A lot of people wonder how we can afford to travel full-time. What if I told you we spend less on average traveling the world full time than we did monthly with two full-time jobs in the US, and we both work less. I bet you would be intrigued!?
Well other than transit between places being less expensive, infrastructure being better in most European countries, the cost of most goods being less and in general a lack of cars, subscription services such as internet/ cable, monthly expenses such as water, sewer, electric, gas, garbage, etc… We stay for free about 65% of the time by house sitting!
We learned about House Sitting from my friend at Heart Of A Gypsy. We met in a blogging group
Now if you’re sharp you’re thinking, how the hell do they find house sits overseas?! Well, let me tell you. We learned about House Sitting from my friend at Heart Of A Gypsy.
We met in a blogging group on facebook called, “Nomadic Matt’s Superstar Blogging Group”, where professional blogger and full-time digital Nomad Matt Kepnes teaches regular people like you and me how to blog as a business. We’ve found it super helpful and if you are following us because you are interested in how to make money as a digital nomad we HIGHLY recommend this course. It’s 100% refundable too, so there is no risk in signing up. Plus I would never have learned about house sitting if it were not for this course and the groups it gives me access to. (You can access it by clicking here!)
Anyway, the group has allowed connection to so many cool people and my friend Lisa told me about this nifty website called Trusted House Sitters. It’s amazing, I love it.
Basically, you trade house-sitting for free accommodation! You pay a small fee (about $120 USD per year, that’s like $10 a month y’all!) and you have your account verified. You simply create a profile and fill out your experience with house/ pet sitting. From there you have access to THOUSANDS of house sits around the world. In essence, you watch their home and pets for free and they give you a free place to stay. It’s brilliant! And if you’re a pet owner and or a homeowner who normally pays someone to house sit you can sign up as a homeowner and find FREE sitters for your pets!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH MONEY YOU WOUD SAVE?!?!??!
In the entire first month of our journey, we only paid $350 USD in accommodation costs because so much of our time was covered by house sits. Our average monthly expenditure on housing has been less than $800 USD. THAT’S $700 LESS THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE FOR RENT IN THE USA!
Additionally, because of Trusted House Sitters, and house sitting in general, we’ve been able to have really unique travel experiences that we would have otherwise never sought out. We have stayed on an island off the coast of Scotland, and adorable English Villages outside of London. We chilled out in a villa in Paris and enjoyed the English Countryside of Lincolnshire and York. Our favorite house sit was in Cork Ireland 10 minutes from the City center. We would walk our fluffy Cavishions in the mornings and spend the afternoons in cafes and bars drinking Guinness and tea and working on building websites and apps.
Because the house sits offer the comforts of home you get a kitchen to cook in, a washer to clean clothes, and free wifi so it’s SUPER ideal for budget travel and for people who have Celiac Disease and need to be able to cook and store their food. Some of them offer cars for use too.
If it sounds magical you should know… it is.
About 65% of our stays have been house sits and it’s been an amazing new and affordable travel style for us. There is a MASSIVE community of traveling house sitters that we’ve connected with as a result and it keeps costs down while giving us furry friends to play with! There’s a trick to getting your first sit and it’s important to create a compelling profile that we talk more about in our travel tips “How to Create a Trusted House Sitters Profile that WOW’s.”
You see, traveling doesn’t need to be expensive. If you’re willing to be creative, flexible and are open to new experiences you can travel at a very low cost. I’m not saying it’s all sunshine and rainbows, I mean we’ve had some crazy experiences as house sitters too. but overall our experience has been very positive. If you have a smallish budget but biggish travel dreams you can use Trusted House Sitters to cut down on costs and plan amazing vacations for little more than the price of a flight! So what are you waiting for!? Sign up NOW!
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