After years of dreaming about traveling to far away shores to explore jungles, mangroves, beaches and cultures. Just under a year ago I finally convinced myself that I could actually do it!

There were a few obstacles that (at the time) appeared to get in my way, but the answers were pretty simple and staring me right in the face!

• My house - Rent it out
• My Job - Quit ;-)
• My Friends & Family - They'll be supportive, its only 12 short months and thanks to the wonders of the internet I'll probably keep in touch more than I do now!

but possibly most important... Money!

Over the past year I have been saving hard, hoping that by the time I leave I will have enough saved to support myself.

I'm not going to bore you with how much I can save or how much its going cost but I thought I might share a few tips and tricks that I have learned.

Bills

Some of you might say that things like Sky TV and broadband are luxuries that should have been scrapped from day one but without the internet I wouldn't have anything planed and if Sky is an excuse to stay in just one night a month and not hit the booze then it pays for its self!

That said I still phoned around and made sure I was getting the best possible deal. Just by a few phone calls I managed to save about £40 per month.

Best to think about this at least 12 months in advance in case you have to sign a new 12 month contract!

Get an ISA!

You get about £5000 a year ISA limit nowadays, put all your savings in here and you'll hopefully see a good bit of interest! If you're really clever and open two ISA's in different financial years (April-March) you can effectively double your limit! You can still get your money out on most ISA's but once your do, you can't put it back so watch out!

Cut back

This is a tough one. Birthdays, Christmas's, New Years, more Birthdays and nights out are EXPENSIVE!

I found it very hard to say no to a lot of social events but try instead to limit how much I spend and have cut out the regular pub sessions in favour for special occasions like peoples birthdays, which there are a lot of mind!

Shop Around

Anything you buy, whether it's for your travels or just continuing life, is probably cheaper somewhere else!

I'll talk about travel stuff in a later blog, but try shopping cheaper. Make sure you choose the offers in the supermarket, use loyalty cards like Tesco club card and use websites like http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ and http://www.moneysupermarket.com/default5.aspx to your advantage!