There are a lot of financial advice articles that would have you believe you can save enough money to travel the world simply by forgoing your daily espresso drink. I’m not so sure.

By my calculation, even if you break a serious once-a-day venti latte habit for 12 months, you’ll still only save enough for about an airline ticket or two. If you’re a family of four, you’ll have to save a lot more than that.

My husband and I are taking our kids to the Galapagos Islands next year. The trip is way outside of our budget, but we’re going anyway. You can do the same. Here are five ways you can save for a really big trip.

Tighten your spending

We started by refinancing our mortgage, shopping around for cheaper insurance and applying for a no-fee cash rewards credit card. Not only did it immediately improve our bottom line, it also got us thinking about where our money was going.

We also decided to buy a lot more of our groceries at Costco and Trader Joe’s and to try to do more meal planning every week.

Treat less

Next we looked at our discretionary spending. This was easy since we use www.mint.com, but any accounting software or website works. We decided to keep the house cleaners and gardeners, but eat less take out, buy fewer clothes, and stay home for Christmas and spring break.

Doing without spa treatments, new clothes and home improvements is far from easy. Fight temptation by rubber banding a photo of your destination around your credit card to remind you what you’re saving for. It’s kooky, but it works.

Make more money

Saving is all very well, but it can get a little monotonous after a while. Another great way to fund your travel is to actually work more. I’m a freelancer, so any time I want to make more money I just put in longer hours.

It’s not quite so easy for salaried employees, but it’s not impossible either. Take on a consulting project in addition to your regular job. Tutor high school students in French. Have a huge garage sale. If you’re really ambitious, do all three.

Find cheap fun

It’s easy to feel unhappy when you cut back on eating out, going out and shopping. Combat feelings of deprivation by inviting friends over for an inexpensive home-cooked dinner and some board games. You can also camp, spend an afternoon at the beach or go to a local museum on free admission day (usually the first Tuesday or Wednesday of every month).

You can also schedule a family movie night even if you’ve canceled your Netflix account. Subscribe to the www.wowbrary.org weekly newsletter and you’ll be first to know when your local library buys books, movies and music. Put yourself on the waiting list and read, watch and listen for free. You’ll have so much fun you’ll forget you’re making sacrifices at all.