Big travel desires, little budget?

It’s my belief that we humans overcomplicate damn near everything. Food, travel, work, life, responsibilities - if we spent half the time actually living life as we do in our heads going round and round in an endless loop, we might be in a different place in our lives entirely.

And yet, this is part of the human experience.

One such overcomplication I often find myself in is in the travel sector. I have an insatiable desire to travel the world. I want to see everything, I want to do everything, I want my feet to be in the Earth on every continent, near every ocean, in every sacred spot around the globe. I want to eat all the food, experience all the culture, meet all the people. I have a push-pin travel map on my wall and one of my deepest desires for the end of my life is to look at that map and barely see any bare space.

There’s just one issue… funding such adventures. Ever heard of champagne taste on a beer budget? Yep, that’s me. My wide-eyed travel dreams far exceed my ability to fund them. This has been a struggle for me as long as I can remember, and so quite a few years ago I decided to get crafty.

Having the financial freedom to go and do anything you please is a huge blessing, and it also makes life quite a bit easier. Anything you want is just a card swipe away. But what happens when that isn’t an option?

Having limited financial resources forces you to think outside the box, to get down into the nitty gritty of what that experience was going to hold for you so you can figure out a different route to recreate it for yourself in a way that works within the structure of what’s realistic for you. That is, how do you get what you want and need in a way you can afford.

Enter in Squirrely Wanderlust Adventures. It was my brain-child circa 2016-ish. Back then, I had about as many restrictions as you can imagine around time and money. I had a 2 jobs, a house, 2 dogs, I was married, I had a sick mother. Despite myself working, money never seemed to stretch very far to afford the travel expenses let alone the food, cost of someone watching the dogs, etc.

I felt incredibly stuck and confined. (I was also knee-deep in autoimmune flares, that is a story for a different day, but I bring it in to drop the little nugget that finding creative solutions to things that bring you stress is like a medicine balm for your soul… and you start to heal, little by little.)

That’s when I started researching different places I could take day trips to. Places that were in considerable driving distance where it would be feasible to get there and back in a day. Along the spectrum of what I wanted to do versus what I could do, this seemed like a satiating medium. And it very much was.

I did these kinds of trips for years as a way to always have something to look forward to.

I think we tend to fall into the camp of saving for the big thing. The big trip, the big purchase, the big this, the big that. Sometimes those big things come to fruition, and sometimes they don’t - for all types of different reasons. Saving for big things isn’t bad, but when it comes at the cost of sprinkling magic throughout your whole life…

I decided to stop waiting.

Actually, that’s a lie. What really happened is I got good and frustrated one day and essentially said “fuck this shit.” I planned an adventure for myself and off I went.

I found these little trips sprinkled around my life to be replenishing, satiating. A breath of fresh air, some room to breath, time to be in my own energy and recalibrate my fried nervous system. This is an essential part of proactive self-care, nervous system nourishment that is. It is imperative we take time for ourselves, to be by ourselves and away from all of our responsibilities. Even just for the day. Even just for a few hours.

Completely away.

Alone.

It was reminiscent of when I was younger and my mother would book a local hotel with a pool for the night just to get away. The hotel was literally about 20 minutes down the road, but it was away from the responsibilities of home life. In that hotel, there was room service for food, there was a pool and playground to keep me and a friend occupied and it was a place my mom could relax as well and just be.

It was a win-win for everyone.

I think we overlook these simple pleasures because in the world of social media and the “look at me” culture we see all these people going on these grand adventures to these luxurious places and it creates envy, jealousy, longing. We overlook what’s right in front of us, because it doesn’t look like what everyone else is doing.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

Firstly, I’m a HUGE fan of getting off social media all together. While it’s a great tool in some respects, it’s a huge time and energy suck in others. Alas, again, a different post for a different day…

If you find yourself in a similar position as me and have this intense desire to escape, but for time, money or responsibility reasons you can’t seem to get very far, why not consider getting lost in your own backyard. Regularly.

A few ideas…

• Consider your ideal escape. A beach? A forest? A big city? Is it feasible to find somewhere you’ve never been that can replicate the feelings of being in this ideal place?
• If you’re looking to get as far deep into nature and away from people as possible, consider checking to see where you could go to do that within your geographic location. If you live in or around Chicago, or in the Midwest in general, I happened to stumble across this incredible document of all kinds of nature preserves and hiking in the Midwest. GOLD!
• Make it financially realistic. Maybe instead of dining at a fancy restaurant, you pack a picnic and eat on the beach. Maybe instead of bringing/buying wine for your trip, you go on a winery tour to get more bang for your buck. Maybe instead of booking the hotel, you stay at an AirBNB or a bed and breakfast, or if you’re still relatively close to home maybe you scoot on back home to sleep in your own bed and keep your same routine.
• Instead of driving/flying, consider taking the train or the bus. Yes, you may get to your destination faster if you drove, not to mention having the freedom to come and go as you please without having to wait on schedules, but there’s something to be said about sitting down and allowing yourself to be transported without having to be in control. (Not to mention traffic, the stress of other drivers, etc.)

Getting away from “normal” life for the day, even two or three, can be incredibly cathartic. In our constant go-go-go pace of life, we don’t realize how much this grinds on our nervous system and sometimes we’re in need of an escape from it all.

It can be incredibly simple… pick a day or date range. Pick a location. Put it in your calendar. Say “no” to anything that falls on that day/range.

Get excited. Then GO.

Have fun, let the adventure take you where it may. Try not to restrict yourself with time schedules so you’re not rushed. Leave time for magic. See a farm stand along the way? Stop and enjoy. Leave the day loosey-goosey for yourself.

Most of all though, create the space for yourself to have a deep state of replenishment and nourishment. Turn your phone on silent (if you can). Have boundary conversations with your loved ones that you’ll be disconnected for that time and to only call if there’s an emergency. If there’s some hurt feelings (especially from kids), try explaining that you need this time to be a better version of yourself for them (less crabby, more playful, etc.)

This is YOUR time, and you have to be in charge of giving it to yourself.

We all need more of that.