11 Ways to Boost Your Travel Budget

Is your reason to travel vacation, a family vacation, or a dream destination? Most of us need a travel budget. This resource will help you manage the budget.

What is your ideal travel? Any travel dream can be realized if you follow the “unspoken” rules of budget travel – you know, the ABCs. “Budget” doesn’t have to be a bad word, and learning how to trim your budget can help make the travel of your dreams happen.

Family vacation, a romantic vacation, an opportunity to serve others? 

Regardless of your idea of travel, it doesn’t happen without some planning, and usually yields more returns than the cost to get to that travel destination.  I feel like I’m getting on my soapbox here, but we all know it’s true.

Why travel is important

This photo was taken 11 years ago and was my first trip with extended family.  Every day I look at the various photos around my home featuring this trip and remember a comment, a joke, a shared opportunity. from a distant family vacation. 

The lesson here – WHAT you get out of travel lasts forever.  The cost to get there (financial or personal) comes and goes.  I had to borrow money to go on this trip, and haven’t regretted that decision for a moment.

Not that I recommend borrowing money to travel, but for me, it was worth that sacrifice. The sacrifice – is temporary. The memories – forever.

So you need more incentive? Read my 20 Reasons to Travel. There is something in that story for everyone.

How about this? The girl in this photo is a mommy now, and we lost one of these boys to cancer a few years ago. Every moment spent on a family vacation is a gift.

For more incentive to get out and have great family vacations, check out my full-length story here.

Let’s review the Top 10 Travel Tips

• Tip #1 – Planes Trains and Automobiles.  How do you get there?
• Tip #2 – Room Service, please!  Where will you stay?  Camper, Hotel, House, B & B?
• Tip #3 – Transportation.  Car rental, Uber, or others.
• Tip #4 – Research Research Research!  Learn about your destination.
• Tip #5 – Did I say Resource?  Use your traveler points, frequent flier miles, travel deals, etc.
• Tip #6 – Ask questions!  Don’t hesitate to ask the questions you want to know the answers to but don’t know.
• Tip #7 – Packing.  Packing differs for a regional trip from for international travel.
• Tip #8 – Consider travel insurance.  It could be worth the cost.
• Tip #9 – Be flexible when planning a vacation.
• Tip #10 – Remember, you are the guest at your travel destination.

Those are good tips to follow for any travel budget.

I know there are folks reading this, that think that finding the money to go on vacation just isn’t going to happen – even after using frequent flier miles, cost-saving apps, and so on… 

If you are one of those who say travel just isn’t going to happen, I have a challenge for you. Broaden your horizons and think about travel a little differently. 

My challenge is this…  Living in the USA Midwest, we have several middle-to large cities within a 3-4 hour drive from us. Most people in the US and Europe have similar opportunities.  Take a long weekend to visit that city. Find a cheap hotel room. 

Use your frequent flier miles and credit card perks. You may be surprised at how often these budget-saving resources get missed. For more information about budget-friendly ways to use those perks, I love this article.

Eat the same as you would at home, and find the inexpensive-or wait for it…

FREE things to do at your travel destination.

Here is one travel budget example

A weekend in Kansas City is a travel destination for us almost every year.  The art museum is FREE.  World War I Museum is a very low cost.  The zoo is a very low cost – and the kids loved it (see how I snuck the family vacation in there…) Union Station’s train display is FREE. The science exhibits at Union Station are very low cost and targeted toward making young minds think. Makes old minds think too.

Do you see an inexpensive weekend here?  Even when we stay in a nicer hotel, with our expenses for driving there, and meals, our travel budget for a weekend in KC is around $150-250. 

Now, that still might mean several months of savings for some families.  But remember the story and photo from the first paragraph? See my grandson in the train window below? These are both photos taken on a family vacation to KC with the grandbabies. The memories really do last forever.

Here is another budget travel example.

Most places within the US are within a half-day trip from a National Park, National Monument, National Memorial, or State Park. Some cities even have some amazing city parks worth spending a day in… like Central Park in New York City.

