When you are on a tight budget it is easy to forget about anything that isn’t a bill, debt, or obligation. All the sudden your life can go from feeling footloose and free to feeling numb and trapped. Hope is not lost, just because you are on a shoe string budget.

You can still have adventures. It just takes a little more planning, a pinch of luck, and a bit of creativity to pull it all off. The following tips help tapped travelers budget for big adventure.

1. Travel cheaper. You can stretch your budget by reducing the cost of travel. From sites like expedia, booking buddy, and priceline, you can reduce the cost of plane tickets. Or you could save money by riding Trailways or Greyhound bus lines. By traveling cheaper, even with less money you can have the same quality adventures. Additionally, non conventional travel affords the frugal individual the opportunity to experience new people and places. Hitch-hiking is now illegal in the USA and dangerous, so it is not a recommended method of travel, especially for the elderly and females.

    

2. Book off season. Peak season at all the hottest locales is much more expensive than off season. For the cost of two nights prime oceanfront at the beach on season, you can find a nice limited ocean view condo for an entire month. By booking off season you’re able to avoid the crowd and save some big bucks. This translates to savings on your shoe string budget.

    

3. Cut costs on housing. There are many ways to stay at your desired destination other than high priced hotels. You could stay at a cheaper motel, a hostel, or even camp in a tent. Cutting the costs on housing during an adventure could save your budget up to 90% on your adventure. Additionally, the culture in hostels and the connection with nature made by rustic camping can be priceless.

    

4. BYOF. Bringing your own food, or at least resigning yourself to franchise fast-food locations is yet another way to stretch your budget. A jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread is sure to cost less than a sea-food platter at a restaurant. Frugal adventurers know that bringing their own food gives them more money to adventure. Additionally, you will find yourself experiencing more than just mid-tier food and instead spending more time doing what you came to actually do – adventure. That is, so to say, if you skip the high priced meals and focus on the adventure of your trip.

    

5. Avoid tourist traps. The real culture and excitement of a destination is rarely found in the most hyped locations. Many people go to Florida to see the beaches, only to find literally thousands of people to their left and right. How many people decide to go paras-ailing over the everglades where they might even be so lucky as to see an extremely endangered Florida panther? Experiencing the less popular and more creative destinations could save you some serious money from your adventuring budget. By avoiding tourist traps, which are designed to suck the maximum amount possible from unwary adventurer’s wallets, you have the chance to really experience an area.

    

6. Plan ahead. Doing some research on your destination will give you a far greater understanding of all the unique and absurd places to go, which are often much cheaper than the highly advertised popular (and well financed) stops. Doing a bit of internet research could land you traveling 30 minutes away from your destination to see the world’s largest collection of buttons and three headed pigs. Or maybe even 50,000 pink flamingos as they migrate north and south across the country. With the right mindset, this can be far more rewarding to your budget and sense of adventure than anything that is found on a hotel flyer.

And above all else, be creative. Part of the fun of adventuring on a shoe string budget is to have stories that are worth telling. People really don’t want to hear you went to Disney land. They want to hear tales of exotic adventure which will help inspire them to do the same – to adventure on a shoe string budget.