Trifter

As a poor student, or a victim of the credit crunch your dreams of travelling the world may be slipping desperately away from you. However, spending lots of money is not  the only way to get yourself away, its possible to travel on very little money indeed, All you need is perseverance and the willingness to put in some hard work and effort!!

Firstly. You need to book your escape route, try and search for cheap flights online, doing it yourself is often the best way to save the pennies, STA travel are fantastic for around the world trips (www.STA.com ) , however, for simple return flights you may find a better deal searching on your own back on the internet. Eurostar (www.eurostar.com) is becoming increasingly cheaper, with great return deals, consider going by rail if you’re heading to places like Europe – it’s greener too! And of course don’t forget Easyjet our favourite friend (www.easyjet.com- ).

Getting Around

There are many wallet friendly ways to do this, the cheapest by far is to get out onto the motorway, hide any big hairy men you’re with and stick your thumb out. Hitchhiking is a fantastic way to travel with no money, although it comes with a few…er risks it can be a lot of fun, meeting locals, some may even offer a bed to stay! (but again it’s not exactly the safest option). For the less brave seek out a rail pass, in Europe you can knock something like a third of your rail travel. In North America get an ‘all you travel’ month pass on Amtrak (www.amtrak.com )or Greyhound (www.greyhound.com) , or how about buying some old banger and using that to get from A to B. You can also buy an under 25s railcard in some European countries that knock a third off rail travel. There’s also car sharing, search on the internet for car shares going your way!

Eating

Ok, here’s where you get really cheap!When you first get to your hostel, seek out any ‘free food’ shelves in the kitchen, there may be some left over pasta rolling around in there. Collect free food as you hop to each place. You’ll find real bargain meals if you slink down the backstreets and find real local places. (This means tearing yourself away from your beloved Lonely Planet guidebook I’m afraid). Meals here will be affordable to locals and therefore cheap. This will also give you a taste of actual authentic food from the country.

Accommodation

There are lots of ways to bag yourself a bed. 1. Offer your services at a hostel, if you’re staying in one place for a while why not work for your stay. It may even be lots of fun too! 2. WWOOFING (nothing to do with canines) this stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, www.wwoof.org. If you sign up you can immediately have access to a list of farms all over the world, here you work for free, on farming jobs such as picking grapes or harvesting olives in exchange you get a room with the family your working for and all your meals, its also a great way to gain a real insight into a culture and to enhance your language skills! 3. Oh and not to forget good old www.coachsurfing.com , not only can you seek out a free bed for a night or two, you may make some new friends, just be careful and all that.

Good Old Fashioned Work

Try www.Bunac.com for a job abroad, the cheapest way to do this is to avoid signing up fees and get a visa yourself, this may be a lot of hard work though.  For those who want to learn a language consider work exchange schemes, if you want to hang out in a place for a long while this is by far the cheapest way to get language lessons, look up http://www.cia-france.com/work-exchange/index.htm you can work on the French Riviera for lessons and accommodation. Not bad eh?

And No Slurging

 The best way to save money of course is to be really tight and just not get swept away with any crazy over indulgences. This means no meals out, no fancy ice creams or chocolate bars. Of course the strictness of this rule totally depends on how much money you have to play with!

So, no need to slave away in cold old miserable home dreaming of foreign lands, you can get out there now! With a bit of forward planning you can organise a fantastic trip on a teeny budget!