95. How to travel without killing your savings

Travel is supposed to be one of the things money gives you more freedom to enjoy. But when a holiday can cost $15,000 instead of $5,000, how do you keep seeing the world without feeling like every trip is sending your finances backwards?

In this episode, Dave and Hayden compare the simple principles and slightly more extreme hacks they use to keep travel costs down, from letting flight deals influence the destination to shared bathrooms, camping, house sitting and even taking annual leave to stay home.

In this episode we'll discuss:

✈️ Why Hayden thinks a typical one-to-three-week trip can be roughly one-third flights, one-third accommodation and one-third everything else, and why that puts the biggest savings opportunities in two obvious places.

💸 How spending $5,000 instead of $15,000 on a trip can change what remains available to invest, and why delaying the most expensive destinations can be different from giving them up altogether.

⚡ Why the best low-cost airline deals can disappear within hours, and why flexible travellers may get better value by letting the deal influence the destination instead of starting with a fixed itinerary.

🏨 What paying an extra $50 for your own bathroom reveals about how quickly comfort upgrades can become automatic, even when you barely use the room.

🏕️ How hostels, pods, campsites and house sitting can make expensive destinations more

accessible without turning every holiday into a bare-bones endurance test.

🧠 Why "travel inflation" can work a lot like lifestyle inflation, and how gradually expanding your comfort zone can change what feels acceptable to spend.

🏡 Why Dave sees taking annual leave and staying home as a legitimate travel hack, especially if holidays are becoming the only escape from a working year you do not enjoy.

📅 Why booking flexible accommodation early, checking prices again later and travelling outside peak periods can sometimes matter more than obsessing over small daily purchases.