This article is the first amongst several that will retrace exactly how we planned for our trip, how we saved money before going, how we saved money while traveling, and how we did it while still being respectful to the planet.

Have you ever been sitting at your desk, or have come home from a demanding day at work, and had a flash of being somewhere else, perhaps backpacking the Mediterranean, camping in the mountains and overlooking a lake with a backdrop of mountains and sunrise; someplace that wasn’t…here? It’s almost impossible to separate the idea of “backpacking” with all of these romanticized ideals that go along with it. It all seems so exciting – trying to survive on your own with just a backpack, meeting new people, experiencing the Great Wonders with your own senses, making memories in a far off place, trying new dishes, learning about the world. And while all of these things are very true for anyone who has ever trekked out on their own, one thing about backpacking has echoed throughout the decades, ever since the counter-culture era of the 60’s, and right into the “green” movement of today - the desire to kindle a relationship with the natural world.

That’s probably why there are so many resources for aspiring backpackers who are planning an adventure on a tight budget, and who hold the environment not only as a priority, but as something they want to experience along the way. Looking back on it, for us the entire process of “going backpacking” was a time period where we had never lived so sustainably – not just the backpacking itself, but the entire time leading up to it as well. It is only now that I’ve realized that backpacking was not only a way to get back to nature, but it made us completely revamp the way we were living before we even left!

So, let’s start from the beginning. And for us, the beginning was with Halifax Retro. This publication was the bi-product of our inspiration to start focusing on living for the earth, and not just on it. We wanted to make a difference, and hopefully reach out to others who were trying to do the same. And while we hold our Halifax Retro project very dear to our hearts, we felt like we were missing something. We wanted to see the world so we could see where we fit in, what we could do to really help, to get inspiration to bring back to our lives, our readers, and to Halifax Retro. We wanted to see if we could survive with just a backpack, to not depend on things we thought were necessary, and to become more aware of our place in the world. After we decided that backpacking was something we needed to do, we began planning.

Like anyone, planning for a three month trip requires a substantial amount of savings. For us, with flight included, we were budgeting for approximately $7,500 (which is not a lot when you consider we were planning on visiting approximately 15 countries as well). During this time, we would stock away most of our pay checks into a savings account, and were then forced to live on the meagre leftovers. This inevitably prompted us to re-evaluate what we were doing on a daily basis. Other than the obvious expenses we had to pay (rent, our phones, etc), the things that we could control were:

a) what we were eating

b) how often we were driving

c) cutting down on frivolous spending (clothes, restaurants, etc)

d) creating inexpensive ways to have fun

Ever since I started my job in sales, it was not abnormal for me to purchase my lunch at least 3 times a week. To remedy this cash blow, we began pre-making our lunches, and started purchasing more raw foods at the grocery store and making our own recipe batches – we found soup to be the most inexpensive, healthy, and abundant thing we could make. Not only did this save us tons of money, it was the healthier way to eat anyway! Did we have to wait until we had no money to finally realize this? It makes me wonder sometimes about the bigger picture, on a global economic scale. Are we all just too lazy and unenlightened to realize that the more sustainable choice is actually the most economic as well?

Something that eats up money like no other is the gas tank. If it was possible to walk somewhere, we would. Luckily for us we lived in the downtown core, so getting anywhere only took a few minutes anyway. The one thing that we did cut down on was taking leisurely drives on the weekends. Instead, we would still drive somewhere, but instead of just driving for the heck of it, we’d get out of the car and hike for most of the day.

Like a lot of women, even the environmentalist ones, I like shopping and pretty things. For about a year before we set off to Europe, I put a stop service on my bank cards when it came to shopping malls. If I needed something, I would walk to an independent store and buy it. I went almost a year without going into a mall, which meant I spent next to nothing on things I really didn’t need anyway. If I was in the mood for something new, I would scope out the local Value Village, or at least I would go to an indy shop downtown and look there. Malls can be scary - they suck you in and spit you out, fabulously dressed albeit, but broke.

Instead of going out for dinner, out for drinks and overly priced beer, or to the latest movie, we’d find ways to entertain ourselves without breaking the bank. One of our favourite ways to spend Friday and Saturday nights was to walk down to the Halifax library and ransack the DVD section. With just a library card (which is totally free) you can take out half a dozen movies at a time, without spending a penny! They have everything from the latest releases, to documentaries. We would also often find entire documentaries on the internet and spend long nights watching them cuddled on the couch. Again, not only did this save us money, but it also gave us tons of ideas for articles, like the ones you’ll read on Halifax Retro! Instead of at the bars downtown, you could find us on the waterfront or at a nearby park with some drinks and a picnic.

These are just some of the ways that we had to be creative and come up with ways to save money. If you look at them all, they are all things that not only saved us money, but they are all things that contributed to our cause of being more planet friendly!

Please stay tuned for the next part to this series on Backpacking on a Budget on Halifax Retro!

One of the things I found most different about Europe, among many, was the fact that you are allowed to drink anywhere - not to mention buy drinks anywhere. If this policy was introduced here to eager Atlantic Canadians, after all hell broke loose for awhile, I believe it would eventually lose the obscene appeal we think it has when we visit these far off places, and create a society better off for it.

It’s funny, although you can buy beer anywhere, even Macdonald’s in some countries; there is the same amount, if not less, people who are walking around belligerently drunk. I didn’t really think about this strange observation until we got to Norway, which essentially had the same liquor laws as Canada. There, we had a discussion about how Norwegians love to drink, like here, as a means to being more socially comfortable.

I don’t mean socially comfortable as in needing to have a drink when everyone else is having one, I mean getting drunk, inducing behaviour that at the time seems comfortable to enact socially, but later can make things very uncomfortable.

In other areas of Europe, this does not appear to be the case. You rarely see a drunken Frenchman staggering around blasting obscenities, which seems strange considering they are allowed to drink wherever they want and buy liquor anywhere they want; at almost any time of night…not to mention it is at least half the price in most places.

I thought about it and started thinking that maybe this is because drinking is not considered taboo there. It is more socially accepted without laws preventing where you can buy it, where you are allowed to consume it, and so on. So at a young age, perhaps you don’t necessarily think it rebellious to illegally obtain and consume alcohol to have fun. Perhaps in this type of upbringing, the youth are less susceptible to thinking one can’t have fun on his or her own, without the aid of this otherwise rebellious substance.

Thinking back to my own youth and even now, I feel I would be much less likely to drink excessively if it never had been considered a social cog in the life that is trying to fit in as a teenager. I feel if you were allowed to say, drink a beer in the park at your leisure, perhaps one would be less likely to sit at home where it is legal and consume as many as possible without the “cops” being able to do anything about it - sticking it to the man by killing your brain cells in the privacy of your own home - because doing it anywhere else would be illegal.

Maybe this would increase drunk driving? Perhaps, but Europe has no more of a problem with drunk drivers than North America does. In fact, one could argue that because people are actually drinking less, fewer accidents would occur, because people are going to drive drunk anyway.

Maybe I’m wrong, but perhaps that is what our government is keen on. We seem to consume more that way, and all while paying much more for it than people in Europe do. It doesn’t cost more to make here, so where does the access of the inflated price go? Into the pockets of the government, who regulate the liquor stores themselves.

I bet if our regulations on alcohol mimicked what they currently are in Europe, there would actually be less alcoholism in the long run, because it would be more accepted to just have a beer you bought at the corner store on your way home from work, instead of having to buy an 8-pack. I mean, considering you had to go all the way to the liquor store, why just buy one?