Think you are alone when you look at your bank balance and realise that the gap year of your dreams is a million miles away? Think again. These live diarists are in the same position as you, but they are actively fundraising to make their gap year dreams a reality. Follow them through the peaks and troughs of fundraising and gain a little inspiration...

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Introducing fundraiser Joe Ryan Meet Joe. He's off to South America with Quest Overseas in February. Before his adventures begin, there's the small matter of £6,000 to raise... Name: Joe Ryan Age: 19 Hometown: Leeds Hi there Joe, we hear you're in the middle of raising the cash to fund your dream gap year. What are you up to at the moment? I am hoping to raise the majority of the money I need for my placement by working all the hours that god sends. Currently, I'm working five days a week as a Sales Assistant (read shelf stacker) at a supermarket on the wines and spirits department. This involes lots of stacking and smashing bottles - which can be fun, if not a bit messy. Other than that I am planning a big event that I hope will boosts my savings enough to cover the cost of my entire gap. Glad to hear you aren't slacking then! So what is all this money and hard work going towards and are you confident that you'll still be able to raise enough money once you subtract the cost of the wines and spirits you've smashed at work? If I had to pay for every bottle breakage, then I certainly wouldn't be able to afford my gap plans. Luckily, my bosses realise that accidents do happen and so don't charge us for them! The money I'm raising is all being saved so that I can afford a 3 month placement with Quest Overseas, departing on the 23rd of February. I'm going to be in a group of 16 people, all of whom I had never met until the training weekend in London last month. All the members are between 18 and 19 I think. I'm really looking forward to it and know that all of the scrimping and saving will be worthwhile. We are sure it will be - where are you off to then and what will you be doing on your placement? The trip is split into three phases - one of the things that most appealed to me as I thought that I would be able to get the most out of it this way. Firstly there is the Language Phase where we will spend three weeks in Quito, Equador learning Spanish at the Christopher Colombus School of Spanish. I think we are doing four hours a day one-on-one learning with the teachers and then at the weekends they they teach us all about different aspects of South American culture (like salsa dancing!) and we go and explore various bits of Equador. Then comes the Conservation Phase. We will spend four weeks at a lodge in some of the Cloud Forest of Equador called Santa Lucia where we will do various things like planting trees and building paths. The lodge is part of a protected 'corridor' of rainforest, which will hopefully connect the western end of the Amazon to the eastern end, in order to ensure that all sorts of animals are able to migrate across the continent in the future. The third phase is an expedition. This part last six weeks and will take us across Peru, Bolivia and the northern tip of Chile. We will do all sorts of crazy things like bungy jumps, white water rafting, ride down the unsettlingly named 'Road of Death' on mountain bikes, sand board in the desert and swim with pink river dolphins! We will also go on three treks; one down the Colca Canyon, one from the top of an Andean mountain down in the jungle and one up to Machu Pichu where the trip ends. I then hope to go travelling for a month around either Brazil or Argentina and Chile, but first I need a travel mate! Click here >> for a placement like Joe's Click here >> for travel mates It all sounds very exciting - we're sure loads of people will jump at the chance to be your travel mate. So how much is this all going to cost then and how much are you hoping to make through fundraising? Well, I've worked out that I need around £6000 to fund everything. I hope to make about £4000 over five months from my supermarket job and then hope to supplement this further with a spot of fundraising. The more money I can raise, the longer I'll be able to travel for once my placement ends - so the sky's the limit really. So what big fundraising events do you have in store? I have already been on two other expeditions to Kenya and Borneo and put a great deal of effort into fundraising for both. However, I concentrated on lots of small fundraisers and both times fell short of my target. This time I thought the best thing to do was to plan something big - which is why I am in the middle of organising a sky dive in January - which I hope I can get sponsored for. My plan is to get in touch with a local newspaper and get an article written about the skydive. Hopefully I can also tempt a local company to sponsor me to do the dive from the positive publicity they would get from the newspaper article and this diary. I hope to raise around £1000 from the sponsorship company and then a few hundred pounds from generous friends and family members! Certainly an ambitious fundraiser - we'll keep our fingers crossed for you and will look forward to reading all about it in your diary. Thanks guys - I'll be sure to send my sponsorship form your way nearer the time of the skydive! Click here >> for more fundraising ideas Click here >> to email us about your fundraisers or to be set up with your own fundraising diary.