Pay For Your Trip Now
You can either save money or you can get the money now and simply pay it back. The only difference is when you want to take your trip. Do you want to take it soon or 12 months from now? If the answer is soon, we can help you get a quote to pay for your trip. Get a free quote in about two minutes.
Travel Right Now – Saving Money – Shop For Your Trip
Saving For That Vacation
If you have time to wait, there are a lot of ways to save and accelerate that savings. Here is what we recommend to help you get the money that you need for your trip faster and avoid a vacation loan.
1) Get A High Yield Savings
The first step is to get a separate high yield savings account online. The account should not be at your regular bank because that makes it too accessible to you. An online account will still be easy to access but withdrawals are delayed slightly. The extra day or two that it takes to get your money can keep you from making those impulse purchases that can wreck a savings account.
In addition, a high yield savings can pay up to 10 times what an average savings account pays. Most are currently at about 2 percent which is not huge but every dollar counts when you are trying to save for a vacation.
When looking for an account, be wary of reviews. Choose a name that you know and one that is well reviewed. There are many online savings that lure you in with a high APR only to charge you hidden fees or slowly lower that APR over time. There should never be a fee to transfer money to or from your account and make sure that the company you go with has at least a 4 out of 5 star rating.
2) Cut Your Expenses
Now that you have your savings account in order, it is time to look at your budget and make some cuts. You might already have some room in your budget to contribute to your new savings but every dollar that you can put towards your trip the better. Trimming your budget a bit could cut months off of the time it takes to save the money you need. Here are some great areas to cut and save big.
Food. Yes, you have to eat but we waste a lot of money on food. If you dine out for lunch all the time, you can easily save 8 dollars a day by bringing your lunch from home. That equals out to $160 in a month and will probably help you get a trimmer waistline which will also be nice on that vacation. Especially if you plan to head to the beach.
Besides lunches, you can probably save some money on your home cooking as well. Avoid those high priced prepared meals by learning to cook and concentrating on some cheap and healthy staples like rice, dry beans and potatoes. Limiting your meat consumption is a good idea as well. By making a few simple changes to your home meal prep, you can potentially save several hundred dollars a month and eat healthier.
If you would like to cut your budget even further to save for that trip, there are a lot of other things you can look into. Shop your auto insurance around to look for a better rate. Eliminate cable in favor of a cheaper streaming service. Even simple things like turning lights off to save electricity will make a difference at the end of the month.
Take a look at that budget and make cuts wherever you can.
3) Add To Your Income
There are a lot of ways to add money to your income and that can allow you to greatly accelerate your savings.
If you have a newer model four door car, driving for a service like Lyft can do that trick. This little app has changed the way people get around and the way that people make money in their spare time. Turn it on when and where you want to make money. As little as 10 hours a week of driving can yield you an extra 1000 dollars a month in savings.
Don’t want to drive people around. Understood, but how do you feel about retail. Retail stores like Walmart are open for long hours and this means that they need a lot of employees and that they have shifts at almost all hours. In addition, employees are scarce which means that starting wages have come up dramatically. Pick up just one part time shift a week and you could have 500 more dollars a month to add to your savings. Pay for that vacation entirely in a matter of months.
As you can see, there are a lot of ways to add to your income and we have only scratched the surface. Even online paid surveys can get you money. No, they do not pay a lot but you can do them in your spare time on your phone and cash out with gift cards for rental cars, hotels or even towards places like Disney.
Shopping For Your Trip
Once you have the money for your vacation, the work is not over. Now you have to spend that money on the things that you need and now is not the time to be careless. Sure, you may be ready to go but you have worked hard to save money, so let’s spend it wisely.
Airfare
This will be one of the biggest costs of your trip. To save money on airfare, shop about 60 days in advance and look for off peak times. People hate to fly early in the morning and on weekdays. If you can set off for your trip at one of these times, you can save a lot of money. Be flexible with your flight days and times and you can save hundreds in airfare.
Hotels
Think about how much time you will be spending in your hotel room and book accordingly. If your destination is the beach and you will be lounging most of the time, a nice hotel with plenty of amenities might be worth the cost. If, on the other hand, you are visiting a destination city with lots to do, go with something nice but a bit more basic. No use in paying for amenities that you will not be using.
Rental Car
Weight the cost of a rental car versus other means of transportation. In some cities it might be more economical and even more fun to take advantage of public transportation. If you go that way, look into a weekly pass versus pay as you go. Also consider using Uber or Lyft to get around your destination city. It might end up being cheaper and save you from the stress of trying to navigate streets that you are not familiar with.
