Savings Stories feature real Qapital customers telling us about how and why they use the app to help them save money. Meet Emily from Seattle, WA who’s using Qapital to save for an epic trip!
When Seattle’s Emily Lautenbach says she loves to travel, she really means it.
“I’ve been to a number of spots. Some more notable ones are Tibet, China, and Honduras. I’ve also been to all 50 states!”
When she’s stateside, Emily works for Amazon as a Senior Vendor Manager for the Household Consumables category. “In other words,” she says, “I sell toilet paper for a living.”
Like many wanderlusters, Emily’s got a new adventure planned for this fall. She’s going on a trip to Egypt, Israel, United Arab Emirates and, possibly, Jordan.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Israel,” she says. “I am fascinated by world religions and so many of them are rooted in that area.”
She’s also got some personal ties to some of these destinations.
“My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew will move to Egypt in August and I have a cousin in Jordan, so now seemed like the perfect time to explore that part of the world.”
She’s also excited to try out the local cuisines while exploring the different countries she’s visiting.
“If I had to pick one cuisine to eat forever, it would be Middle Eastern food.”
One of Emily’s many travel photos on the #elexplorist hashtag.
But financing her trips hasn’t always been as easy as with Qapital. Previously, Emily says she found saving money (even for something fun like a trip) to be “a chore” and “relatively non-existent”.
She would use credit cards to pay for the trip and pay them off afterward. Now, she’s looking forward to a new experience having saved for the trip in advance.
“It feels great to be more proactive and less stressful to pay for things up front instead of knowing I’d come home with debt to get rid of,” she says. “I barely notice the money leaving my account and when I log in [to Qapital], I see a big chunk of savings.”
Emily’s set up her own unique way of saving for this trip by creating a Recipe with IFTTT that links with her Instagram account. Each time she posts a photo with her unique travel hashtag #elexplorist, she saves money toward the trip.
“I figure travel photos are the perfect trigger to save for an upcoming trip!” says Emily. “I have spent way too much time trying to come up with various IFTTT recipes to increase my savings – it’s super fun!”
Emily’s also successfully saved to pay off some debt and has a Goal set for general savings, but her fall trip is her main focus right now.
“I’m amazed at how painless it is to break it into tiny actions instead of trying to save a lot at once.”
Want to follow Emily’s journey? Follow her travel pics on Instagram.
We’re always looking to share stories from our customers! Want us to share your Savings Story? Email hello@qapital.com with the subject line ‘Savings Story’!
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