hello welcome back to my channel welcome to another video if you're new here my name is Jemima and today I'm going to be talking about the biggest money mistakes that I made while traveling because let's be real I've made a lot I like to think that I'm like pretty Frugal and like good at sticking to a budget but there's definitely been a few times maybe even more than a few times and I've been like oh I just wasted a lot of money when I didn't really need to so I figure I'm just going to impart my wisdom and share with you guys the mistakes that I've made so then in the future you won't make them and then hopefully by me repeating them I will also not make the same mistakes again I did this video about how I went to Europe I was there for about nine ten months and I spent an average of about 40 a day which is like pretty good however the whole time I was there I definitely made a lot of mistakes that wasted a lot of money so um yeah absolute first thing is making sure that you choose the right travel money card so for ages I was just using the one that was like connected to my bank like a Commonwealth Bank travel money card because it was really easy to use or instant transfers it seemed like it was a pretty good deal so I used that for like maybe a year and then when I was traveling through Europe I was there for a while so I opened a account with revolutely the currency exchange on there was so much better than on my combat card like commbank was really easy because it was linked to my Australian account however I was getting a terrible rate so I was like okay well that's the end of com bank for me and then the next trip was like two years later because of covert but my next big trip that I did I went to Thailand and I like really took the time to research what was going to be the best card for me and I found that wise I think it used to be called transferwise and now it's just called wise that's the best in terms of getting the best rates they do have fees but once I did the calculations it was better to pay the fees than it was to not pay fees and get a shitty rate so say for example I would put like a thousand Australian dollars into Thai baht and I ended up saving honestly probably like a hundred dollars every thousand or two thousand Australian dollars that I would transfer so definitely worth getting wise and maybe it's different for different people depending on where you live blah blah blah but from everything that I've researched wise is definitely the way to go in terms of bang for your buck I did get sucked into using my Qantas travel money card for a while because you get really good points on it and I was like oh freak up fire points but the exchange rates are so that you're better off like buying flights rather than the money that you lose through that so number one tip is don't get sucked into a bad travel money card it's always worth doing the research okay my next big mistake is really relying on ATMs so when I got the wise card they said okay there's no International ATM fees perfect I was like that's great that's easy however I didn't really think about the fact that there's still the local ATM fee so the local ATM is still going to be charging you and the ATMs in Thailand were charging us like 10 15 every time we wanted to get cash out which was really really annoying so after making that expensive mistake um I now I'm very cautious about like taking out a lot of money at once like obviously I don't want to be carrying around heaps of money but at the same time it's really expensive to keep going to the ATM over and over again so for example like when I went to New Caledonia earlier this year we were only there for a week so I just got out the money in Australia in Australian dollars went to an Exchange Place exchanged the money and then just had cash the whole trip so we didn't have to go to the ATM once when I was in Bali I was there for a month so it was a bit longer I definitely didn't want to be walking around with heaps and heaps of cash so I kind of strategically did it so that I would only have to get one ATM withdrawal although if you're going to a place where you can use card a lot like for example I was just in the US and you can use card everywhere there so I didn't even get any money out at all I just paid for everything on my card and wise cards have no international fees which is a perfect all right the next big Financial mistake that I have made is not planning ahead so I do love being spontaneous don't get me wrong I love like a good spontaneous trip and you can sort of be like oh I feel like doing this today I'm gonna do it oh I met this cool person and they're going here I'm gonna go with them you know however it's a real fine like Balancing Act planning far ahead is important in some regards like I remember once this was a really long time ago but I was like in Paris to my 21st birthday and we needed to get back to London and we were like oh we'll just get the train it's easy the the train tickets were like 20 euros or something but then we didn't book it and then like the week before we went to pay for it and it was like 200 Euros so yeah sometimes it's really worth booking ahead I love being spontaneous while I'm traveling like I love being able to sort of go with the flow meet new people do whatever but at the same time you do sort of have to plan ahead it's like quite a delicate balance one time I was in Kosovo I went to this cool City because it was like near a mountain that I wanted to hike and there's only one hostel in the whole City and I was like oh it's fine like no one really goes here so I'll just like rock up and get a room turns out the weekend that I was there there was some like Film Festival on so it was really busy walked all the way to this hostel and then find out they didn't have a room so then I had to like walk back into town and find somewhere else to stay it was more expensive and I didn't get to meet anyone because I wasn't like in a hostel so sometimes it is worth planning ahead like even if you think like oh it'll be fine like maybe just check and make sure there isn't like a random Film Festival on also especially if you're traveling in the summer in the peak time you really want to be booking ahead for like the big things that you kind of know you're going to be doing whether it's you know a ferry to the Greek Islands or um I don't know a tour of the catacombs in Paris something that you think is gonna like sell out or get more expensive as time goes on it's worth planning ahead for those specific things speaking of planning ahead I think it's really important to have a plan even if it's a rough plan of food and eating out like the one thing I'm always gonna spend money on while I'm traveling is food like I'm not the kind of person who can just go to a new place and then go to the supermarket and get a sandwich and be happy like no I love food it's one of the main reasons that I travel to try new foods so yeah usually I have like a list of things that I want to try places I want to eat etc etc but all the time that I'm like oh whatever I'll just be both spontaneous and see what I can find that's when you get caught short and you end up having to spend heaps of money on something you didn't even really want or you end up accidentally just having to go to McDonald's because you can't find anything else and that is the worst feeling so I always like to have like a few things saved on Google Maps so that yes I can go out and sort of wander around and see what I find but if I don't find anything at least I know I've got something saved as like a backup plan and you don't end up spending way too much money on food that you didn't even want so I am like very reliant on Google Maps I'm a huge planner I always have like a huge dock before I go somewhere of all the places I want to see all the