Top 12+ Proven Ways to Save Money for Travel

Saving money is a challenge for most people. With inflation making the price of everything much more expensive than it used to be, everyone’s savings account has taken a hit in the last few years.

It’s not easy to save enough money for your dream vacation, but it’s not impossible, either. If you’re serious about traveling more, there are a lot of ways you can save money for travel that don’t involve earning extra income (though that helps).

We’ve got some of the best ways to start saving money for your travels plus a few tips to help you save money on your actual vacation.

because once you’ve done the work of saving, you want to make sure you’re getting the best deals and stretching your vacation fund as far as it can go. 

Here are some of our favorite ways to save money for travel and make your next trip one you’ll remember forever:

How to Save Money for Travel

1. Know Your Numbers

First things first: crunch some numbers. How much money (after taxes) do you bring home every month? What about after the bills and other essential expenses are paid, how much is left over? How much of your savings account (if any) are you willing to allocate to your travel fund?

Regardless of whether you’re on a fixed income or your income changes from month to month, you’ll need to know what you’re working with before you start saving money for travel.

Factor in all of your bills into your overall monthly expenses. This includes utility bills, rent, and any other essential expenses like groceries, fuel, car notes, and insurance. Don’t forget to add in monthly subscription services like cable TV, Netflix, Hulu, or Spotify…you’d be surprised at how quickly those add up.

This is going to give you an idea of the potential savings. Of course, this isn’t a realistic number because life happens. Unexpected purchases are going to happen, we’re just looking for an estimate to see the potential. 

2. Set Realistic Goals

Let’s set ourselves up for success, shall we? Saving $2,500 in 6 weeks to make it to Paris for Christmas may just not be in the cards. Trust me, I wish we could all buy a round-trip ticket to somewhere incredible at a moment’s notice, but realistically, that’s not the reality for many of us.

So often we give ourselves unrealistic goals and then beat ourselves up when we don’t reach them. 

Get yourself a rough estimate of how much it’s going to cost to get you to your dream destination. And now, using the numbers you crunched earlier, how long do you think it would take you to save up enough money?

If your answer just took the wind out of your sail, don’t worry, we here at ViaTravelers have got your back. 

This is a marathon, not a sprint. Remember, this should be a long-term type of goal. Most of us simply can’t save that much in such a short amount of time, even if we skipped every impulse buy, took public transit, and cooked every meal at home.

 Be realistic with yourself and your financial situation, while still pushing yourself to meet your savings goals and growing your savings account is possible. I promise.

Check-in with yourself on a weekly basis to make sure you’re on the right track and monitor how much you spend. And don’t beat yourself up if you bought that coffee or enjoyed yourself on a night out with friends. This isn’t a punishment!

3. Budget Ruthlessly

Now that we know our numbers and have set some realistic goals, it’s time to start slashing away at some unnecessary expenses. This is one of the best ways to reach your savings goal, but it can be a bit of a lifestyle change, depending on how intense you want to get.

Where can you cut costs in your life? Do you really need a monthly subscription for all of those streaming services? How often are you eating out, or having food delivered? If you’re a coffee drinker, I think we both know where we could see some huge savings. 

You’re going to have to create a budget and stick to it, there’s no way around it. Now, I’m not telling you to stop doing things that bring joy to your life. I’m simply suggesting that maybe reel it in a little bit, or at least have a game plan.

Right off the bat, you could see huge savings by not eating out as much, limiting your drive-thru coffees, and maybe dialing back your nightlife a bit. These are all phantom expenses that we don’t think about at the moment, but they add up quickly to extra money in your checking account.

Start making a grocery list before you go to the store, and start meal prepping. Look for deals at the grocery, and stick to your list! This will prevent any impulse buys and unnecessary purchases.

Put a pause on those late-night Amazon shopping sprees for new clothes, limit yourself to one specialty coffee or cocktail a week, and watch how fast a few bucks here and there start adding up. 

These changes don’t need to be drastic measures that completely change your life. They’re meant to make you more mindful about your daily expenses and everyday purchases so you can reach your savings goal and grow your bank account.

4. Start tracking your spending

Seeing exactly where you are spending money can be a game changer, especially if you’re a visual learner. 

It’s critical to track your spending to determine where you may reduce or even eliminate it. With free personal finance tracking software such as Personal Capital, you can track your expenses.

When you track your spending habits and expenses, you can get smarter about where you can spend less and what monthly expenses are essential.

