
Traveling can be one of the most enriching and rewarding experiences in life, but it often comes with a big price tag. From flights to accommodations to meals and activities, the costs of travel can add up real quick! You need a good strategy to save money for travel.
With careful planning and a commitment to saving, you can turn your dream trip into an affordable reality. This guide will walk you through actionable strategies to cut expenses and boost your travel fund. Saving money for travel requires a bit of planning and a LOT of discipline but it can be done with the right strategies.
Here are 33 easy ways to save money for travel and help you build your travel fund for your next trip. These practical ideas to help you with saving for travel look easy on paper but it will take some discipline to accomplish. The result will be worth it in the end!
It includes strategies to cut costs, automate savings, and track your progress.

Set Clear Goals For Your Travel Budget
Saving money isn’t easy when the cost of living has become out of control. Costs are rising on everything and if you’re like me, resisting the temptation to add items to my Amazon cart is hard! But if you want something bad enough, there is a way.
Step 1: Create Your Travel Budget
I’m a big believer in writing things down so you can see it every day. The first step to save money for travel is to research the destination you want to visit. You can’t save enough if you don’t know how much your travel budget needs to be.
You’ll need to get an idea of how much it will cost to fly (or drive) to your vacation destination as well as get an idea of how much accommodations cost. Those are the two things that will cost the most.
Once you have an idea of what your costs will be (an estimation) you’ll have a much better idea of how much you should save for travel. You won’t know the price of food or how much the souvenirs will cost but I always like to overestimate. I generally plan to spend around $100 a day for food, activities, and souvenirs.
- Create a Travel Budget: Research your destination and estimate costs for flights, accommodation, food, activities, and transportation.
Look At Your Income & Spending
Once you have gathered the estimated costs, it’s time to come up with a savings plan for your future vacation. This is where you’re going to have to go through your monthly bills and figure out exactly how much you have left over every month after you pay those bills.
Step 2: What Are Your Monthly Bills?
Write down every single necessary bill you have to pay every month, quarter, and year. This will include house or rent payment, car payment, insurance payments, utilities, and cell phone payment. These are generally the same every single month and must be paid.
Next, you’ll want to subtract that amount from your monthly income. Whether you’re on a set salary each month or if your income fluctuates a bit because you get an hourly wage, your monthly income should be roughly the same every month more or less.
After you know how much you have left over after those necessary bills are paid, you’ll have money left for the bills that vary. This includes food, entertainment, eating out, streaming services, clothing, etc.
Those variable bills are going to be where you find the money to save for your trip. This is where you’ll have to really find that will power to resist spending more than you need to.
Take a look at your monthly bills: Take your monthly income and subtract your set bills from that income. Figure out each of your variable bills and write that in a separate column.

How To Save For A trip
Now that you know exactly what must be paid every month and what your variable bills are, it’s time to find money to save for travel. I’ll be honest, this is the hardest part but if it’s important to you, you will find a way.
Step 3: Cut Unnecessary Expenses
It’s time to find places in your variable expenses that you can cut back on. I won’t tell you to cancel all of your streaming services or stop getting that Starbucks coffee every day because cutting everything out of your life that brings you joy will make you miserable. It’s not reasonable to think you’re going to sit at home every night with nothing to do for however long it takes to save for travel.
But, if you really want to go on your dream trip, cuts will have to be made somewhere. Some areas you may be able to completely cut out while others you can make small changes to your spending habits to boost the travel fund.
Review Subscriptions
At one time, everyone had some form of cable tv. Either Spectrum, AT&T, or DirectTV ruled our television services. These days, streaming services rule our televisions: Hulu, Netflix, Apple, YouTube TV, and more. Even our regular local stations such as ABC, CBS, and NBC all have some form of streaming.
I’m totally guilty of having some of those that I could cancel. Every month I see the email notification that I just paid $6 for Roku and $16 for Netflix, among others, and I tell myself I need to cancel some of those but I get lazy and forget.
It’s hard because $6 isn’t a lot of money so I don’t bother. $16 for Netflix isn’t a lot either. But add everything togther and you realize you’re spending more than you thought.
Go through those services and figure out what to cut. Are you keeping one of them around just for one show? That show isn’t going anywhere. You can cancel Netflix for 6 months and start it up again and those shows will still be there. Remember the bigger picture: that dream trip!
- Streaming Services: Cancel extra subscriptions (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Disney+) and stick to one, or share accounts with family/friends when allowed.
- Unused Apps/Software: Review app subscriptions on your phone or credit card statements and cancel what you donโt use.

