Being fully vaccinated has made us get on the travel bandwagon again and planning trips has been so fun and exciting. After the past year just planning trips seem like a dream. If you, like me are wanting to travel but also don’t want to break the bank I am sharing 5 ways to save for your dream vacation! So you can get to planning and saving!
5 Ways To Save For Your Dream Vacation
Use rewards and points: Whenever we travel we ALWAYS use miles from our credit cards to book flights. I can’t remember the last time we paid out of pocket for a flight. Signing up for a great credit card with rewards really helps. We do pay off our cards monthly but we put everything on our cards to get points we can use for flights and hotels. We actually just signed up for a new card to purposely save for a BIG trip we are planning to take in 2024 for our 10 year anniversary!
Have money auto deduct monthly: This is such a great way to stock money away for vacations. Having a bank account specifically for vacations that’s gaining interest, and stocked away where you can’t see it or touch it. If it’s separate from your regular bank account you are less likely to use it for something else.
Have money “stolen” from your account: There is a great app called Digit that will take small amounts of money from your bank account. You set up in your digit account how much you want to save and Digit will analyze your spending. Then automatically transfer money from your checking account to your Digit account when you can afford it. THIS IS GENIUS! You can use this money for vacations, to pay off debt, etc. You could easily have your entire vacation paid for this way.
Search for deals: No different than buying a jacket or cutting coupons. When traveling ALWAYS look for deals. Most hotels have AAA, government, and book ahead rates. We saved over $1,000 by paying in advance for a hotel stay. Sure there is the risk if you end up not being able to go but if you know that won’t be the case it’s good to look into. With AAA there is no risk so if you are a member ABSOLUTELY use those deals! With flights, there are always great websites and deals directly with airlines. So if you don’t have miles/points to use this is a great way to get highly discounted flights.
Go during off-seasons/times: Another great thing to do is going during off times or seasons. Flights are the MOST expensive Sundays and Fridays. Saturdays, Mondays, and Thursdays are the cheapest flights. So something to consider is to fly during the cheaper days. Another thing is to go during off-seasons. Travel during holidays, Spring Break, etc are always going to be the most expensive. We are actually taking the kids to 30A in Florida in September with friends and purposely booked after Labor Day for a much less expensive trip!
Do you have a dream destination in mind? Share below!
This post was originally published in 2020 and has been updated for 2021
