by Tricia
Trips can be costly, but here are a few things I did to save money on our trip:
1.) I shopped around the internet for the best hotel price. That meant checking sites such as expedia.com and travelocity.com. Also, don’t forget to call the hotel directly and check the hotel chain’s website. In my case, the best rate I received was from the hotel’s website. Also, don’t forget to use any discounts available – this trip was the first time I’ve used my AAA card ;). Note: If you are not picky with the amenities available at the hotel, sometimes it pays to not book your lodging and then just shop around when you arrive at your destination. When we went on our honeymoon, we didn’t book any lodging in advance. We were able to get a kitchen suite room complete with a nice big hot tub for $80/night that way.
EDITED TO ADD: Here’s a comment from a visitor regarding the above: “I work for a travel agency, and the one thing that I would advise for your first tip is that if you are going to take a chance (which, as you say, sometimes pays off big time)… make sure there isn’t a big convention in town or something.” Thanks Steve for mentioning that! 🙂
2.) All drinks and snacks for the drive were purchased ahead of time to take advantage of sales prices and quanity discounts. Small purchases at the gas station can really add up, and I noticed the prices for 20oz soft drinks were running $1.29 each. For $4.44 plus deposit, I bought two 20oz 6-packs on sale (don’t worry – mine was caffeine-free ;)).
3.) Plan…plan…plan. We made a list of everything we needed for our trip. We started the list a few days in advance and wrote down everything we could think of. Then, as we packed we would cross things off the list. I am usually horrible with remembering all of my grooming products, but this trip went smoothly and I didn’t have to purchase anything due to my forgetfulness.
4.) We do not buy travel-sized products. Instead, we used reuseable containers and plastic bags to hold our normal sized items. Yes, it takes up a little bit more space, but if you look at those travel-sized products on a cost per unit basis, they are very expensive.
5.) We used the items provided by the hotels and took the leftovers home with us. The fancy hotel we stayed at even had mouthwash in a neat little container. Now that it’s home with us, we’ll use the mouthwash and then reuse the bottle for our next trip.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure I’ll think of more later.