5 Ways to Save Money on Your Next Vacation

Let’s face it, a lot of us love to travel and most of us don’t do nearly enough of it.

And if you ask most people, they will tell you that they either don’t have enough time to travel or they don’t have enough money.

We’re generally in the “money” category, but we’ve learned a few ways through the years to make the cost of vacation a little more wallet friendly! Here are five ways to save on vacation…hopefully they will help you too!

1.  Rent a house or condo. If you follow me on any social media, you might know that I’m married to a tall man and we’ve managed to raise two tall boys! Once they started growing (and my oldest hasn’t stopped yet by the way), it became incredibly hard to fit all five of us in one hotel room. Unless you are one of the points wizards (which I am not yet) who can get hotel rooms for free, the cost of two hotel rooms for a week generally exceeds the cost of a cabin, house, or condo. You may have to shop around for a bit before you find the one that best fits your budget, but there are so many options out there it’s hard not to find anything. Plus, you get the added advantage of all that room to move around in! (Perfect for anyone with tweens and teens who argue with each other…trust me on this!)
2.  Bring food with you and/or go to the grocery. Don’t go out to eat for every single meal of the day if you can avoid it. That is soooo much money that you are wasting when it’s easy to bring a few things out of the pantry or visit the grocery store when you get to your destination. If you have a kitchen in your accommodation, cook a meal or keep sandwich ingredients. If nothing else, make sure to pick up a few snacks and drinks. Vending machines are ridiculously expensive and unless the place you’re staying offers free meals of some sort, eating out for every meal will seriously deplete your vacation budget!
3.  Drive whenever you can. We live out in the country. The nearest decent-sized airport to us is over an hour away. The closest one that ever seems to have any cheap flight deals is over two hours away. And even cheap round-trip tickets can be expensive when you are paying for several people. To me personally, flying is something to be reserved for short trips or anything out of the country or a US trip that would take days to drive! Not everyone feels that way, but I’m super fond of checking out the backroads or sight-seeing along the way to my destination. Can’t do that if you’re flying over it and a few tanks of gas is a lot less expensive than five plane tickets!
4.  Plan for entertainment. Most of the time when you choose a destination, you have an idea of what you want to do there from the start. There are always those downtimes when you might need to entertain somebody though and it’s best to have a few alternatives to amusement parks, go-carts, putt-putt, or anything else that is going to add to your expenses. For instance, we have Dollywood season passes because we live close and if we go stay in the Smoky Mountains, we will spend quite a bit of our time there. But there are those moments when it’s raining–or snowing, depending on when you go–and you don’t feel like venturing out. Some places will provide board games, cards, video games, or even movies, but it’s good to bring a couple of things of your own just in case. You can always bring books, movies, or board games along. If you forget, run out and buy a deck of Phase 10 cards or rent a Redbox movie!
5.  Start a Savings Account and use a Savings Plan to make sure you have the funds before you go. If you need a Savings Plan, here are three to choose from… 52-Week Savings Printables

These are just a few ideas to help you save money so that traveling becomes a bigger part of your reality! There are ideas all over the internet and from now until 7/19/19, Ultimate Bundles is offering a Smart Travel Super Bundle! Get almost $1300 worth of travel resources to help you organize your travel and save money for $47!

And don’t forget to check out my Beach on a Budget series for more ideas!

Beach on a Budget: Travel and Accommodations

Beach on a Budget: Menu Ideas and Food Savings

Beach on a Budget: Fun and Entertainment