These days, your bank account online may even do it for you! I know I can check my Chase checking account online and it filters everything into nice little buckets so I can see exactly where my money is going. 

If you don’t want to use software, that’s totally fine. There’s nothing wrong with tracking your spending old-school style with a pen and paper. This budget planner is less than $10 bucks and is easy to carry around with you.

5. Make extra money on the side

If you’re on a fixed income and are having trouble saving money for your travel fund, then finding ways to make some extra money can help you save money for travel much faster. 

You could look into getting a side job, but there are many ways to get some extra cash into your account that don’t involve getting a side job. 

Sometimes, finding ways to earn extra money can be as simple as having a yard sale or selling stuff in your house you no longer need. Other times, you may find that you can make some extra cash from some of your hobbies, like photography or traveling. 

There are also many ways to make money while you travel. You can sell your photography and videography from drone footage on stock photo sites such as Shutterstock. Alternatively, you can write about your travel experiences by starting a blog.

While these may not be the cash cow you were banking on, every little bit helps grow that bank account!

6. Create a Vision Board

Vision boards have been used by some of the most successful people on the planet, so don’t knock this one until you’ve tried it. They’re wonderful, tangible reminders of your goals, and you’ll be surprised at how effective they are. 

As a visual person, I need to see my goals to help achieve them. While planning for my last trip, I made a list of my top three travel destinations and researched the approximate cost of it.

I then printed out a world map and colored it in those countries. I also put the dollar amount of the cost of the trip in bold red letters over each country. I then hung it up in my office, where I knew I would see it several times daily.

I found that this helped motivate me to save more money for travel and influenced my spending decisions throughout the day in a positive way.

7. Start A Vacation Savings Fund

In our household, traveling is a priority. It is something we enjoy, and we want to explore as much as possible. We set aside the same amount of money each month into our vacation fund.

My first money-saving tip on travel surprises most people when I tell them. This tip applies to bigger trips like all-inclusive vacations, Disney, Hawaii, or many international destinations.

Find a travel agent you trust and vet their price versus what you can get online. From our experience, we have gotten a better deal from our travel agent and have not spent hours scouring for the best prices. Plus, we can start our vacation sooner without all the vacation planning stress!!

For local travel within the US and quick getaways, I prefer to subscribe to a few travel deal newsletters like Going.com and Dollar Flight Club. This is a great way to explore a new place without paying full price. And you can get some screaming deals!

8. Start Travel Hacking

Travel hacking can be overwhelming if you’re starting, but it’s not that hard to figure out. One way to make it easier is to have a destination in mind before you start planning how to earn points and miles to pay for your trip.

Knowing where you’re going will help you pinpoint the best credit cards to sign up for and how many points/miles you’ll need to cover trip expenses.

9. Make Airline Miles A Priority

With family in both Europe and America, we travel internationally often, so we mostly maximize travel savings by earning airline miles to pay for flights. Getting your round-trip ticket covered with miles saves us thousands of dollars on every trip we take, making it easier to spend money on food and activities during our trips.

Our favorite program is Chase Ultimate Rewards because we can transfer points to Air France / Flying Blue for affordable flights to Europe or use points for flights to the Caribbean or Mexico on Southwest.

We use a combination of cards – Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Freedom Flex, and Chase Freedom Unlimited – to earn as many points as possible over the year. We also use Chase Ink Preferred and Chase Ink Unlimited for all our business expenses, which helps us rack up points even faster.

10. Diversify Your Types of Travel Credit Cards

My favorite way to save for travel is to combine different types of credit card rewards. Utilizing different travel rewards platforms allows you to mix and match and save yourself a lot of money.

11. Use The Best Booking Sites

I love using apps like Southwest, Expedia, and VRBO to save money on travel when I don’t have many points to use. Southwest is best for domestic flights, Expedia for rental cars, and Airbnb for accommodation.

Bonus points if you use Airbnb referral credit for your booking (start sending that link to friends and family!) I give my referral credit to my friends and family for Airbnb, so if I know I have credits to use, I will first book for accommodation because I can get some free nights.

12. Cheap Flights May Not Mean The Best Deal

If you’re planning a holiday, it can be tempting to go for the cheapest available flights and accommodation. However, this may not always end up being the best choice!

The travel industry knows travelers looking for cheap deals and will often increase prices accordingly. If you want to get the most bang for your buck when traveling on a budget, then follow these tips:

- Be flexible with your travel schedule; don’t leave booking too early or too late in advance.

- Choose to visit during the off-peak season (January/February) or low season (April/October).