About Me
As I said in the introduction, my name is Catherine and I am a senior (graduating December 2017) at the University of South Florida. My first time out of the United States was in summer 2016 with the USF in London program. In summer 2017, I did a volunteer program in Thailand to get TEFL certified (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Before college, I had never been out of the country, and after my summer in Asia, I have been to 13 different countries in total!
(United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Costa Rica, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia)
During Christmas break of my sophomore year I got an email that USF was offering accounting courses in London for the summer. I started out telling my mom “wouldn’t that be a cool summer” and ended up doing extensive research to see if I could make it happen. In the fall of 2016, I had two jobs, which worked out in my favor as I needed the money I was making to afford my trip. I calculated how much I would make that upcoming semester, how much of a financial aid refund I would get for spring, subtracted out rent expenses, and was still left with a fair amount of money to work with. However, this was before I knew if I could receive any scholarships. I knew if I wanted to really make it happen, I would have to sacrifice a lot that semester.
From my fall paychecks I saved enough to cover the $500 deposit to commit to the program. I was planning to use it for a spring break trip, but I figured a month in Europe would be worth giving up the beach for a week. For my flight, I calculated by looking at my debit card transactions that I had spent almost $1000 eating out during the fall semester. I was shocked that all the lunches at MSC and Dunkin coffee added up to that much. I knew that if I stopped eating out, I could buy my plane ticket with that money.
There were a lot of other sacrifices I made that semester to save money. I rarely went out with my friends, I worked a lot of hours, and when I was not working I had to stay focused on my schoolwork. I made the backgrounds of my phone and computer pictures of London so when I was stressed and busy, I could look at those and remember my end goal. However, I cut back on my rigorous course schedule by only taking 12 credit hours with two being online and with my jobs being campus, I was able to manage time well that semester.
My roommate at the time was also traveling that summer, which made it easier for us to both save money by staying in, cooking, and have movie nights together instead of spending money elsewhere. I also opened up an additional savings account with the credit union on campus in order to keep my travel savings separate from my school and personal expenses. Once I transferred money into that account after payday, I did not allow myself to take it out unless it was for the summer program. Today, I still put money in the travel savings account and will use it to book my next adventure when the time comes.
After my past two summers traveling, I have learned to focus my spending on the things important to me, such as travel, which has become one of my top priorities. Although it was very tough at first to say no to eating out and shopping, I have made it more of my lifestyle now so that I can do bigger things to treat myself with in the long run rather than small everyday things.