We visit National Parks whenever we get the opportunity and have been privileged to visit many of them. Our most rewarding visits have been shared with family – as shown in the photo at the top with the 3 kids. That photo was taken in Rocky Mountain National Park in 2007. 

For more incentive to explore our national parks, check out my full-length story here.

National Park admission is usually priced per car, which makes family vacations inexpensive, and National Memorials and State parks usually do not charge admission. These travel destinations are very friendly to the travel budget.

I could go on and on about National Parks. As a matter of fact, I have. National Parks are some of my favorite travel destinations. Scattered throughout my stories you will find full-length stories featuring Yellowstone, Glacier, Mount Rushmore, Arches, Acadia, and so many more.

I have a resource with easy access to specific stories, for more National Park information check here first.

Want more? Use the resources available to you. They can help you stretch any travel budget. Viator (otherwise known as TripAdvisor) is one of my favorites. I use Viator on almost every vacation we take.

You may wonder…

If your travel budget is tight, how can you save money so family vacations or bucket-list travel destinations can happen? I thought you would never ask.

The budget is incredibly important.  For most of us, money to do the things we want doesn’t just fall out of the sky. Papa Joe and I have a portion of our paycheck deposited into a “stash” account every payday.  It’s like – out of sight, out of mind. 

Others use apps like Smarty Pig, but the idea is the same regardless of how you save.  Decide where you want to travel, do your research to determine how much your travel budget should be, and then check your household budget.

Determine how much you can save out of your household budget, and that will help set your savings plan. There are several resources available to help you do exactly that.

Easy as pie – right? I know it’s not, so here are some ideas to help jump-start your savings.

Eat out less. Painful I know, but it can boost savings quickly

Whether it is fast food or fancy dinners, eating out adds up fast.  Papa Joe and I have become semi-gourmet chefs. Even though we don’t go out for supper, we still like good food.  Recipe books and online resources like the Food Network have been a huge help.

For example:  when we go out for supper, it usually costs a minimum of $50, usually closer to $100 a night.  Cutting out one of those meals a month equals the cost of a short trip every 2 to 3 months.

Workday meals are expensive.

Work-day lunches out usually run $7 or more per day, the same goes if you eat breakfast out.  Instead, buy a box of cereal or meal replacement bars, and take last night’s leftovers or sandwiches for lunches.  Instead of spending a minimum of $60 per week on work-day food, I take meal-replacement bars and my own lunches. 

Compare a weekly estimate of $60 ($240 per month) to my actual breakfast/lunch budget – less than $10 a week ($40 a month).  This adds up fast and has been a huge boost to my travel budget.

Try carpooling. This resource can be a huge boost to your travel budget.

Papa Joe spent the majority of the last 10 years carpooling with a co-worker.  He bought a tank of gas weekly, cutting his weekly cost from $50 to $25.  Over a month, that is $100 savings for both him and his co-worker.  

On the other hand, I was not able to carpool, but I was able to negotiate to work from home.  Cut my commute cost to… $0. I was spending around $150 a month on commuting costs, so between Papa Joe and myself, we have an additional $250 per month to add to the travel budget. Nice!

I’m at $350 a month added to our travel budget… Should I go on?

Do you use your gym membership?

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t care if you use it or not…

Many companies will help sponsor gym memberships or even have facilities onsite.  Ditch the payment if you aren’t using the gym.  Minimum $25 savings per month savings. In all reality, most gym memberships cost way more than that, but you get the idea. Use the resources available to you to save money wherever possible.

What about your cable bill?

Do you use all the channels you are paying for, or could you go with a less expensive package?  How about looking at online streaming channels?  Online streaming TV has become a huge business. 

Use the features your smart TV comes with.  Figure up your own savings, but if you look realistically at what cable features you use, versus what you pay for, most people will find significant savings. We just went through exactly this exercise and cut our cable bill in half.

Entertainment – been to a movie lately? 

With tickets $10 or more, popcorn, and a drink, it is not unusual to have a $35 night at the movies. Our last night at the movies cost over $50.  And that’s just for the 2 of us. 

