Saving money for travel is hard.
We all have bills to pay, kids to feed, and at the end of the day, saving money for a vacation just doesn’t take priority.
But it should.
You deserve a vacation. Like yesterday.
It just so happens that talking about finances isn’t the sexiest thing ever. But knowing your travel finances (as we like to call it) really makes the difference between multiple vacations every year and not having money to travel.
We travel 4-5 times per year by focusing on 3 things:
- Making a travel budget we can actually stick to
- Finding ways to travel on a budget
- Saving as much money as possible to travel with
So if you’ve got your travel budget in order- and you’ve found ways to travel on a budget – let’s talk about how to actually save the money for travel.
We’ve got 23 creative ways to do it, so let’s get started!
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Know Your Savings Goals
In order to plan an epic vacation (and not just a typical back-to-Disneyland kind of vacay) you need to know how much it will cost.
Scary, I know.
But this is why having a travel budget is so important – you’ll need to know the exact amount you’re saving towards. If you know the exact amount, then it becomes so much easier to focus on that one goal.
Especially when you’re at the store and there’s a sale 😛
So if you’ve never created a travel budget, then now is the time to start. We’ve even written an entire post about travel budgeting broken down into easy steps.
Okay, so now that we know how much this dream vacation will cost, how are we going to get the money? Well, a few ways actually.
- Make more money for travel
- Save the money you’re already making
Travel more with a full time job!
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Make extra money and save it for travel
This is a good way to have extra spending money on your trip, or even knock out a few flights or transportation costs.
Of course, these methods involve working more or actually doing something extra. But the good news is that doing some of the ideas below can make you some serious $ quickly.
- Work extra shifts or overtime – just remember to set it aside specifically for travel and don’t spend it on something else!
- Take a temporary job. Same goes for this – any extra income from another job should go to paying off travel expenses on your travel budget
- Have a garage sale (or sell stuff you don’t need online.) We all have extra stuff laying around the house that we don’t use anymore. Consider having a “spring cleaning” and get rid of things you don’t need
- Make & sell your own crafts. Julien and I know a bunch of people who make and sell their crafts at art fairs or on Etsy. And you can set aside a separate travel fund with the proceeds
Saving money you already have
We love traveling so much that we’re willing to give up a few other luxuries in order to have dream vacations multiple times a year.
If you’re the kind of person that wants epic vacations so much it hurts, then you’ll have no problem doing a few thing from this list to gather the money for your trip!
- Review your household budget. Then cut out any expenses you can live without. For instance, we recently cut out cable, and didn’t even notice the difference.
- Use your local library instead of buying books. Did you know they have some pretty great stuff? Even new movies and books to help you travel
- Add a “travel” section to your monthly budget. Every time you get paid set aside a specific amount for your trip. PS – you can set this to be automatic with the Qapital app
- Take advantage of free dates. Think picnics in the park, your DVD collection, going to a free outdoor concert.
- Pay your bills on time! The more money you’re wasting on late fees and interest payments, the less money you have to spend on fun stuff – like airplane tickets
- Print out a picture of where you’re going for motivation. I know it’s cheesy, but it really works. Make sure you put it somewhere you’ll see it every day (I like to tape mine to my phone case)
- Do home manicures. I love my gel nails, but they cost me $35 every 2 weeks. Sound familiar? Skip the salon and get a gel lamp instead.
- Same goes for doing my hair. Skip the expensive blowout and get a fabulous hair dryer instead!
- Reduce your home energy bills. Turn off the lights, don’t let the water run, etc. Ughhh, I sound just like my parents *facepalm*
- Buy generic instead of brand name. It’s so not worth the added expense and it really adds up!
- Coffee at Starbucks: $3-4 per day. Coffee from home: less than $1. Need I say more?
- Prepare your meals at home, it saves an obscene amount of $. You can even check out a free cookbook from the library and get creative!
- Don’t buy new clothes. Go into your closet and re-purpose the stuff you never wear. If you’ve had the clothes long enough they eventually come back into style 😉
- Set yourself an allowance every paycheck. Only spend that amount.
- Take out cash, it’s harder to spend frivolously when you use cash instead of cards.
- Save the coins from paying in cash and put them in a jar labeled “travel”
- Compare costs before you make purchases -see if you can find it cheaper somewhere else
- Look for promo codes – you’d be amazed at how much you can save just woth a quick Google search
- Don’t buy things that are cheap. They break fast and need replacing sooner than high quality items
This one little change has made all of the thing on this list possible and has allowed us to have some epic vacations. Hopefully it will help you too!
And don’t forget to subscribe for access to our free travel resource library! It will help you plan your dream vacation like a pro and it only takes 5 seconds!
Happy travels!
– Veronica
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