Saving for Adventure
Budget and plan for your summer vacation
By JENNISE VENTURA
Summer is coming up and it’s the perfect time to start planning a summer vacation! Most people who plan vacation dread the financial part of it. Here’s a couple of tips that will save you lots of money.
Before you come up with a budget, you’ll have to do some research to create an idea of how much money you need.
Are you flying or driving? If you are flying, look at the airline’s website first for flights then compare to Expedia, Cheap O Air or Priceline. Sign up for price decrease alerts. Google for discounts if you are military, an educator or first responder.
For driving, use Gas Buddy to plan your stops at gas stations where you have a loyalty program. Most of these gas stations are near main highways. Sam’s Club, Walmart+ Rewards, Murphy Rewards, Texaco, EXXON Mobil+ Rewards, BPme Rewards and CEFCO Rewards offer discount per gallon or points added to your loyalty account. If you are driving, you will need drinks and snacks. Check those apps for special offers and discounts. Or keep a cooler of snacks and drinks that you buy at the store before you leave.
For flying, if you are keeping your vehicle in the airport parking, license plates with disabled veteran and other military meritorious honors designation may not have to pay the parking fees. Austin-Bergstrom International and Dallas-Fort Worth airports offer free parking. Visit the airport website for more information. We recently flew out of DFW for a week and when we got back, parking was $224! Luckily for my husband’s DV plates, we didn’t have to pay.
Are you staying in a hotel? Sign up for the hotel brand’s loyalty program so you can start enjoying perks like discounts, extra amenities and free upgrades. If you are a AAA or AARP member, active-duty soldier or military veteran, there may be better deals. Find hotels that offer free breakfast and free shuttle to and from the airport. If you are looking into an AirBnB, sign up first for the rewards program and a few days later, you may get a welcome discount code to use on a future stay. You can also ask a friend or family for a referral code for a discount (and they get a discount for a future stay).
What about entertainment, excursions and fun activities? Before you take off for your vacation, check websites and sign up for special offers.
Seek other discounts such as military, educator and first responder discounts. ID.Me and Sheer.ID websites offer many online discounts for tickets. For major discounts, contact or visit the Chamber of Commerce of the city you are visiting or neighboring cities. Let them know what activities you are looking for: museums, boat rides, amusement parks, sports games, admission tickets for venues such as musicals, expos, fairs and concerts. They can let you know if there are brochures with discount codes and you may be able to book online with those special codes. Another recommendation is to also ask them if there’s any secret treasure spots to visit or hidden gems that are free to check out.
Once you have an idea of where you want to travel and the activities to do while you’re there, you can now create a budget. It’s important to inflate the budget by 30% to have as a safety net just in case of an emergency. It can help with additional nights at a hotel, extra fees for flight changes, or if you get a flat tire or your car breaks down during the road trip and needs to be towed. Make sure you buy travel insurance, such as flight insurance (usually about 10% of the total purchase price). There’s also hotel guarantee policy fee as well. It’s not fun to pay extra, however, you are securing a peace of mind during your whole vacation. If you are driving, make sure you have active car insurance. A small extra fee saves a LOT of headache and money.
For food, you will most likely eat at restaurants so a week or two before you arrive, see if they have a loyalty program and/or emails about special offers and free food. If the place you are staying at has a kitchen and you are going to prepare meals, use the Walmart+ app to pre-order groceries for curbside pickup. I have used that app for past road trips to the destinations and picked up at a scheduled time. If you can’t make it to the scheduled time, you can select a later time on the app. On the Walmart+ app, there’s a rebate program that pays you back for select items. You can use that rebate bonus on future purchases. You can use other rebate apps (Fetch, Checkout 51, and Frisbee) to save more money on your grocery purchases.
Before you start signing up for emails to receive special offers, create an email address strictly for family vacations. This will keep your personal and professional email account free of spam and organized. Then every time you plan a vacation, you’ll have all your travel tips and deals in one place.
