GlitteryOtters
Michigander Disneylander
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2015
Travel is our biggest hobby, but we're on a tight budget so we do a lot of the things mentioned here.
We have only 1 car (Prius bought used) & use the bus or walking a lot to reduce wear & tear on the car and our budget. Husband works close enough to home (less than 1 mile) that he can walk or bike in good weather. I take the bus exclusively and do not drive.
We garden at home as much as we can to reduce costs on produce.
We are vegan and mostly cook from scratch avoiding fake meat products & find it a lot cheaper than buying packaged foods or expensive cuts of meat or cheeses.
I do a lot of batch cooking & freezing of meals and baked goods and we periodically do "eat out of the freezer & pantry and do not grocery shop" weeks to make sure we eat up all the freezer meals and keep the pantry supplies rotating.
When we travel we try to eat at least 1 or 2 meals a day in the hotel or from packed lunches to reduce cost. We bring along snack foods just in case, too, as my husband is type 1 diabetic and sometimes needs something quick & you can't always find vegan options at the drop of a hat.
I earn Amazon & PayPal GCs via Bing & Swagbucks and use them to fund the trip and supplies needed for the trip.
I also do surveys on e-rewards for Southwest frequent flyer points to help pay for part of our travel. In the past 12 or 13 months it (plus points earned from travel) has bought me a free Detroit to LaGuardia ticket & a Sacramento to Orange County ticket. Also, my mother has the Southwest credit card & used it for everything and usually accrues more points than she needs for her annual travel so she often gifts us a transfer of her points to help us travel.
At DL we are staying off site to reduce costs & planning 1 meal plus 1 snack per day in the park & we're staying close enough to return to the hotel for a meal and a rest when needed. We try to do this for most places we travel.
I shop sales and use coupons & allow 50% of the savings to go into my travel fund. My main grocery store lists the $ saved each trip right on the receipt, so I automatically transfer half of that amount into our trip fund. I also use the Ibotta & checkout51 apps and transfer my cashed out deposits right into our trip savings account.
We skip having cable, just use Netflix & deposit the savings directly into the trip savings account. We also don't go to the movies often, but when we do we either go to the matinee discount showings or go to the local art house theater where we have a joint membership (with discounted tickets!) with our housemate.
Also, we share a house with a good friend which not only reduces monthly bills, but we trade off dog care with her when we travel. This week she is at a music festival so I am on dog care duty, in October she'll do the same for me when I head to CA to see my mom, sister & Disneyland.
Husband takes his lunch to work or pops home to eat (on days he drives).
We seldom eat out, brew our own tea or coffee at home to skip coffee shop prices, and even make some of our own juice at home, partially using ingredients from our garden. Instead of buying bakery treats like rolls, bagels, breads I have out bread machine do the dough making & shape and bake the treats myself. I also make batches of banana breads, cranberry breads, zucchini breads, etc., when the main produce ingredients are cheap & store them pre-sliced in freezer Ziplock bags so my husband can take a slice to work as a snack & can skip the tempting & expensive vegan muffins they sell at his work.
I cut and color my own hair myself & husband hates getting his cut, so he gets it cut short once every 6 months & just grows it out until it bothers him.
I book hotels via hotels.com and take advantage of the 1 free night's stay for every 10 night stays.
Instead of using our credit union's debit card we use their rewards credit card & transfer funds to pay for our purchases the same day, then we use the end-of-the-year cash back bonus for travel.
We shop thrift store/clearance/Cyber Monday sales for most of our clothes, or buy a trip t-shirt or sweatshirt as our one souvenir item.
Instead of buying a bunch of souvenirs for ourselves when we travel we each usually just buy one thing we like for ourselves & keep an eye out for cute small trinkets or trip souvenirs we think the other will like. We buy them and hide them away until Christmas and stuff them in each other's Christmas stockings.
We have only 1 car (Prius bought used) & use the bus or walking a lot to reduce wear & tear on the car and our budget. Husband works close enough to home (less than 1 mile) that he can walk or bike in good weather. I take the bus exclusively and do not drive.
We garden at home as much as we can to reduce costs on produce.
We are vegan and mostly cook from scratch avoiding fake meat products & find it a lot cheaper than buying packaged foods or expensive cuts of meat or cheeses.
I do a lot of batch cooking & freezing of meals and baked goods and we periodically do "eat out of the freezer & pantry and do not grocery shop" weeks to make sure we eat up all the freezer meals and keep the pantry supplies rotating.
When we travel we try to eat at least 1 or 2 meals a day in the hotel or from packed lunches to reduce cost. We bring along snack foods just in case, too, as my husband is type 1 diabetic and sometimes needs something quick & you can't always find vegan options at the drop of a hat.
I earn Amazon & PayPal GCs via Bing & Swagbucks and use them to fund the trip and supplies needed for the trip.
I also do surveys on e-rewards for Southwest frequent flyer points to help pay for part of our travel. In the past 12 or 13 months it (plus points earned from travel) has bought me a free Detroit to LaGuardia ticket & a Sacramento to Orange County ticket. Also, my mother has the Southwest credit card & used it for everything and usually accrues more points than she needs for her annual travel so she often gifts us a transfer of her points to help us travel.
At DL we are staying off site to reduce costs & planning 1 meal plus 1 snack per day in the park & we're staying close enough to return to the hotel for a meal and a rest when needed. We try to do this for most places we travel.
I shop sales and use coupons & allow 50% of the savings to go into my travel fund. My main grocery store lists the $ saved each trip right on the receipt, so I automatically transfer half of that amount into our trip fund. I also use the Ibotta & checkout51 apps and transfer my cashed out deposits right into our trip savings account.
We skip having cable, just use Netflix & deposit the savings directly into the trip savings account. We also don't go to the movies often, but when we do we either go to the matinee discount showings or go to the local art house theater where we have a joint membership (with discounted tickets!) with our housemate.
Also, we share a house with a good friend which not only reduces monthly bills, but we trade off dog care with her when we travel. This week she is at a music festival so I am on dog care duty, in October she'll do the same for me when I head to CA to see my mom, sister & Disneyland.
Husband takes his lunch to work or pops home to eat (on days he drives).
We seldom eat out, brew our own tea or coffee at home to skip coffee shop prices, and even make some of our own juice at home, partially using ingredients from our garden. Instead of buying bakery treats like rolls, bagels, breads I have out bread machine do the dough making & shape and bake the treats myself. I also make batches of banana breads, cranberry breads, zucchini breads, etc., when the main produce ingredients are cheap & store them pre-sliced in freezer Ziplock bags so my husband can take a slice to work as a snack & can skip the tempting & expensive vegan muffins they sell at his work.
I cut and color my own hair myself & husband hates getting his cut, so he gets it cut short once every 6 months & just grows it out until it bothers him.
I book hotels via hotels.com and take advantage of the 1 free night's stay for every 10 night stays.
Instead of using our credit union's debit card we use their rewards credit card & transfer funds to pay for our purchases the same day, then we use the end-of-the-year cash back bonus for travel.
We shop thrift store/clearance/Cyber Monday sales for most of our clothes, or buy a trip t-shirt or sweatshirt as our one souvenir item.
Instead of buying a bunch of souvenirs for ourselves when we travel we each usually just buy one thing we like for ourselves & keep an eye out for cute small trinkets or trip souvenirs we think the other will like. We buy them and hide them away until Christmas and stuff them in each other's Christmas stockings.