Memberships
How much do you pay every month to go to the gym? I’m not necessarily saying you should stop working out but is there a way for you to work out that doesn’t involve spending $80 a month? Maybe instead of running on the treadmill at the gym you can run outdoors. Or, is there another gym that is cheaper?
- Gym Membership: Work out at home, use free YouTube fitness videos, or exercise outdoors.
Again, you don’t want to make yourself miserable by cutting out everything you love but there are places that you can make changes to save a little money each month. A little bit here and there will all add up and soon you’ll see that travel fund grow.
Other places to cut back to save money
Reduce your dining out and coffee shop visits. It’s so much healthier and cheaper to eat at home. Same thing goes for going out to a bar. What you pay for one or two drinks at a bar or restaurant, you could buy a whole bottle of liquor. It’s not cheap.
Take your lunch to work, drink water instead of soda, and skip the coffee shops. Maybe not every single day but start small and work your way up. Pick two days a week to make those changes and consider increasing it to three or four days later.
- Limit Restaurant Meals: Save dining out for special occasions and cook at home instead.
- Pack a Lunch: Bring lunch to work instead of buying it.
- Skip Coffee Shops: Make coffee at home and bring it in a travel mug.
- Skip Costly Events: Opt for free or low-cost activities, like local parks, hiking, or community events.
Shop Smarter
If you’re used to buying things when you want them, it’s time to wait for a sale. Put your want on a list and wait for the sale or a coupon. There’s always a sale!
Limit Luxuries like designer clothes or phone upgrades. There’s always a place to make cuts. When you find yourself about to make a purchase, stop and think about whether it’s a need or a want.
- Use Cash: Physically set aside travel savings and limit card use for everyday spending.
- Clothing: Avoid buying trendy clothes or stick to a minimalist wardrobe.
- Tech Gadgets: Delay upgrading your phone, laptop, or other devices unless absolutely necessary.
- Avoid Impulse Buys: Wait 24 hours before purchasing anything non-essential.
- Stick to a Grocery List: Plan meals and shop with a list to avoid overspending.

Saving For Travel
Once you find different areas where you can save money for travel, it’s time to put together your plan.
Step 4: Open a Dedicated Travel Fund
You’ll want to separate your travel fund from the rest of your money. Don’t mix the money you’re saving for travel in with your other accounts because it’ll just be too easy to spend. Create a separate savings account specifically for travel.

By opening another savings account specifically for the money you’re saving for travel, it will also have a psychological effect. It’ll make it much easier to see the progress you’re making every month and when you can see that progress, it gives you the encouragement to continue saving.
Once you see your travel fund growing each month you’ll find yourself wanting to find other areas you can make cuts so you can grow that savings even more.
Track Your Savings
Like I said above, I’m a big believer in writing things down. I’ve created a Travel Savings Tracker to help you with this.
Step 5: Track Your Savings
You’ll want to track your savings each month so you can watch the progress you’re making. Being able to visually see this will be the push you need to continue with your savings. Once you see it growing, it will encourage you to find even more ways to cut back and save.
Now that you’ve found the areas you can cut back or cut out, you’ll need to have a savings goal. This can be a weekly or monthly goal but having this target and seeing yourself hit those goals is key. Seeing yourself hit those goals will give you the motivation to continue saving.
- Set a Savings Target: Break it into manageable monthly or weekly goals.
- Track Your Progress: Regularly update your travel fund and celebrate small milestones.

Earn Extra Income
Speaking of finding more ways to save, is it possible for you to find ways to earn extra income? Maybe you can’t find any areas in your budget to cut back on what you’re spending or maybe you just want to reach your savings goal faster.
Step 6: Take A Side Hustle
Depending on what you do for a living, you might have a skill that is in demand. You can freelance to make extra money like writing, graphic design, or tutoring.
Do you speak a second language? There are plenty of places online where you can find people wanting to learn English or other languages. You can do this in the evening for 30 minutes to an hour or several hours on the weekend.
Other side hustles you could do are drive for ride-share apps, deliver groceries or packages, sell digital products or participate in online paid surveys. You can even go back to your childhood and babysit. There are plenty of people looking for sitters so they can go out. The possibilities are endless!
- Find a Weekend Job: Tutoring, teaching English online, or delivering packages
- Sell Unused Items: Declutter and sell things you no longer need (e.g., clothes, electronics, furniture).

Other Ways to Save Money For Travel
You’ve gone through your income and expenses to find ways to cut money and maybe have found a way to earn extra income, but is it possible to find even more ways to save or cut expenses?
Step 7: Re-evaluate Your Costs
Just when you thought there wasn’t any more money to squeeze out of your budget to save for travel, I have a few more suggestions. Of course I do! It’s time to look at what you are spending every month and see if you can make more cuts.
Housing
If you don’t own your own home and are renting, is it possible to find cheaper housing? Even if it only saved you $100 a month, that’s $1200 in a year. That’s a huge savings that will continue to save you money even after the trip is over. Plus, there’s always another trip to take!
If you do own your home, do you have an extra room you can rent out for income? This can be a long-term rental that can bring in $500+ a month. If you aren’t sure about having someone living in your house long-term, what about short-term? There are people who travel for work (traveling nurses for example) who need a place to stay for 1-2 weeks at a time.
If your home is in a vacation destination you might even want to consider renting the room on the weekends, similar to an Airbnb. Just remember that extra income is taxable so you’ll want to research that and save the taxes in a separate account for later.
- Downsize Your Living Space: Consider moving to a smaller, less expensive home or apartment.
- Rent Out a Spare Room: Use Airbnb or long-term rentals to generate income.
- Negotiate Rent: Talk to your landlord about renewing your lease at a lower rate.

