Gap Years for Grown Ups
- Gap Year Money and Finance
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
Henry David Thoreau
 Money
The first step is to work out how much you need for the trip.
To make it easier, divide the money pot into three sections:
| Keeping Home Going |
Trip
(paid for before you go) |
Travel
(paid for as you go) |
| Mortgage/Rent/Storage |
Purchase Main Tickets Eg R.T.W. |
Accommodation (Averaged around £35
a night for 3) |
| Other Payments (Phones etc) |
Connection tickets which can
be bought at a later date |
Food £15 a day allowing
for snacks and ice creams (kids) & emergency bottles
of wine (me) |
| Car payments |
Car or campervan hire |
Petrol and parking |
| Insurances |
Prepaid accommodation |
Phone calls home and Internet Cafes |
| Utilities |
|
Activities (Six times more than anticipated
in New Zealand) |
| Bank charges etc. |
|
Shopping and Souvenirs |
| Tax |
Taxes |
Taxis (Sorry!
couldn't resist) |
Once I had worked out and guesstimated how much I would allow
for each section, (breaking it into sections made it much
easier to cope with, after all, section one, I would have
been paying that anyway in fact I saved money there by being
away. Cool how you can trick yourself when you need to!)
All in all the trip probably cost around £10 000 and
I saved for two years. It was tough, I had two jobs (one from
home but still it was hard work) but I gave up all the extra
fun things like meals out and new clothes and things like
that. Had no mobile phone, walked and cycled when I could.
The girls put their pocket money back into the fund so they
learnt the value of saving too.
 Most
months I managed to save around £500. It wasn't always
easy but when you weigh up a baked bean supper against 7 nights
in a beautiful hotel 12 months down the line baked beans win
every time!
Raising
Money Ideas
NB You can write and sell articles
about your trip
Raise money, finance trip and provides a wonderful record!
Again this is divided into sections:
| Ordinary Job |
Second Job |
Sell Stuff/ask
for birthday/xmas money |
Give Up and or
Cut Back |
| Monthly Salary |
Write and Sell books |
Car Boots |
Gave up Mobile Phone |
| Doing any overtime possible |
Freelance design websites |
Ebay |
Wine on weekdays |
| Asked for a raise! |
Sell my art |
Sounds mean but ask for money not stuff
on birthdays and at Christmas. Better than the giver finding
the gifts at the car boot! |
Trips to cinema |
| |
Do lawn mowing |
Cancel Sky |
| |
Face painting at car boot sales |
Fewer DVD nights |
Once the ball started rolling it got easier and easier and
the girls were very good about not complaining when they missed
out on the odd treat. They have been more than recompensed
and, thankfully, they know it.
Mortgage
I had just been going to lock the doors and
walk away but the Grown Up Gap Year book advised me to speak
to my mortgage lender just to clarify things. They talked
me into having a flexible mortgage so, if I ran short of money
on the trip, I could dip into the equity if I needed to. This
was a big stress reliever and although I didn't need it in
the end it was nice to know I had access to funds.
If you plan to let your house while you are
away, find out just where you stand with your mortgage lender
on this.
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