How I Saved Thousands This Year On Travel (Newsletter)

This is copy of a newsletter emailed to subscribers on June 24, 2025. If you’d like to get these issues before they’re posted here, be sure to sign up! Otherwise the full newsletter archives can be found here.

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Hello from St. Paul, Minnesota!

I’m writing to you from my current petsitting gig in the Twin Cities. I’m watching over three adorable kitties with very large personalities, and I’m having a great time! The neighborhood I’m in is full of adorable houses (and friendly neighbors), the house is an updated retro number with amazing air con (definitely needed during the heatwave we’re in) and there’s an amazing backyard with a butterfly garden.

I started catsitting late last year, after hearing about how great it was from some of my other full-time nomad friends. Not only do you get to hang out with amazing pets, but you get free accommodation in exchange for watching over those pets!

Sites like Trusted Housesitters have been getting more popular lately as a way for people to travel without having to spend a lot on housing/petsitting– basically the pet owners exchange their home and the pet sitters exchange their time/attention. It’s a great way to save money on accommodation, which is normally the most expensive part of a travel budget.

Since I’ve been working and traveling full-time for just over 3 years now, I’ve figured out that I appreciate having a cat nearby to break up the monotony of working online all day. While sometimes it can be stressful figuring out how to schedule my sits and finding ones that work for me, I’ve really enjoyed watching over the cats I’ve met– and I’ve gotten a lot of writing done, too, which is great.

And of course the budget savings is definitely worth it.

To give you some idea, here’s a comparison between my spending last year, and what I’ve spent so far THIS year:

In 2024 from January to June, I spent about $8,000 USD total, of which about $3,280 was on accommodations. This was mostly in Asia, where accommodation is typically lower than in Europe and the US.

So far in 2025, I’ve only spent about $2,800 USD total, of which a mere $463 was on accommodations. And I’ve been traveling in the UK and the US this whole time!

That’s a HUGE difference! I’m excited that my budget will stretch so much further, as it means I can keep traveling for longer.

Plus of course there’s the emotional benefit of being around adorable kitties all day, which honestly has done wonders for my energy.

I don’t get super lonely when I travel, even though I’m solo the majority of the time. However, it’s definitely nice to have “someone” to chat with while I’m making dinner (or giving the cats their dinners). I plan to keep catsitting for the rest of the year and into 2026 as well, as I’m enjoying it so much.

If you’re interested in trying out Trusted Housesitters for yourself, I do have a referral link here which will get you 25% off membership!

Do you have any questions about petsitting/housesitting? I’m planning to write several guides within the next month, and I’d love to answer any questions you may have. Leave a comment if you do!

New Posts on Just Gone Wandering

Here’s what’s new (and updated) on Just Gone Wandering this week! Yay, new stuff to read!

How Much Money Do You Need to Travel the World? which talks about my recommended budget for the minimum amount you’ll need to travel most of the world in cozy budget travel style.
What’s it Like Living in a Coliving House? My Experience — an overview of what it was like living in a coliving house (with comparison to a hostel).
How to Get to Downtown Chicago from ORD — a practical how-to guide for navigating Chicago’s transit system to get into town once you fly in.
Vietnam Overnight Bus Guide for Solo Travelers — my experiences riding on Vietnam’s overnight buses don’t match what I’ve been seeing on social media…

All blog posts can be found here, by the way!

Travel Deals & News

Time-sensitive deals from travel partners:

YESIM has a 20% off promo code for the rest of the summer: SUMMER20. They’re an eSIM company (like Airalo) with coverage around the world, and with good plans too. For instance, their US plans are $1/GB and you get onto Verizon/AT&T lines. This code expires on September 30th!
KLOOK has a few promo codes for June (we still have a week until July!): VISAVIP for 15% off for Visa card holders, and BetterOnApp2 for 5% off your first booking made on the app. I use Klook for getting tourist activity tickets (such as tours and even transit), especially around Asia. I got my Tokyo DisneySea ticket through them when I couldn’t get the official website to accept my foreign credit card, for instance.
CONTIKI has some last-minute travel deals for group tours, including some amazing month+ tours covering a lot of cities. For instance, this Ultimate European tour is 45 days long and goes through 16 countries, including Egypt! If you book from the last-minute travel deals page you can save up to 25% on the cost, which is really good.

Travel Blog Finds

Here’s some of my favorite blog posts from fellow travel bloggers this week:

Final Thoughts on Japan from Peter & Karen Pecksen, who recently spent a month there.
20 Practical Souvenirs From Japan You’ll Actually Use At Home from Meghan at Afternoon Tea Reads. I like how she highlights things you’ll want to buy at the start of your trip! (And I 100% agree with her first recommendation.)
Want to Record at the Airport? Read This Before You Hit ‘Rec’ from Daniel Gillaspia at UponArriving. A good overview of what you can and cannot record at an airport– we’ve gotten so used to documenting everything about our lives that we can sometimes forget that there’s things we SHOULDN’T take photos/videos of! I’ve seen several people get into major trouble in immigration lines because they have their phones out.
Should you avoid travel now?…Travel warnings… from Jessica at World Wide Waftage. A non-sensational overview of current US travel warnings and things to take into consideration when planning travel routes over certain regions.
How to Stay in Europe Longer Than 90 Days — Including the Schengen Countries: The Ultimate Guide (2025) from Aileen at I Am Aileen. A question MANY full-time nomads ask, often! Aileen always does great guides, and for this one I really appreciated how she broke up the different options in different types of possible visas (work/student/citizenship/etc.).

If you’re looking for more travel blogs to follow, I have a travel blogroll page here!