If you know me- you know I love to travel and I go to a lot of places that most would consider a dream vacation. Lots of people I talk to , say someday I want to do that. Well, I am here to tell you that someday could be now and give you some tips on how you can afford to travel.
First the most expensive part of the trip is getting there. So I search SecretFlying.com for error travel fares and I also use two other search engines to look for deals too- Skyscanner and Momondo. I like both of them because they show cheaper days to fly and alternative airports to fly out of to save money but by far I have found the best deals using Secret Flying. First the deals, most of them are not last minute but several months to 6 months out giving you plenty of time to plan your trip.
So my first step is to look for a ticket that I like. I have a bucket list of places that I want to go but and I am on the lookout for some of those places and remain open to trying new places if the ticket is incredible. ( Last year we picked up a ticket from Florida to Iguacu Falls Brazil for 220.00 US round trip) But this time New Zealand came up. New Zealand has been on my bucket list for quite some time but the tickets were taking up too much of the travel budget . So recently a deal came up on Secret flying to Auckland , New Zealand and the dates that the deal was available ran from July to end of Sept. 2016 . I confirmed that my work schedule would allow me to go in Sept . With Secret Flying- they post exact dates that work for the ticket and you must write them down before you click on the button that says go to deal. In this case the deal was a flight on Quantas from San Francisco to Auckland for 292.76 including taxes per person round trip. FANTASTIC , right? So I booked the ticket and noted the times that I would need to fly from San Francisco. I live in Florida , so I still needed to find a flight from Tampa to SF. So I searched flights on Expedia , Cheap flights, Southwest, Skyscanner but found my best deal on Momondo on Delta- 165. 20 per ticket.
Let's review- round trip ticket to Tampa to Sf 165.20
round trip ticket from SF to Auckland 292.76
Total flight costs from Tampa to Auckland and back home- an amazing low price of 457.96.
I have just saved 100's of dollars on the cost of the ticket .
I realize some of you may be saying but I do not live in Florida and how do I make this work for me. Well most of the good deals flying from the East Coast - fly from NYC, Boston, or Washington DC- so find out what city is the cheapest for you to get to and look for deals leaving from those cities. On the West coast flying West- I find the best deals from LA and San Francisco. If you live in Europe- you are lucky- you have lots of major cities to choose from and I swear the best deals!
As an American- this year and next are a great time to travel because the dollar is strong and our money is finally worth something again. I remember 8 years ago when I cried when I exchanged my money . It was a pitiful exchange! Happy that I have some buying power again!
So here is a quick breakdown on my projected cost of this trip for 2
Airline tickets 2 x 457.96
Rental car for 7 days with taxes 182.21
Fuel for car 100.00
Used credit card points to book three nights at a Starwood property -0-
4 nights at different Airbnb apartments ( we have the entire place) 4 x 60.00
*groceries, eating out and tours and fun 7 x 100.00
Total budget for trip 2138.13- rounded up to 2200.00
*( for saving money on food- I read tips on Trip Advisor, google free things to do in each town and try not to move around too much. I usually splurge on one big ticket tour item and eat on the cheap to make up for it on the other days and I pack some food items like coffee and snacks from home where they are cheap to buy)
Bascially- I am going to spend 7 days in New Zealand for about as much as what most people would pay for two airline tickets. So saving on the airlines , is the biggest way to save money. I realize 2200.00 is still a nice vacation for some and here are the other things that I do to save money and go on this trip.
We eat out less one time a month 12 months x 50.00 ( 600.00)
I gave up pedicures 6 x 40.00 ( 240.00)
I buy one less bottle of wine a week 52 weeks x 12.00 ( 624.00)
I clean my own house 26 x 100.00 (2600.00)
I wash my own car 26 x 10.00 (260.00)
I make coffee at home and skip Starbucks 52 x 4.00 ( 208.00)
My total savings per year 4,532.00
Bill and I love traveling so much that we divided up our house and rent out a suite on Airbnb to gain more travel money - Last year we made 14,000.00 . We clean it ourselves to keep all the money in our pocket. Airbnb collects the bed tax and turns it in to Florida for me and we keep our accountant up to date with our earnings so that we do not get hit by a big tax bill and we get write offs for upkeep to the house. Last year it bought a new screen door, patio furniture, painted the house , bought new sheets and decor for the bedroom, new bikes for the guests and us to use, etc and of course funded more travel!
We do our own yard work, I budget shop for clothes and grocery shop at Aldis. The point is everyone can travel and you will come up with your own way to save the money back for your dream trip where you can buy a bottle of wine at the grocery store and sit on a beach in an exotic place and watch the whales go by.
So now you know how we do it and I hope I have given you some ideas on how to start planning your dream vacation. If you have any tips for me- I am all ears!
Awesome planning. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome. I know you have great tips for saving money too. What are your favorites?
DeleteYou are very welcome. I know you have great tips for saving money too. What are your favorites?
DeleteInspiring reading Debbie. Just found your blog again. I think you're too busy with other things at the moment. How do you record your research as it's not always possible to have wifi. Do you have a notebook.!
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