to a wonderful blog post written by Logan from Earnest. In his post, he highlights 7 ways to budget for happiness and includes several things that young people in their twenties (like me! and probably you!) need to start thinking about.

Many, many, many thanks to Megan Johnson from Red Around the World for providing the photos of New Zealand! Be sure to pop on over to her blog to see more of her beautiful photography and travel insights.

I was prompted to share where I would travel to if I had a large budget, like $10,000. I just loved the idea so much I couldn’t wait to share my ideas and resources like Earnest with you.