Instead, wait a few months and watch the movie on Redbox and enjoy the popcorn at home. Or bundle a movie package with your cable cost. Apps like NetFlix are always an option too. Remember your resources.

Buy designer labels at a discounted rate.

Girls – I know we love designer jeans, but those are available without spending the big bucks. Check out your local resale store. For instance, our local shopping area has Plato’s Closet, and those same jeans are MUCH less expensive there.  $100-$250 savings. 

BAM!  You look great at your travel destination AND you look great!

Add savings for the designer purse and the world becomes your oyster! You look great AND save money doing it – does it get any better than that? I’m sure this is hard to believe, but I’m cheap.  I can’t remember the last time I paid full price for anything but groceries.

I would rather put the money in my travel budget and use a coupon or shop for sales. What do you think about this resource now?

What about expensive makeup and fancy creams?

I’m not ashamed to say this, but I buy the smallest bottle of fancy cream possible from that name-brand store. When I say the smallest bottle… I mean the smallest bottle that gets me the GWP. You know – gift with purchase.

Make sure to take advantage of the freebies. I would NEVER spend the money on mascara or eyeshadow that they charge at fancy cosmetics stores, but it sure helps stretch the makeup budget when I get a freebie. 

Buy the most economical item behind the counter – just enough to get the promotional items, and your makeup budget just went to nil.  And you usually get a nifty makeup bag that has oh so many other uses.  Like being a travel bag for the go-pro camera. 

Oh… by the way, that also means I didn’t need to buy a $30 bag to carry our GoPro. I know you hear my travel budget celebrating all the way over there! But if you do want a new ba, shopping for sales is always a great way to go!

Keep spare change to boost your travel budget.

While this doesn’t add up as fast in the current days of debit cards, we still keep a decorative jar with loose change.  Papa Joe throws his change in nightly, I rarely carry cash so whatever I have left at the end of the week – dollar bills included – goes into the jar. 

We cash it in when the jar gets full. Every 1 -2 years, and there’s usually $150 or so in the jar. The spare change is usually my entertainment budget at the airport for long layovers.

Literally, every penny counts.

You really can find spare cash just lying around.

We don’t do this, but when I used to collect cans and bottles and return them for recycling, I almost always had $20 in cans every time I took a load in for recycling.  A couple of times a month, for a couple of months. There’s almost a weekend trip added to my travel budget.  

This may seem a no-brainer, but how many of us don’t shop at Amazon? I know I do. Guess what my first filter is on my search results? Items that are Prime eligible. Seriously, that saves me tons of shipping costs. You should try it too!

I think you get the picture.

I’m not a “bag lady” by any means, and Papa Joe and I live a comfortable lifestyle.  But we have found a few ways to stretch our budget, augment our savings, and plan trips to incredible travel destinations well in advance so we can DO things instead of just dreaming about vacation.

I’m going to finish up here with a picture of my Pops.

I got the passport ink for blood from him, as well as many of the lessons we have shared on our website.  One of the more difficult challenges we have (and it’s an awful problem to have – NOT) traveling is to find our own places to go, not just follow in his footsteps. 

One more soapbox here.  During Pop’s last days in hospice, in his mind, he traveled back to the places he had visited throughout his life – and there were a lot of places.  Each morning we would ask him where he was on that day, and he always had an exotic answer for us. 

It would bring a smile to his wife’s face, or one of us kids – whoever was with him on that particular trip.  The memories TRULY are a gift and worth the sacrifice to get there.

Use the easy steps in this resource. Trim your household budget in areas that aren’t too painful. Find a place to stash your savings. Decide on a travel destination. It really is as simple as that. ABC – 123, BAM, done.

Keep your costs down while you travel.

I love the idea of long weekends close to home, road trips, and scenic drives.

All that’s left is to pack your bags for that long-awaited family vacation or bucket-list travel destination.

If you enjoyed this family vacation resource, you will love these travel destination posts! 

Originally published in January 2018, this resource was updated in October 2019 and July 2020.