We all love a bargain when travelling, but local Matthew Cassar certainly went and grabbed himself the best deal. On his latest trip to Norway, Matthew, from Matt Ventures, challenged himself to lasting a full week abroad on a total budget of €50 – and do that he did!

Surviving on such a low budget involved careful monitoring for cheap flights - which he got for €35, dumpster diving, using app Too Good To Go to buy leftover food from restaurants at a discounted price and accepting food offerings from hosts. Meeting the hosts was also an interesting part of his story; some he pre-planned online through Couch Surfer and Facebook, some he befriended during his travels and one in particular actually reached out to Matthew through his blog to offer accommodation. The woman in question, Tonje, is a huge fan of Malta and after reading online about Matthew's travels in Norway, she opened her doors to Matthew and even greeted him in Maltese!

Matthew attributes his travelling style to his love of adrenaline. “Since I was young, I loved proving people wrong and doing what others said is impossible. Doing something tough that other people wouldn't dream of or dare to try gives me a lot of satisfaction,” Matthew explains.

His decision to undertake this challenge, he says, was not to cut corners but because someone recently approached him and admitted that he was too broke to travel, and Matthew decided to use his platform to pass a comment about this situation. “Travel doesn't have to be expensive, you can make a fun holiday with whatever you have (plus a little resourcefulness)”, Matthew says. Waste and excess are also two other situations he wanted to tackle. While foraging for a meal in a bin at a store, he not only found enough ingredients for himself and his host but enough for another four meals. “Imagine that”, Matthew elaborates. “Six meals a day from just one store. And there are four shops in proximity, whose contributions could easily feed the area’s homeless”.

Fear of strangers, especially foreigners, is a common anxiety but Matthew wanted to break down that barrier too. “I wanted to challenge the mentality that people are dangerous, and show that there are amazing people everywhere. While we shouldn't trust blindly, it's also bad to fear everyone”, Matthew explains.

All in all, Matthew believes this holiday has been the highlight of this year’s travel itinerary. During the trip, he stayed with four different people, all of whom he now considers friends. His food budget was of €15 with total trip expenses totalling €57.70, but taking into consideration the €8 he earned by returning plastic bottles, the final sum boils down to €49.70.

When asked about any forthcoming trips, Matthew admits that early planning is not in his style as he much prefers impromptu holidays. For the time being, he’s focusing on turning all the Norway footage into a mini-documentary and is also working on a cool new e-book guide to help out fellow travels on a budget.

Would you give Matt's €50 travel challenge a try?