How To Save Money While On Vacation

Vacations can be a big expense, and even the “little expenses” can add up quickly! We have a few frugal tips on how you can save on trips and travel, making it a less stressful (at least financially) experience.

Have a vacation budget and stick to it. This one is the biggest tip and should be applied in every day life, but comes in handy on vacation! You can read all about How to Set A Budget and by doing so you will be better prepared for your trip, but also won’t have to do damage control afterwards with a credit card statement that went waaay over what you could afford. We also advise using cash whenever possible as this will help you better stay on budget as well! We never went out with all of our cash in our wallet, just in case. We just bring what we think we’ll need for the day and leave the rest back with our luggage.

Plan ahead. There is something to be said about spontaneous adventures, but it is good to have a tentative itinerary to help you make the most of your trip and to keep to your budget in tact. By planning ahead you can have ideas as to what you want to see, do, and most importantly for me EAT! On our recent Italy trip we tried to pick a few attractions per day that we knew for sure we wanted to see, then fit in other little things where possible. Planning ahead helped us best utilize our time and make sure we saw the things we most wanted to see!

Get water with your meals (or bring water with you). We all know that we need to be drinking a lot of water every day, so this is not only a healthy option, but also a very frugal one as water is typically free. In Italy, however, we discovered that water does not come complimentary like it does in the states, so we would drink from the water bottles we had on us. Some people may frown on this, but we never had anyone at a restaurant say anything to us about it. It saved us a good chunk of change over the course of our trip!

Make your own meals. Eating out always seems to add up quickly and can eat away at your budget! One way to help cut down on this cost is to bring/ make your own meals. This is especially easy for meals such as breakfast, which can be made and eaten at home before you set out for the day, or even taken with you on the run. Some of our go-to breakfast ideas include cereal, oatmeal, granola bars with fruit, bagels and muffins. Lunch is another easy one that you can make before you leave and then store in your bag until you are ready to eat it later on in the day. Some simple lunch ideas include sandwiches, salads and leftovers. Along with this I would also advise bringing snacks along, whether you have kids or not! This helps keep you energized and from having to stop to buy much pricier foods to tie you over until your next meal.

Know what things cost. Have you ever wanted something, or even gone to purchase it just to find that it was much pricier than you’d expected? This is always such a bummer, especially when you could have bought something comparable for a lesser price! By knowing the cost of something, no matter what it is, it helps you to not only keep track of your expenses, but also make wise purchases.

Do research before you go. I love finding deals on things and look for them on just about everything I purchase! For example, we knew we wanted to visit the Vatican City on our trip to Rome, so we looked online in advance to see what the best way to go about this was. We were able to purchase tickets that were less expensive than if we were to have bought them there and also found other peoples’ tips and tricks on how to get around. By searching online you can find discounted tickets, special deals, and even free attractions! Plus this helps you to plan ahead which saves you time and money!

Travel by train, bus or other public transit. Depending on where you are visiting this isn’t always the cheapest option, but especially in large cities this can be a very cost effective way to get around! It was much cheaper and easier for us to get a day pass for the bus or subway rather than call and wait for an Uber anytime we wanted to get somewhere. This was also a fun way to really see the cities we visited.

Don’t buy souvenirs that don’t have a purpose. I take this approach with any purchase I make, but find it very important while traveling not to spend money just for the sake of having a souvenir. There’s a quote I love that reads, “In the end, all we have left are memories. Bits and pieces of the time we’ve spent together. No matter how long the time was, it’ll never seem like enough…” This is so true, and even though I think it can be fun to have things to help you hold onto those memories, you don’t want to end up with a house full of meaningless knick knacks! We like to take photos of the places we visit and then have them printed into a book so that we’ll actually look back on them instead of having them sit on our phones or a hard drive. We also like to create a “tradition” out of our souvenirs we do purchase by collecting certain things from each place we visit. Our tradition is Christmas ornaments, which is fun to look back over the years at all the places we’ve gone. Other ideas we’ve seen are things like fridge magnets, paintings to frame on your wall back home, postcards that are then kept in a memory book, or patches or pins that can be kept on a jacket or blanket. These are all good ways to take something home from your trip without spending a lot or acquiring shelves and shelves of unnecessary “stuff”.

Vacations, although fun and exciting, can often become stressful. Don’t let money add to that stress! We would love to hear some of your experiences and ways you like to save money while on vacation in the comments below!