1) Prepare home-cooked meals.
It's no secret that making home cooked meals will save you money instead of ordering outside food every day! Just buying lunch instead of packing your own cost $3,008 a year on average. That's $3,008 that you could have spent on a flight ticket and hotel across the world!
Living in New York has its perks but dining out can break your pockets here. On average a plate of food in the city can start at $15. Just times that by the number of days you work, add tax, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's a lot of money wasted on the same food you could be making at home for less!
2)Sign up for rewards and use coupons for everyday life.
I used to laugh at the people that would do extreme couponing. If you ever watched "Extreme Couponing" on TLC, people would buy groceries worth $300-400 and will pay a crazy low amount off their bill such as $20. I bet you can tell who has the last laugh now. Although I'm not as extreme as these people you watch on TV, I do try and collect as many coupons as I can to save more money! Nowadays, you don't have to only look in the newspapers but we have resources to apps, magazines, and online couponing.
I don't only collect coupons but I sign up for rewards to save more bucks! I strictly stick with pampers to get points and coupons. Kids and pampers are costly so anytime I can gain points while spending to get more off on my next purchase, then sign me up! Every purchase of wipes and diapers gets you a code to accumulate points to get more coupons or to purchase baby items with your points.
3)Stick with one travel website to gain points.
Sticking with one site allows you to accumulate points and multiple coupons you can use on your next purchase. My favorite travel website is Expedia. Normally Expedia has a higher booking fee compared to other websites but its perfect for me and here's why! Expedia has "best price guaranteed". Best price guarantees that Expedia will have the best price for you, so if you find the same hotel you just purchased is cheaper on another website, Expedia is going to match that price for you! On top of getting the cheaper deal, Expedia will give you a 50$ coupon for your next trip! You can't beat a good deal like this. Sometimes the more expensive site is more valuable to your pockets!
4)Don’t book your trip all at once.
Sometimes I don’t purchase my full itinerary the same day. I'll book my flight ticket first then a hotel. Flights are more likely to go up rather than a hotel so my main concern is normally to buy a flight first and worry about a hotel later. You will always be able to find a hotel. Flight tickets can sell out fast especially if you have a desired time to travel or on sale.
This method option can be best for you if you can't afford to purchase the full trip on the same day. You can pay for your trip as you get the money. Just make sure you book well in advance so you have time to get all the money together before traveling.
5)Research round trip and one-way tickets.
Buying a one-way ticket can somethings be cheaper than a roundtrip ticket. Not only is it cheaper but you have flexible times to fly out rather than round-trip tickets that have a set time to fly out and coming back home. This year we knew we wanted to go to Amsterdam. We searched the cheapest ticket into Europe and found a ticket to Sweden for 150USD! Once in Europe, we found a ticket to Amsterdam for $38USD! Normally, train and flight tickets are affordable when you are closer to the destination rather than coming from countries away. From Amsterdam, our tickets were $200USD to get us back home but we still saved! The round trip ticket to Amsterdam from the US was 700USD per person! Not only did we save but we get to experience another country we didn't plan to visit! This is why its best to research both round trip and one-way tickets. You'll never know the deal you might be missing!
