Where Do We Begin?

"Saving" has become our middle names over the past couple years.

When we reconnected over cheap beers one 2013 October night in Warren, Rhode Island, we were drawn to each other by our mutual, burning desire to set out in any direction we could- to move out west, backpack Europe, play on the playas of South America, surf in Costa Rica... anywhere and everywhere we wanted to explore! 

Now that we're one month away from our first of many adventures, we're faced with the daunting task of figuring out how exactly to do all of this. Where do we even begin?

Here's where we're at: 

• Using SkyScanner, we found and bought cheap one-way tickets to Iceland, departing October 1, 2015 ($315 for both of us!).
• We've budgeted $7,000 per person, which should last us just under 3 months abroad.
• We have our gear/backpacks/clothes to bring

We've been trying to dedicate at least one night per week to researching places in Europe that we want to visit, average costs of hostels, AirBnB, modes of transportation, etc. Based on our budget, we have allotted ourselves $130/day (combined), which, based on our frugal way of living, is generous. 

Our greatest challenge, thus far, is deciding which Eurail pass we should purchase, or if we should merely buy transportation tickets along the way (planes, trains, buses, etc). We plan on visiting lots of outdoorsy locations, while also seeing the meccas that have become tourist destinations for historic and beautiful reasons. We don't want to break our budget by purchasing more than we'll need, but at the same time, we don't want to over-pay once we are over there. 

We welcome and encourage any tips you guys might have!

Cheers!
Mike and Em

The Moment is Now

You're gonna need to watch this.

The message that Jim shares which resonated with us starts at 10:18 if you want to jump ahead and really get into it.

We've been so excited about the future - our dreams of travel, dreams of moving, our change of lifestyle - that we often times lose sight of how awesome life is right now. We are both semi-spiritual people, in that we believe in the power of the universe and believe in asking for the things in life that you want to achieve, accomplish, and gain.

Jim Carrey's commencement speech really struck a chord for us because we have been asking for exciting and obtainable lifestyles, and it feels as though we are hitting checkpoints and our dreams are falling into place. 

Our Inspiration wall in our Rhode Island bedroom

I'll keep this post short so that Jim's words can resonate with you, but Levart Travel is about "setting out in any direction," whether that be traveling or choosing a life path (which will hopefully have many forks in the road to keep it challenging and exciting). But whichever direction you choose, be present, make sure you are fulfilled, believe in the goodness that life is, and have faith that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Stay inspired, my friends.

Em & Mike

Free + For Sale

Spoiler: We aren't giving away or selling anything.. (sorry)

After buying Loretta (our used 2005 Subaru Outback), it was time to make up for our financial losses. We invested in our adventure mobile and didn't have any regrets, but we hoped to have a little more money before even thinking about planning two life-changing adventures (a EuroTrip followed by a cross-country road trip to our new home in Bend, Oregon).

I graduated from college in May 2015 and was very fortunate to be gifted a solid chunk of change from my generous family members. So, while we may be in a better financial situation post-Loretta than we had initially imagined, we are still extremely mindful of our budget and spending. Every morning I wake up and open my calculator app to add up how much money Em and I should have by the time we leave. 

To help add to our savings (because, com'on, who doesn't like a little extra cash in their pocket?) we teamed up with Em's parents to have an early June yard sale. We did an insane purge: clothes, camping gear, miscellaneous trinkets, etc.- anything that we hadn't used in the past few months/year was donated or set aside for the yard sale. We were very mindful of how many of our things we'd be able to fit in Loretta when we eventually set out on our cross-country road trip to Bend, Oregon. 

We may not have made a significant amount of money from the yard sale (and then post-yard sale Craig's list sales) but every dollar counts. Every couple dollars we make is another croissant in Paris we get to enjoy (a joke Em and I share when we're trying to justify our frugal way of life while we save/budget). 

Don't be afraid to get rid of your stuff. We were actually extremely relieved when we got rid of a lot of the extraneous THINGS that were just laying around our room. When we stopped thinking "we might need this at some point" and realized that we didn't use it in any of our daily situations within the past year (i.e. through each of the seasons), it was clear it wasn't a necessity. 

So go and purge and sell! Make a few extra dollars off of the things that you don't need. Make room for the new trinkets and memories you're going to invest in. Craig's List profiles are crazy-easy to set up and sell things on. So do yourself a favor and make some extra money this weekend. 

Cheers, Mike