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How to Take a Vacation Without Going Broke

May 8, 2015 by jlpenner 1 Comment

Vacations are awesome but they can really add up. Here are five tips you can use to help save a little money!

Use Your Free Samples:

We all get these free samples in the mail that you either donate or store away for misc. times. Why not use them for your vacation? Instead of taking full size products and bottles that very well may be left at the hotel just take some samples you’ve received in the mail! That way there’s no worry of leaving products behind or not having enough room to pack shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothpaste, etc.

Packing Food and Snacks VS Eating Out :

This is always a HUGE money saver during any family vacation! Most might not consider food as an expense for a vacation but it can add up very quickly! The average meal costs $7 and if you eat three times a day that adds up to $21 for just ONE person. Imagine if you were doing this with 4 or 5 family members, that’s $100 a day!

You can have snacks packed for the road trip and during the vacation, hot dogs for dinner, sandwich meat and bread for lunches, pop tarts for quick and easy breakfast and so on. Now you won’t eat in every day for every meal, you will venture out to some restaurants. But you can pack enough to cover a few meals during the week and save quite a bit!

Eat Out for Lunch, Not Dinner:

As I mentioned above you will probably still want to venture out for a few meals while you’re on vacation, try making those outings for lunch instead of dinner! Lunch is typically half the price of dinner at most places so you still get that eat out experience on a much smaller budget.  Grab Discount giftcards on Carpool- Save up to 20% on restaurant giftcards.

Grab some discount prices on PriceLine.com


Planning Your Trip Outings Ahead of Time :

If you know in enough time about your vacation and it’s not a “spur of the moment” you can always check Groupon or other deal sites for local restaurant or outing deals. Plus a lot of areas like Atlanta have day passes for most of their major locations and tourist attractions. Purchase these ahead of time and you can save even more!

And don’t miss our other posts with money saving travel tips:

  • Save Money By Taking a Staycation Instead of a Vacation!
  • 12 Ways to Save Money on Vacation this Summer
  • Top 7 Ways to Save on Vacation this Summer
  • Save Money on Your Vacation with Discount Travel Giftcards

Manage Your Money :

I know we all probably manage our money pretty well, or at least we have ourselves fooled into thinking so. But what about Vacation spending money? Set yourself a budget, allowing for some leeway on spending, to give yourself plenty of funds to enjoy but not go crazy with. I like to say that if I come home from a Vacation with money still in the bank, we’re doing good!

This year hubby and I have every dime counted and I have moved any extra funds so that we’re not tempted to use anymore than we need to, but if there is an emergency the money will be accessible. Because let’s face it… when you’re in vacation mode you’re also in spending mode! And if you know you have $1,000 in the bank and have only allotted $400 of that for your vacation you can easily gve yourself too much wiggle room and end up spending beyond your budget.

If you use cash only carry the cash you’ve allotted for that day’s spending, if you carry a debit/credit card then balance your spending out every evening so you know how much you have left for the trip. Seeing this amount on a daily basis during your vacation will help you keep your funds in check.

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Filed Under: Series on Frugal Living Tagged With: Travel

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Comments

  1. The Educational Tourist says

    August 14, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Great ideas! Love saving money for vacation! I'm going to link to this on my website www.theeducationaltourist.com for tips on traveling with the kids and learning along the way. I would love a shout out from you! Thanks for sharing! Natalie, The Educational Tourist
    Reply

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