My Post-Grad Europe Trip Got Cancelled: What I’m Going to Do with the Savings Instead

Like many others, Covid-19 not only upended my day-to-day life, but it also wiped out all hopes that I had for traveling in the next year. A few months ago, I had pictured myself walking through the streets of Paris, tasting wine in the vineyards of Tuscany, and exploring the sights of Germany. You can read about how my trip cancellation has changed both my current mindset and plans for the future on this guest post.

All in all, the trip was supposed to last four weeks, and so I had roughly budgeted out $3500 in total. With all this unexpected liquidity, I have a few areas to which I could funnel these funds.

1. Instant Emergency Fund

The first and most obvious place I could put this money is towards an instant emergency fund. It is recommended that an emergency fund be no smaller than $1000, but ideally up to six months of necessary expenses. With $3000, I could be well on my way to a robust emergency fund.

2. Future Travel Savings

Since the money was supposed to go towards travel in the first place, I could very well start a new savings account dedicated to travel as a sort of promise to myself that I will take that trip someday!

Since it seems like I won’t be going anywhere soon, I’m leaning against doing this since the money I would usually budget towards normal travel during the year will most likely be set aside anyways and that can be funneled towards a long-term travel fund.

3. Furniture, house stuff, and moving costs

There are a few things that I wasn’t sure I would splurge on like a Dyson vacuum and Ninja blender that I could very well funnel this money towards. Since we’ll most likely be spending a lot of time at home in the next year or so, it might be nice to have some of these things!

Although I haven’t totally made up my mind, I think I’ll most likely be putting the majority of my travel fund towards my emergency fund. I don’t see the need to start a travel savings fund right now because I’m pretty sure I won’t be traveling much this year, so in the coming months, I can sock away some of the money I would have spent on normal travel. Also, I know myself well and once I start seeing those Black Friday deals, I probably won’t be able to resist that Dyson vacuum I’ve been eyeing, so part of the money will likely go there. At the end of the day, I don’t mind treating myself to things that I know I’ll get a lot of use out of and enjoy using!

Did any of your travel plans get canceled recently? If so, how are you redirecting your funds? Let me know in the comments below!