Posts tagged travel

What is the biggest lesson you learned in your travels?

Self development Spending money

Someone recently asked, “What’s the biggest lesson you learned in your travels?”

I didn’t have to think twice. The first thing that popped into my mind was… 

Do not buy pre-arranged travel packages. Period.

Some of the beautiful ladies from The Solo Female Traveler Network mentioned, 50 Travel Tips on Spending Less, that one of their ways to make sure they stay on budget is to purchase everything in advance - that way, you know what you are getting yourself into.

I would agree if that was done by me as an organizer, using booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb. 

I, however, have fallen into the trap that was fed by my urge to make an impulse decision - to book a last minute ticket through a travel agency, Holiday Factory. Apologies to myself for making this decision, and here is why I apologize to myself - and promise her to not ever fall into that trap ever again.

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The Experience Matters as much as the Music (Product)

Consumer Behavior Customer experience Spending money 2 Comments

Music records. 

Have you ever thought of buying those? I know I never did. 

My generation grew up with tape cassettes, followed by CDs, then the mp3 players, then the iPod… and now, well, our iPhone.

But, music records? Those I have seen only in the black and white moves. Something from the past. 

Not until I stumbled upon a collector. Someone who would search for the music record stores, who would look for them in hidden gems… Someone who would go to flea markets to try and search and find special records.

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I might need that … so I buy it, I keep it, I pack it | Tales of an Excessive Spender

Spending money

Building on my impulse decision I mentioned in my earlier post, Do impulse decisions screwup your finances?, I can’t help reflect on my possessions - or to be more precise, the number of possessions I have.

I know. It’s completely out of the blue. Some might think, it’s random, but it’s not. 

You know how we work hard to get an apartment, then get a bigger apartment, then perhaps a deluxe… and all the way up to a house or villa? 

That is reflected in our innate need for more. 

I guess what I am trying to say is, that no matter what you currently have, you will always want something bigger.

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Do impulse decisions screwup your finances?

Self development Spending money 1 Comment

Let’s talk about impulse decisions because I definitely fall victim of those ones. Not to say that I don’t enjoy those decisions. In fact, most of the time I actually do very much enjoy them, and perhaps that’s the reason why I keep on embarking on those impulse decisions. One… right after the other. 

And if that wouldn’t impact my financial situation, I guess it wouldn’t bother me that much, or let’s say, it wouldn’t trigger me to think about it in the meantime… but it is. 

You see, while reading, researching and trying to understand why we buy the things we do, and what triggers us to do it, I completely wiped out the impact of which generation you are part of. Each generation has different triggers and that is because they have grown up in specific atmospheres that impact their spending behaviors.

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50 Weird but effective tricks for spending money while traveling

Spending money 2 Comments

Being on my spending less mission, I asked women from all over the world a simple question, in one of my favorite groups on Facebook, The Solo Female Traveler Network

What do you do to not overspend in vacations?

In just a one day, I have received more than 300+ responses. Crazy impressive, right? It’s beautiful to be part of this community that would support women from any spot of the world, traveling to any part of the world, even if that support was just emotional.

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