How to: Fund your own Gap Year

Hello, Reader!

I know I make a lot of posts about taking a gap year, but hey! That’s what I’ve been doing for the past year! One of the things I’ve learned over this time was how to fund your gap year yourself. Except for the occasional pocket money and small financial donations from my parents, all the money I needed for travelling was my own. The reason why funding your own gap year might be tricky is because it feels like you should be doing all these amazing things and travelling as soon as September hits for the entire year. Of course, I’ve spoken to quite a few people that took a gap year just to take a break and relax at home for a year - that’s also an option. Your gap year doesn’t have to be solo backpacking across Asia if you don’t want it to - that definitely wasn’t my idea of a fun time. But, regardless of how you want to spend your glorious year off, here are some helpful tips that I learned during my gap year. 

One way to fund your gap year is, quite obviously, working. You can dedicate a part of your gap year to working - preferably in something that you enjoy that will be relevant to what you want to do after your gap year. I spent the first few months working part-time in a tutoring centre, knowing that I’d like to be a teacher in the future. I wasn’t earning a fortune, but it was something to fill the time and build experience. I also took up a hospitality job, working at events every once in a while - mostly by waitressing. I absolutely hated it, but it definitely helped in terms of money and I got to try out different types of jobs at a range of pretty cool events- the highlight was working as a part of catering at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference. I can’t say that I wasn’t happy to leave both of these jobs behind and leave England for a while, but they let me earn enough to be able to leave England for a while.

Travelling itself doesn’t have to be expensive. Of course, depending on the kind of travelling you want to do, there’s lots of research to be done on how you can do that on a budget. My goal for travelling was just to get away from London for an indeterminate amount of time. I knew I wanted to do some work relevant to my future, preferably working with teenagers and I knew I wanted to stay in Spain for a while. Volunteering opportunities abroad are a pretty good way to travel cheap. There are programmes that offer free accommodation and food in return for your work and the work can be a lot of fun. I volunteered for Angloville, which has programmes in various places around Eastern Europe and all I had to pay for were my flights. You can also find a temporary job abroad, which means that you can keep earning money but also experience living in a different culture. So, whether you work or volunteer, this opportunity lets you stay in a foreign place for a period of time without draining your bank account and it can add some variety to your ‘holidays’. 

One opportunity that I had which I didn’t take up was staying with family in a different country. If you still want to just relax in your gap year but want to get away from England, this could be a good option. I decided to stay in London and work, but I’m lucky enough that I have family in Lithuania where I’d be able to stay for a few months if I wanted to. Also, I was offered a temporary secretary job at my dad’s office in Warsaw. Basically, if you have family in other countries - take advantage of it. 

Regardless of how you want to spend your gap year, the most important thing is plan, plan, plan. That’s how you will truly save money on flights and accommodation. And if you want to volunteer or work, you need to send in applications which also can’t be done last minute. 

Happy travelling!

Love,

Agnes xo