6 Ways to Travel Smart on a Budget

One of our goals as a team (that’s Spencer and I) this 2017 was to travel more.

We want to set aside money and organize our savings so that we can budget for those long trips. This blogpost will cover some of the ways that we plan on taking an airplane across the world on as little money as we can!

HOW TO TRAVEL ON A BUDGET

1. Get an app, email, or notification system that will tell you about price drops. I talked about Pomelo Travel in a post last year. This is is an email system you can sign up for free, or sign up for $3 a month for more notifications, telling you about the BEST flight prices and mistake airfares. I also wrote a little about the app Hopper that allows you to set your preferred trip dates and price range. When the flights fall under those categories, you are notified!

2. Get yourself a miles card. This is a credit card that earns you “miles” towards free flights. *DISCLAIMER: please only take my advice to get a credit card if you can handle it responsibly. Credit card holders can go into major debt if they do not pay their purchases off immediately.* Spence and I currently own the DiscoverIt Miles. We loved it the first year! It offers 1.5x points per purchase, and at the end of the year, our points doubled. It earned us a free round trip ticket to NYC for NYFW. I wrote about NYFW as well! It is important to know that one point does not equal one mile. Make sure you understand the milage system of each card. These are a great way to build your credit while also gaining miles at the same time, though.

3. Get out of town. If you are going to Europe, go to as many spots as you can during your trip! Going to Hawaii? Island hop while you can!

4. Get a scale and a small bag. Avoid overage charges on checked bags by scaling them beforehand. A good rule is to always go 7 pounds lighter than the maximum weight allowed (usually 50 lbs). This is so that you have room to carry home anything you may collect on your trip. Want to avoid the stow-away fee?! Pack even lighter and just take a carry-on. You are allowed one carryon bag and one under-the-seat bag (like a purse) for no extra charges on most flights.

5. Get a room. Hotels are made to be luxurious. Luxury costs money. Hostels are going to be cheap because they trade comfort for just covering the bare necessities. Want something in the middle? AirBnB (and other house rental services) will have a competitive price. They don’t want you to go to a hotel or hostel. They’ll provide the comfort a hostel lacks, and will be at a more affordable price than hotels.

6. Get a map to hang in your house. This magnetic board with a world map on it is perfect for Spence and I to organize our travel thoughts on! We love to put magnets on the board in the locations we want to visit. A newer idea we thought about would be to put a different color of magnets on places we have already been! This narrows down to where we truly want to visit, prioritizing the places that should go first according to our budget.