Top 5 Tips for Traveling on a Tight Budget

We've all been there: the itch to pack up and get away for a bit, but struggling to do so with limited funds on hand. It can be tough trying to plan a trip on a small budget whether you're single or have a family. I wanted to share with you today my tried and true top 5 tips for traveling on a tight budget.

Check out sites like Booking and Travelocity for hotels

I found a lot our hotels over the years WAY cheaper through these sites than the hotels themselves. The key I've found is to book rooms with Free Cancelation, but be sure to double check room requirements. Some hotels will place a pending deposit on your credit card that can take up to a week to get a refund on. If you're booking months in advance, avoid these rooms as you could end up with interest charges. In the 10+ years I've been booking this way, I've had 1 instance where this happened. Its rare, but not impossible. Monitor your bookings as the weeks go by. Sometimes the rooms will drop even further in price. Cancel your rooms and book the cheaper spots.

Book rooms with refrigerators

Your budget will sink the most into 3 areas: room, transportation and food. Cut down your food budget (and in most cases your travel budget, too) by bringing things like breakfast and lunch. I've known of people to pack things like slow cookers and french presses, resulting in hundreds of dollars saved. The french press is a great idea if you love coffee but hate the in-room coffee options. Use your coffee pot to heat the water and this french press travel mug to actually make the coffee (this one has a bean grinder for extra coffee freshness). You can also invest in an electric water boiler to bring along. I used one for a couple of years at work to heat water for tea!

Consider bringing stuff for sandwiches and eating while on the go, or at local spots like parks or monument staircases. My mother-in-law used to take slow cookers (yes multiple) when the whole family of 8 would go to Disneyland and they would eat all their meals in the hotel, while saving their spending on churros and popcorn at Disneyland.

I always try to pack snacks and breakfast items so we can use that portion of our budget on nicer meals. Try bring granola and energy bars, candy, chips, and other little snacks for on-the-spot snacking. It helps with little ones, but also to keep adult energies up when doing lots of walking or needing the space out meals. Buy large backs of food and store them in reusable snack sized bags. This helps keep the amount of and size of stuff you're carrying down. I usually get a pastries at the grocery store for our breakfasts since you can just eat them as is without heating or toasting!

Consider doing activities that aren't attractions with high ticket costs

My family didn't have a lot of money when I was little, so my mom would try to chose lots of locations we could visit that required no or low cost admissions fees. We visited a lot of gardens, museums, churches, cathedrals and missions. Looking back, I'm so grateful she did that because I've seen really beautiful architecture and pieces of history. Don't count those options out when planning your next trip. They're great ways to feel life slow down for a bit. Bonus is that you can get some dope photos in, too!

If you're going to an area you know nothing about, consider looking on Pinterest to see if there are any blog posts about that city and things to do. City guides are really helpful for checking out the offbeaten path.

Save your rewards points for gas and food gift cards

If you use your credit cards often, you'll be able to build up rewards points to get cash back on gift cards. I usually cash mine out for Starbucks, McDonalds, Chevron and Shell gift cards. Since we travel mostly by car, this helps us save on getting out of town and grabbing bites to eat while on the road.

I also use Fetch Rewards, which is an app that scans your physical and digital recipes and gifts you points for things you buy. At minimum, you get 25 pts for each scan no matter what. I've been using this app for years and I've used it to get Amazon gift cards for buying things for the house. You could use your points for things like Uber, Visa, AirBnB, Starbucks, and more. Click here to download the app (I promise you this is actually a very legit app) and use my referral code "P7CYF" to get an additional 2,000 points when you add your first receipt (1500 points). As long as all your accounts use the same email, it'll pull all your digital receipts, too. For more ways to earn gift cards, check out my post from last week about how I make low-key income using apps like Fetch and more!

Bring your own water

I cannot begin to express how much you save when you bring your own water. I will usually bring a few jugs of either Good & Gather or Crystal Geyser and one reusable bottle with a filter. You could easily save up to $60 alone by not having to buy drinks. That's a tank or two of gas! Bottles of water and dramatically overpriced, so save yourself some cash and bring bulk instead. Sure, it's an upfront cost, but you save far more in the long run, so this is great if you make multiple trips a year.

I really hope these tips help you out on your next major trip. They may not seem like a lot, but it really doesn't take that much effort to try to save extra on your trips. Neither try it in true methods that I use whether we're going to Disneyland or the coast. The earlier you start planning a trip, the more you'll save in the long run, but it's definitely possible to use these methods on last-minute getaways! Let me know in the comments below how much you're able to save off your next trip. I always love hearing these stories!