The Ageing Traveller series is written by Rose Howell, who has been traveling the world for over 40 years, beginning with New Zealand and then the ‘Hippy trail’ in the 70’s. Her travels have taken her to; Asia, Middle East, UK, Europe, Africa, South America, USA, Canada, China and the Pacific Islands. In total she has visited 67 countries plus all the states of Australia except Western Australia, and her goal is to make the century club. Her passion for travel is documented on her website www.ageing-hipsters-travel.com.

Click here to find out more about Rose.

Want a luxury holiday? Here are ten ways to afford one

1. Cut out every day costs
   
   
   • Take your lunch, morning and afternoon tea to work instead of buying. Buying lunch and coffee/tea can set you back approximately £10 a day and that equates to £50 a working week, and £200 a month. So a saving of £2400 a year which could cover a return flight to somewhere nice.
   • Limit takeaway meals. If you have to have junk food at least once a week, buy it at the supermarket and heat it up when you get home. It will save you ££££ that you can put away towards your holiday.
   • Limit going out to dinner to once a month instead of weekly. The cost of dinner weekly can range from £20 (£1040 per year) to £100 (£5200 per year).
   • Planning your meals for the week based on what's on sale at the grocery store will save you heaps (as long as you stick to your list).


2. Develop a budget and stick to it
   
   If you've created a budget, you know exactly how much money you have coming in, and how much is going out. You can then make plans to save for your trip. Use an online budget planner.


3. If you have a credit card, put it to good use
   
   You can put all your purchases on your credit card and pay it off before it accrues the interest. There are many benefits to doing this. A warning, you have to be disciplined because the amount can easily creep up on you and before you know it you are in debt.


4. Check out “Reward” program credit cards
   
   Reward program credit cards allow you to earn points while you spend, with benefits such as free flights, gifts, cashback and other rewards. This may be a way of getting your flights for nothing.
   Many cards include travel insurance which could save you.
   
   I use my Westpac card for all my flight bookings because I and whomever is traveling with me such as husband and children are covered by insurance.
   


5. Take Advantage of high Interest Earning Accounts
   
   Open a ‘hard to access’ high interest earning account and make regular payments straight from your pay. Just an extra £100 a fortnight will give you a balance of £2400 plus interest over a year. You can also deposit your tax returns or any other money coming in to make it grow faster.
   
   This is something I have done for many years and it has paid for all of our holidays. You don’t miss the money especially if you have it taken out of your pay. I always tell people put it in the account and forget about it. I have set it up that I have to go into the bank if I want to withdraw. This discourages me from going to an ATM to draw money out. I don’t carry the debit/credit card with me so that I can’t make any purchases with it.


6. Sell unwanted goods on eBay or other sites
   
   I have been selling a lot of unwanted goods lately on eBay and have made a reasonable amount of money that has gone into my high interest account.
   
   
   • Sell your unwanted or broken gold/silver jewellery or trinkets. The price of gold is reasonable at the moment. Check online for the price as it goes up and down daily.
   • Clear out the wardrobe and sell the clothes you don’t wear anymore.
   • Go through your cupboards and clear out anything you don’t use and sell it.


7. Take in a boarder
   
   If you happen to have an extra room or two in your house, renting out the room can be an easy way to make money on the side. Depending on the location of your house, you can ask for anything from £80+ a week for a room. That is a nice amount by the end of a year.


8. Get a Money Box
   
   Put all of your change into a money box or jar, you will be surprised how fast it grows. Put your lunch/coffee/tea money that you have saved from not buying at the store into the jar. Eg: £5 a day will fill the jar nicely in a year. As it builds up, deposit into your high interest account.


9. Travel off season
   
   You can get some good discounts when travelling out of season and just by moving your dates by one or two weeks you can save thousands in flights and accommodation.
   
   
   • Accommodation can be advertised 50% cheaper. Ask why first as it could be cheaper due to bad weather or renovations.
   • You can get cheaper flights during off peak seasons. Prices can lower during weekdays when the airlines aren’t as full. Early morning and late evening flights can also be cheaper and often less busy and less crowded.


10. Discount travel
    
    If you know when you are travelling begin searching for airline/accommodation deals. You may save £££ on both.

Rose has been traveling the world for over 40 years, beginning with New Zealand and then the ‘Hippy trail’ in the 70’s. Her travels have taken her to; Asia, Middle East, UK, Europe, Africa, South America, USA, Canada, China and the Pacific Islands. In total she has visited 67 countries plus all the states of Australia except Western Australia, and her goal is to make the century club.
She has taken all kinds of transport and accommodation from budget to luxury. She has travelled through war zones, survived a bus accident in the Andes and visited areas that are no longer available to tourists, such as the Khyber Pass and Bamiyan Statues in Afghanistan.

Rose wants to inspire others to travel and offers free advice to all travellers in particular those who are embarking on their first travel experience. She has a passion for travel and since retiring from an Adult teaching position with TafeSA, has recently resumed clocking up kilometres interstate and overseas.
Her daughters have inherited the travel bug from their parents. The eldest daughter is a travel journalist/documentary maker based in a beautiful area called ‘Byron Bay’ in New South Wales and with her husband, has two globetrotting toddlers who at the age of 5 and 2 also love to travel. Her youngest daughter and fiancé have recently returned from 2 years working and traveling in the UK and Europe. They have only been home a couple of months and are already getting restless. Oh the travel bug!!!!

Rose has developed a website for the over 50 traveller www.ageing-hipsters-travel.com where you can access for free all her advice and past and present stories. You can add stories of your own too.

She also has a blog on:
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