February 17, 2020 Fund your next family holiday for next to nothing
Holidays can be an expensive proposition.
Once you factor everything in, sometimes you’re left wondering whether it’s actually worth the financial stretch, particularly when you could be putting that money, say, towards paying off the mortgage.
If you’re a long-time reader of my blogs, you’ll know that getaways and holidays are a must for me and my family.
We always bake-in holidays when planning next year’s calendar at the end of each year.
That way, we can budget and plan around each one and make sure everything’s factored in. It really works for us.
For 2020, I’m budgeting on doing our holidays on the cheap. But not cheap in the truest sense of the word.
The challenge? I still want all the bells and whistles, but I don’t want to have to pay for all those bells and whistles.
Why? I’d rather budget and free up money for other things.
Like throwing that money into some investments I’ve had my eye on.
In other words, I want my family to live it up for, say, a week, but that week needs to be completely guilt-free from a money/financial point of view. You with me?
If you’re looking for some money-saving tips for a bang-for-buck budget holiday, look no further.
Here’s how I’m going to do it…
Free flights… thank you, credit card
You have a credit card, no doubt. Possibly more than one. What if I told you that you could rack up free flights by earning points on your credit card.
I cottoned onto ANZ’s Rewards Travel Adventures card a few months back.
You get a complimentary return flight travelling within Australia – provided you meet the spend criteria, which is pretty standard fare with these types of cards and promotions – and, better still, you get additional complimentary airport lounge passes.
I know, right?! Bring it on.
Get discounts and free inclusions
If you’re not already, get on to [Luxury Escapes], it’ll change your life.
We signed up a couple of years back, and I can safely say we’ve pretty much-booked accommodation for every holiday we’ve had through the site since then.
The reason? Great discounts and, perhaps more importantly, the number of free inclusions you get with their package deals – I’m talking stuff like Kids Club being thrown in.
We’ve had some seriously insane deals over the past year, in particular.
Get onto it!
Save money at the airport
Airports are a captive audience in terms of money-making. Everything is expensive.
And then some. If you’re not careful, you can wind up racking up some serious additional expenses to your potentially already expensive holiday.
I’ve covered this very topic in a [previous blog], but if I could only give you two pieces of advice on saving money at the airport, it’d be these:
book your parking online the day before you fly out (the percentage off is huge; you can save yourself in the vicinity of 50-60 percent) and, once you’re checked in, resist the temptation to slip into ‘holiday mode’ and spend up big on unnecessary items like magazines and other overpriced stuff.
You’d be surprised, all those purchases here and there seriously add up. Save your spending money on your actual holiday.
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