Utilities
Remember when you were growing up and your parents told you to turn the lights off? There was a good reason for that! Finding ways to use less water and electricty might not lead to massive savings but that’s okay. All of the little ways will add up over time.
We’ve been able to bring our utilities down every month by more than $100 each month just by adjusting our thermostat. We live in Texas where air conditioning is a necessity. I found that by setting our thermostat at 79 during the day and turning on our ceiling fans in whatever room we’re in keeps us just as cool as setting our thermostat to 75.
At night, we adjust it down to 76 when we go to bed and turn our ceiling fan on. This one little adjustment has brought our utility bill down from around $350 a month to about $250 a month. Some months are less but the savings over the year adds up.
- Unplug Electronics: Save electricity by unplugging devices when not in use.
- Adjust Thermostat: Lower the heat in winter or raise the AC in summer slightly to cut energy costs.
- Use Energy-Efficient Bulbs: Switch to LED lights to save on electricity bills.
Transportation
This area is probably the hardest to find a way to make cuts but it’s worth taking a look at. If you own a car, what is your monthly payment? If you still owe money, look at whether it’s possible to trade it in and have a lower payment. Or can you trade in your gas vehicle for an electric vehicle?
Do you live in an area where it’s possible to carpool to work? What about public transit like the bus or a subway? These options aren’t available in many cities but it’s always worth taking a look at.
- Public Transit: Use buses, trains, or carpool instead of driving.
- Bike or Walk: Save on gas and stay healthy by biking or walking for short trips.
- Sell or Downgrade a Car: If possible, sell an unused car or switch to a more economical model.
Save On Travel
This is my favorite way for saving money for travel! Using everyday ways to cut back on the cost of travel. I love finding deals and using travel rewards to cut the price of my trips.

Step 8: Travel Smarter
If there was just ONE thing I could suggest everyone does to save money for travel, it would be to get a Travel Rewards credit card. That might seem to go against saving money but it’s the complete opposite.
Travel Rewards Credit Card
Travel rewards credit cards are the best way to save money on the costs of your trip. There are many different cards available to choose from so you’ll want to research different cards to find the one that will work best for you.
You’ll want to look at what airlines fly out of your home airport, which airline will you be flying on to get to your final destination, and the possible airline partners you might fly with. If you’re not familiar with how to use travel rewards, I wrote a beginner’s guide to using travel rewards credit cards to get you started.
You can earn rewards for free flights (including business class) and free nights in hotels. I rarely pay for flights these days and love to find ways to earn more rewards every day.
- Use Travel Rewards: Apply for a travel credit card to earn points or miles.
- Book Strategically: Travel during off-peak seasons to save on flights and accommodations.
- Be Flexible: Adjust travel dates or choose less touristy destinations for cheaper options.
- Hunt for Deals: Monitor flight prices, use discount websites, or sign up for fare alerts.
Save on Travel Essentials
Don’t overspend on travel essentials like luggage. Keep track of things you might want or need for your trips. I like to save things I want on a travel list on Amazon and I watch for the sales. This includes everything from packing cubes to those silicone tubes that hold shampoo. And then I wait for it to go on sale.
- Shop Sales for Gear: Buy travel items during sales instead of right before the trip.
- Borrow Instead of Buy: Borrow luggage, clothing, or equipment for specific trips.
Involve Family and Friends
You have a big trip planned and chances are good that you won’t be traveling alone. One of the best things about traveling with other people is that you can share the costs on accommodation and transportation.
Hotels are usually THE most expensive part of traveling, even more than the flight. So if you aren’t traveling alone then this is a great way to save money. Often, if you have enough people in your group, you can get a nicer place than you would if you had to get a single room for just yourself.
You can even rent a house with a kitchen which can help cut down on the cost of food on your trip.
Same thing goes with transportation. If your renting a vehicle then you won’t have to pay for the entire thing yourself. It pays to travel with others!
- Plan Group Travel: Travel with friends or family to share costs on accommodation and transportation.
Stay Motivated
Now that you have the tools to save money for a trip, you’ll want to keep yourself motivated to save. Saving to travel is a long game and it’s real easy to just fall back into spending on things that aren’t a necessity.
Step 9: Visualize Your Trip
Create a vision board or set a travel photo as your phone wallpaper. You can print out some photos of your future travel destination along with the different activities you want to do while there so you can see the goal you’re working towards every single day.

You could even put together a digital vision board on your phone, tablet, or computer where you’re sure to see it every day. I’ve downloaded a free countdown app on my phone so I know how many days away I am from my trip. Just having the visual will motivate you to keep at it.
Also, remind yourself every day how excited you are to visit the destination so you will stay focused on the end goal.
