10 Ways to Spend Less and Travel More
Browsing through other families’ beautiful travel photos and videos can be fun and inspirational, but also frustrating if you want to be traveling but don’t think it’s doable for your family. This is exactly why we decided early on that an important component of Traveling Graces needed to be making travel attainable for others.
As we discuss in this post, it’s not as much about travel hacks and tricks (although we do have a few favorites), but simply about making choices. Money spent on travel has to come from somewhere. Hopefully, the list below will give you several ideas on trimming your budget, enabling you to prioritize what matters most to your family. Although our site is obviously geared towards traveling, we have also used these ideas in the past for paying off debt, enabling us to give more generously, etc. We share more about our thoughts on this during our chat with Dave Ramsey as well.
- Sell household items on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Craigslist, or consignment stores. Ask yourself: Do I need this item? Do I use this item regularly? Do I even like this item? Is this item taking up space I don’t have? Could I bless someone else with this item and just give it away?
- Become a single car family. Most people could drastically change their financial situation by solely honing in on what they drive and what they eat. Therefore…
- Stop eating out. If you do eat out, request gift cards as presents, split a meal, order water, or go out for dessert/ coffee instead of dinner. Research local kids eat free options in your city.
- Compare prices for internet, cell phone, insurance, cable, etc. between companies to make sure you are getting the best rate or choose to get rid of some of these all together (especially a TV package).
- Take advantage of free or cheap entertainment options in your city. Look into $1 theaters, attend events at your local public library, or explore a nearby park system.
- Cut down on the cost of household supplies by making your own laundry detergent or eliminating paper products. Price compare at the dollar store to see which is the best buy.
- When shopping for groceries, compare Aldi’s price list to what you typically spend on food items. From our experience, they have by a mile the overall cheapest prices. Regardless of where you shop, remember that just because something is on sale doesn’t make it a good deal, especially if you don’t need it!
- When preparing meals, make more meatless options or substitute ½ the meat for veggies or beans. Serve dishes over whole grain rice or noodles or serve multiple side dishes to make one meal into two or three.
- Take a week or month to eat only what you have on hand. Allrecipes.com and Supercook.com let you input ingredients that are already in your kitchen.
- Choose contentment. Make a list of things you are thankful for. We write more about this here as it is our secret to having an amazing time every time while traveling. We also LOVE Marianne Miller’s book “The Gift of Enough” for more inspiration in this area.
What are your favorite ideas for saving money? What do they enable you to do?
