Does a career change mean I have to say goodbye to travel adventures?

answers on a postcard 🏝️

How is your week going so far?

Hopefully, it’s going well and if you’re in/from the US - Happy Thanksgiving for tomorrow! For me, I’ve been juggling quite a few things.

The lovely news was that my sister had her baby on Saturday and I’m hoping to be able to meet my new niece very soon. In more boring news, I had reports to write for my teaching job and I recently launched another newsletter which is linked to my website and solely on the topic of interior design. You can sign up here if you’re interested in getting weekly tips, inspiration and ways to figure out your interior design style.

I’m going to be making a few changes to the frequency of this newsletter as a result. It’s not set in stone but I’m probably going to write one newsletter per week (on a Sunday) but occasionally there will be some extras too. Probably once a fortnight posts will be available to all and the rest will include a paywall. I’m hoping to focus on quality over quantity.

I almost didn’t post today’s newsletter. I drafted it on Monday and then thought that what I’d written was all a bit too ‘first world problems’. I posted a note about it and was grateful for the response which gave me the confidence to go ahead and post. Thank you if that was you!

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Does a career change mean I have to say goodbye to travel adventures?

I’m absolutely not a fan of the very short days we’re experiencing in the UK, especially on the three days when I have to leave the house and go to my teaching job, but I take solace in the fact that I don’t have to do that five times a week. And that’s progress. As I type, it’s early morning, pitch black and the rain is hammering down on the roof above me.

I’m craving some travel right now, but there’s a problem. I can’t afford it. Even a trip to France isn’t on the cards.

16 months after giving up my very comfortable full time salary, I’m starting to feel the pinch. In case you missed it, I wrote a frank financial post several months back which you can read here:

Balancing time and money

It makes sense that it would take a while for this to happen. What I earn monthly is about half of what I earned previously. I can live on it, but it doesn’t leave much extra to save and at times I’ve had to dip into my savings.

I’m aware that you have to give plans time to grow and evolve and especially when a new business is concerned, it’s likely to take time for it to get off the ground and start to make a reasonable income. That’s where I am with my interior design studio. Work is coming in slowly and steadily and I’m honing my craft along the way, but it’s not bringing in a whole lotta moolah. Yet.

That’s probably a post for another time, but today I want to write honestly about money and travel and what I can’t afford to do right now.

Looking back, I think I took for granted that when I was working in my old job, I could afford to go away at almost every opportunity and stay in some nice places. In many ways it was one of the rewards for my employer sort of owning me. I absolutely don’t miss that feeling, but I do miss the exhilaration of knowing an exciting overseas trip is around the corner. And the planning of it.

Seven years ago, I was gearing up for a two-week trip to California over Christmas. We spent time in San Francisco, Napa, Sonoma and some other more random parts of northern California. It was amazing and we stayed in some pretty cool locations and drank some excellent wine. One place in particular inspired many design decisions in my own house as this trip was just before we started to renovate our own house from top to bottom.

Farmhouse Oasis in Graton, CA where I stayed 7 years ago

Travelling to interesting places opens your eyes a little wider and allows you to return home with a different perspective on things. For the interior designer it can be an opportunity to collect inspiration, try out furniture and come back loaded with ideas on how client’s homes could be transformed.

I did spend a month in France in the summer which was wonderful, but I should explain that this was a trip on a tight budget.

We drove and we worked remotely for some of the time we were away and stayed in the same Airbnb for the full four weeks in order to benefit from a decent monthly discount. We didn’t eat out many times at all, instead shopping locally at the markets and cooking in the well-equipped kitchen. We visited some beautiful places and the whole experience was fantastic and one we hope to repeat.

France has my heart and I will always try to return there as regularly as I can, but I would like to be able to afford to go to other places too. It’s been a few years since I went to snowy Scandinavia in winter, and I love the idea of a few nights in Stockholm before Christmas; picking up some last minute gifts, sipping glogg in a square, visiting galleries and design-focused shops and eating some delicious food…

But I just don’t think I can justify dipping back into my savings again for the whim of travel.

And yet, part of me thinks life is short, take the opportunities whilst you are young(ish) and have the energy to enjoy these things. It’s all about balance isn’t it?

Part of the reason we always end up going back to France is because we can go away for a week and not spend a huge amount at all. The ferry or Eurotunnel crossing would be around £150 return and we usually manage to find Airbnb accommodation for around £500 for a week. If we only eat out sparingly and cook the rest of the time, it’s unlikely that we will spend much more than we would for a week at home and so it becomes manageable.

Whereas, I just looked up two flights to Stockholm in mid-December and they were around £550 return (total). Combine that with 3 nights in an Airbnb there which was averaging about £400 for somewhere reasonably central with a kitchen (eating out all of the time would be £££). That’s considerably more than the week in France for just 3 nights away. This is sensible, practical Hannah costing up and frowning, thinking I can’t afford that.

And then there’s the adventurous, carpe diem version of Hannah who is already imagining all of the inspiring interiors and beautiful homeware shops she would be perusing and thinking why not?

This time practical Hannah will win, but where’s the fun in that?

By persevering with continuing to build my interior design studio and business, I hope that one day I’ll be back to earning a little more and perhaps even have the flexibility of being able to travel outside of school holidays, something that this institutionalised soul has never been able to do! Who knows, I may even get to a point where I can work on some overseas projects? I’d really love that.

I’ll end by saying that I know that I’m in a privileged position. Trips abroad are absolutely not essential and as I mentioned at the start, this is my first world problem. Tiny violins at the ready.

I guess I just wanted to be honest and share that it’s not all roses to shake up a career and attempt to start a new one.

I’d love to hear your tips for seeing the world on a budget. I don’t think I could ever go back to a full-time teaching job like my old one, but I hope I don’t have to give up on my travel dreams too.