Hello again, Steemit

I've been inactive for quite a while now. Things have been pretty chaotic especially at work for me. I only have 2 months left though before I leave for England!

I wanted to share a little more on what I'm doing with regards to the trip. A lot of what I want to write about doesn't have much of an audience, but I still enjoy writing it! This is saving up for a trip when you're a kid, and getting out there and doing what you want.

Money is obviously the biggest barrier and that's what I wanted this post to be about - how I save money. Obviously I can't speak for everyone because I don't pay things like car expenses or mortgages.

Getting a job is obviously step one. I actually started out by making my own business, a dog walking service. I charged $10 per hour and advertised on Gumtree, it took about 3 months to get my first client though, which was a little discouraging but a great surprise. I got the message on my birthday, several weeks after I'd basically given up and moved on. After the first client I got another 3. One of them didn't work out, and after a while one of them moved house, too far for me to ride my bike to. I had 2 continuous clients that went on for quite a while (I still walk for one now).

I got my first job in July that year (my birthday is in April, to give an idea of how long it lasted). I applied to a lot of jobs on proper sites but found that if you have no experience, it's best to use Gumtree. On Gumtree I got 3 interviews, and was offered all of them. I turned one down, and took the other two, working them both at once. This is as well as the dog walking! I have a little more on the experience here. The bottom line is - if you're looking for an entry level job, Gumtree is a life saver!

I was working 2 jobs as well as dog walking (my sister thankfully helped me out with that a lot) and things were getting a bit crazy so over the next 4 months I dropped one of my dog walking clients. I also left the cafe job (it was awful).

November time was when I really started saving. I needed $4,000 in total for the trip, so had to be saving 90% of what I earned each week. These are a few strategies I've used/been using.

• Don't go in Target. You may think you can just look around but generally you'll end up buying something.
• Go to the op shop if you really need clothes, but don't go just to browse. I generally justify buying way more because it's the op shop, cheap clothes and I'm recycling.
• Try to cycle. It's only $1-2 for a bus ticket here but that adds up over time. Cycling is free, and takes up more of your time. Time that you could be buying stuff with.
• "There's food at home" - My mum
  I tend to buy food from where I work because I get a discount but now I don't unless it's free (long shifts = free food). Now I wait until I get home. If I'm really starving though I cycle to my grandparents' house.

And the biggest help to me was seperate bank accounts... I have 1 account that I get paid into. I leave my card at home for this account, and I transfer money from the base account into the spending one to manage how much I spend. It's amazing what you'll go without if you really have no money. I'm able to live off about $15 a week. Remember the only things I pay for though are clothes, toiletries and food (that's not cooked at home), transport (my bike and maintenance), anything random I want to buy (a wireless mouse, a book, a hairbrush) and my phone/phone bill.

Sometimes I hate it. Because I chose to work I have to watch my parents buy my sister things that I have to pay for myself (she is a little younger but it still sucks) but the fact that I get to go to the other side of the world, all paid for by me is amazing.

So yeah unfortunately there aren't many people my age on the site (that I've met so far) and even less people are in the situation where their parents would let them do something like this, but maybe there's one or two people out there that this could help. maybe