How to Save Money on Travel

It should come as no surprise that most people desire to travel more, but how can you save money while maintaining a fulfilling home life? I recently read online that the majority of millennials are willing to forgo Tim Hortons, Netflix, shopping, and hockey to travel. What then would you forego to save money to explore the world?

Terminate pointless subscriptions

Examine every monthly subscription you have and ask yourself these questions. Do you actually require them? 

It might be time to discontinue your cable TV subscription if you spend 99% of your time on Netflix. 

Do you really use these subscriptions often enough for them to be worth the money? A gym membership is one instance that comes to mind. It could be time to cancel if you only work out once every two weeks. 

Could you locate less expensive options? While receiving a Hello Fresh box at your door could be convenient, you could save a lot of money by visiting your neighborhood market and looking around for the best prices.

Ways To Save Money On Travel 

Before Dave and I started working as full-time travel writers, we both had full-time jobs, a mortgage to pay, and other monthly expenses. We didn't want to live our lives in this way. We didn't enjoy our employment, and we frequently felt behind schedule. We were aware of our desire to travel more, though.

Before deciding to start blogging, Dave and I had over a decade of intensive travel together. While balancing our work and daily lives in Canada, we traveled to 40 different countries before we even posted anything online. We decided to make travel a full-time career after spending several months overseas in between jobs, and we were determined to make it happen. Many of our friends and relatives believed we were slackers who wasted our money on vacation. In actuality, we never once took a withdrawal from our money. We decided to learn how to save more money and use that money towards travel whenever we could since we didn't want to go into financial disaster to pursue our ambitions.

Travel light

There are a few additional benefits to packing lightly in addition to avoiding checked bag fees. To begin with, traveling light makes getting about much simpler. You can manage public transport without feeling like you need to pay for a taxi when you have a light suitcase or backpack since you are more agile. How then do you travel light? Bring clothing that is simple to wash in a wash basin. Pick garments that you can mix and match while keeping an eye out for quick-drying products. So that you don't have to stuff four pairs of shoes into your bag, stick to basic pieces that go with just about any outfit.

Additionally, if you don't overpack, you won't be tempted to buy souvenirs because you won't have room in your bag or luggage.

Purchase hotel rooms with points

Regarding bonuses, it's usually always a smart idea to use rather than preserve your hotel points. Booking accommodations with points rather than cash is undoubtedly a wise choice if you want to avoid using up your travel fund. Still, there are a few more advantages as well: You could save on resort costs: Resort fees, which are those additional fees that hotels demand to cover the use of extra amenities like pools and Wi-Fi, are annoying and can occasionally exceed $50 per night. Thankfully, certain hotel loyalty programs don't charge them for reservations made using points, such as Hilton Honours and World of Hyatt. 

You can be eligible for further savings on stays paid for with points if you stay longer every five consecutive nights spent at a Marriott property funded with Marriott Bonvoy points, for instance, the lowest point-value night is free. Similar rules apply at Hilton, where guests who are at least Silver Elite members get the fifth night free when using points to make a reservation.

Set a travel spending plan

You should figure out how to arrange your vacation budget now that you have determined your travel purpose. Find out how much it will cost to travel there and how much cash you'll probably need each week (taking into consideration costs for local transit, lodging, food, and entertainment). When you are aware of the amount you will require, look at your monthly budget (or make one) to determine how long it will take you to accumulate the funds. If at first, it seems as though you won't be able to save enough money, don't worry. You can use the advice listed below!

Minimize your bar purchases

When traveling for an extended period, the cost of alcohol must be included on top of the price of food. If you take into account that beer costs $0.25 in some countries (Vietnam), but $10 in others (San Francisco, CA), you can see how expensive it is to consume alcohol around the world. Alcohol is not something that your body needs somewhere you go. Although some people travel for beer, for cocktails, for wine, or see drinking alcohol as a means to discover a location, if you drink alcohol every day, it can constitute a sizable chunk of your daily travel expenses.

less money on lunch

It might be as easy as choosing not to purchase a $2.50 beverage (tap water is an incredibly underappreciated beverage!). However, aim to limit your lunch expenditure to $8 or less. The savings will accumulate. Let's imagine you dine out five times per week. You may save $832 a year only by reducing the price of your lunch from $12 to $8! If you can, bring your lunch to further increase your savings.

Establish an automated travel fund  savings account 

We advise establishing an automatic withdrawal into a vacation savings account now that you are aware of the amount of money you will need for your trip. similar to how you have regular withdrawals from your accounts for rent, investments, and bills. Make that fund a monthly withdrawal from your bank account.

Conclusion

I still want to go on a trip that is inexpensive but full of experiences. However, I changed my approach and came up with inventive ways to accomplish so that I could still travel on a budget. What about you? Do you have any suggestions for reducing travel expenses? Join the Milesopedia Facebook community and share them with us!

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