We find ourselves traveling a LOT these days. A family vacation here and there, but more often for sport tournaments for our kids. And we always travel as a family of five, so we have learned how to be creative in some ways to save money. Hope you can benefit from some of these too!
- We pack a separate bag just full of grocery items we can eat during the trip. Like boxes of cereal, box of protein bars, boxes or bags of healthy chips. Shelf stable packets of condiments. Protein drinks. Peanut butter and jelly and a case of water.
- We stop at a local grocery store when we arrive to our destination to buy fresh fruit and occasionally cold cuts.
- We bring foil paper to wrap up the sandwiches we make. Bring plastic sandwich to pack snacks in. We also bring plastic containers to place our washed and cut fruit in.
- Our dentist always gives us an individually packed toothbrushes and mini toothpastes every time we go for a cleaning. I save them for our trips and throw them away the last day of our vacation. This way we don’t take our good toothbrushes from home and one less thing to bring home.
- We try to accumulate gift cards by cashing in on our coupon apps before an upcoming trip. Even though we try to not eat out often, sometimes we can with the help of gift cards.
- We use reusable trial sized containers to bring our preferred toiletries in.
- When flying if airline charges for bags we either bring none or 1. We have been able to fit what we need in a regular sized backpack which we can bring on the plane. Each passenger is allowed one, so with 5 backpacks we have been able to avoid the cost of paying for checked bags.
- If you will need swimsuits or specific items for vacation, try to buy in advance on end of year clearance if you know of trip in advance. Or you can ask for those items as gifts for upcoming birthdays or holidays.
- If flying try to find a ride to airport to avoid paying all those days for parking. Even if you pay a neighbor a few bucks each way it will still be much cheaper than parking.
- Cash in your recyclables or sell some unwanted items before a trip and save up for spending money. By using the cash you will set a price allowed for spending as opposed to just swiping your card for anything which can add up.
- Travel off season when you can. It’s so much cheaper!
- Plan your trip’s budget before you go. Create an itinerary of what you will do and estimate the cost on what you will spend and have that money available upfront.
- Open a savings account just for vacation.