things I want to do everywhere I want to eat etc etc I have made a video before about like how to find the best places and how to find the cool stuff when you're traveling so check out if you are interested another thing that I thought would be good for saving money but ended up costing me more was staying in accommodation like far out of the city for example I went to Prague and I didn't want to stay in any of the like cool hostels in the city because they were like a bit more expensive I think they were like 40 euros a night and I was kind of used to paying 20 euros so I stayed in this like shitty hostel that was pretty far out of the city center and I was like this is great I'm saving money however I had to like get public transport every time I wanted to go somewhere which cost money I had to get an Uber from the train station when I arrived because it was in the middle of nowhere and I ended up like just like missing out on really exploring Prague because I'd be like well I don't really want to be out late at night and then have to like Trek back to this shitty hostel like you know that was the kind of thing that I wish that I had spent the money to stay in the city and then I would have saved the money by not being in the middle of nowhere okay this one is kind of hard to get around but a big mistake that a lot of people make is traveling in peak time like obviously you're going to want to have a European summer like if you're gonna go to Europe you're going to want to go during summer you're going to want to be there in like July August because that's just like the best time to be there but if you can it's better to go in shoulder season so like May September I guess um things are so much cheaper okay I just realized I didn't really like make my point very well I'm not saying that during the high season you should just like stay home and do nothing what I'm trying to say is like maybe during those months avoid the really busy places like the Greek Islands Amalfi Coast like South France like those places are going to be really pricey in the High season but a bit cheaper in the off season and the shoulder season but in those months in the High season maybe use that time to explore places that are a little bit cheaper and like off the beaten path like Poland Slovakia Budapest um just like places that aren't the typical Instagram spots you know what I mean I know what I mean you know what I mean I ended up going to Athens and Greece like right in the peak time because my friends were there and I was like well I want to go and see my friends but it just cost me so much more than it would have if I had gone in one of the shoulder Seasons same with Croatia I went to Croatia because I wanted to go sailing and obviously I'm gonna have to go sailing in summer which was stunning and beautiful and lovely but then when I was like traveling around Croatia everything else was super pricey like again if you're just going to Europe for a month and you want to go during the summer go for it you know go go have your European summer but if you're traveling sort of longer term or you're more flexible it's definitely worth exploring shoulder season travel or even like off season I think a lot of places are really beautiful in the off States and like they're not quite as good they don't have quite the same Vibe but it's a different vibe like exploring a city in the off season is kind of you get a real Vibe of the actual City not just what the tourists are like I don't know Food For Thought okay the one of the most expensive things that I did when I'm traveling around Europe was carrying a big bag that had to be checked luggage okay sure when you fly like Sydney to London you don't have to pay for your baggage but then all those cheap flights that are around Europe you have to pay like an extra like 50 to 100 euros just to check your bag I really wish that I hadn't taken a big bag so since then I have invested in an amazing little backpack I took it to Bali for a month I took it to Mexico for a month I took it to Thailand for like four months It just fits everything in it perfectly and it saves so much money on excess baggage fees I've definitely like perfected the art of fitting everything in packing cubes are my best friend I made this video about how I pack everything into a carry-on size bag if you want to watch yes it is not ideal for winter that's a thing I was in Europe for summer and winter so I had like a million different like outfit choices for the weather so yeah maybe if you're traveling in winter it's not so easy but it's definitely good for like traveling to warmer countries in the warmer months uh just quickly using mobile data is the biggest Financial mistake ever even if you're like oh it's only like ten dollars a day even if you're going for a week that's still 70 bucks you can get a local SIM card basically anywhere you go for probably twenty dollars it's an instant money saver like sure maybe we'll take like five ten minutes out of your day the first day you get there but never use mobile data oh it's just like easy but such a waste of money and finally I find that a lot of My Accidental money spending goes on booking flights because I am not as organized as I would like to be I kind of tend to leave things to the last minute which is not ideal when you're booking flights some people think that like booking flights last minute is a good idea because it's cheaper but it's only a good idea if you don't care where you're going you don't care what day you're going and you don't care what time of day you leave if you actually have a day that you want to leave and a place that you want to go to book in advance when you're booking flights I think everyone already knows always go on incognito mode when you are booking because then the cookies don't remember like where you wanted to go blah blah blah blah something something Tech data something being flexible is obviously ideal because then you know say I feel like oh I want to go to Thailand in July then you can sort of go on and you can say well actually if I go on the first it'll cost me like 500 less than if I go on like the 17th so maybe I'll just like be a bit more flexible and shift my timeline around that there is an app called Hopper I've actually never used this so maybe I should be taking my own advice here but I've heard that this app called Hopper is really good for knowing like when to book so for example I'm going to America in March to see Taylor Swift and I haven't booked my flights yet if I book My Flights now they're gonna cost like 2100 but if I go on Hopper it might say oh hey wait until like middle of December the flights usually will go down by that point I have spoken about it before but I do love the everywhere feature on sky scanner you can just put in a date put in your style location and say everywhere and it will tell you the cheapest places that you can fly to on that day which is ideal again if you're like super flexible it's not for everybody but it's a good way to not spend heaps of money on flights and also explore new places okie dokie this kind of brings me to the end of my video I hope you've enjoyed listening to all my stupid mistakes hopefully it's made you a bit more prepared or at least makes you feel better because you've maybe made these mistakes too so you're not alone if you have any other suggestions for likes Stupid Money mistakes please leave them in the comments below I want to hear it if you're planning a trip I would definitely suggest checking out my little like how to plan a cool trip and how to plan a cool trip on a budget videos those are going to be really helpful for you okay I'm Gonna Leave You here thank you so much for watching thank you for watching all the way to the end you are a real one I love you all and I'll see you in the next video farewell