Topic : Money Saving Tips and Tricks

My family hasn't been on a vacation of any kind in 6 years. How do people have real week long vacations anywhere at todays prices? We have no credit cards, so our debt is only the basics. I can't seem to save more than a movie date night a week!  I have 2 part time jobs and a fulltime one. My husband works 70-80 hours a week driving truck. Need some thoughts on the subject!  

When my kids were younger and we didn't make much money, we bought camping gear at garage sales.  Almost every weekend during the summer, we went camping at a lake near our home.  We all had great fun doing that. 

As I got older, we bought a used camper and go to the beach.  The camp grounds at the beach cost 1/3 less than the hotels.  They have camp sites in the shade and restrooms with hot and cold running water and clean showers.  Now that the kids are grown, we rent a small camper/trailer at the beach campgrounds.  They are actually pretty fancy.  We schedule our vacations for when the rates go down.  This year we are staying one week and the cost for the whole week is $518. 

My husband has to call into work almost every day and spend an hour or two resolving work problems.  If you are working 2 part-time jobs and a full time job and your husband is working full time also, perhaps you two should keep a list of where the money goes every month.  Then make a budget.  If you look hard enough, you will find a leak somewhere. 

There are some great tips on this message board for budgeting.  We never buy new cars.  We increased the deductible on our insurance (auto and home) to $1000.  This makes our insurance premiums less.  We always pay our credit card off every month and therefore never pay interest.  We heat our home with a wood stove.  We have a regular gas furnace for back up.  The wood is gathered off the sides of streets where people have cut a tree down and put it there for the garbage people to pick up.  We save for all our regular bills out of each paycheck.  When we get extra money, we put it aside (savings) for emergency and vacations.   

We use a credit card and get 1 mile air flight for every dollar spent.  This has given us many free flights for out of town trips. 

When we go vacation, we usually eat out at night only once or twice.  We go to the local seafood places and buy fresh seafood almost every afternoon.  We make a production out of cooking at our camp site and eating very well.  We have eaten lobster, shrimp, crabs, scallops for a fraction of the cost of what other people are paying at the vacation spot restaurants.  We eat lunch and breakfast at the campsite also.  Occassionally, if we are out siteseeing, we may eat out a lunch or two.  These lunches are usually light lunches and don't cost much. 

Hope this helps some. 

jl4ever 

When my kids were younger and we didn't make much money, we bought camping gear at garage sales.  Almost every weekend during the summer, we went camping at a lake near our home.  We all had great fun doing that. 

As I got older, we bought a used camper and go to the beach.  The camp grounds at the beach cost 1/3 less than the hotels.  They have camp sites in the shade and restrooms with hot and cold running water and clean showers.  Now that the kids are grown, we rent a small camper/trailer at the beach campgrounds.  They are actually pretty fancy.  We schedule our vacations for when the rates go down.  This year we are staying one week and the cost for the whole week is $518. 

My husband has to call into work almost every day and spend an hour or two resolving work problems.  If you are working 2 part-time jobs and a full time job and your husband is working full time also, perhaps you two should keep a list of where the money goes every month.  Then make a budget.  If you look hard enough, you will find a leak somewhere. 

There are some great tips on this message board for budgeting.  We never buy new cars.  We increased the deductible on our insurance (auto and home) to $1000.  This makes our insurance premiums less.  We always pay our credit card off every month and therefore never pay interest.  We heat our home with a wood stove.  We have a regular gas furnace for back up.  The wood is gathered off the sides of streets where people have cut a tree down and put it there for the garbage people to pick up.  We save for all our regular bills out of each paycheck.  When we get extra money, we put it aside (savings) for emergency and vacations.   

We use a credit card and get 1 mile air flight for every dollar spent.  This has given us many free flights for out of town trips. 

When we go vacation, we usually eat out at night only once or twice.  We go to the local seafood places and buy fresh seafood almost every afternoon.  We make a production out of cooking at our camp site and eating very well.  We have eaten lobster, shrimp, crabs, scallops for a fraction of the cost of what other people are paying at the vacation spot restaurants.  We eat lunch and breakfast at the campsite also.  Occassionally, if we are out siteseeing, we may eat out a lunch or two.  These lunches are usually light lunches and don't cost much. 

Hope this helps some. 

jl4ever 

I used to have a no rewards (aka rewards) card from a evil terrorist cell named Citibank/Citicards.   They lied to me about the card completely, and when I asked where my rewards were kept on lying.   I never saw a dime from them.  Worse than that these thieves stole 200 dollars from me.   From what I later learned it appears they use one of most messed up screw with your mind techniques in the books.  In order to confuse people they actually give some people the rewards they are suppossed to get some of the time while not giving them to others.  Never use citicards.  I don't trust other credit card companies either.  The amount you will get in rewards is small to the amount of money the corporate thieves who run the credit card companies can steal from you.   They can and do play all kinds of mind games with you.  They can charge you late payments even when you are not late.  Unless you send every payment by certified mail you will have no way to dispute it.  If you ever forget to pay they can also charge you ridiculous amounts of interest.  You don't even have to ever have made any mistakes before with the one credit card company, they can cite other payment mistakes with other companies.   Keep this in mind before you use a credit card.    

Also keep in mind that if you use a credit card the government/business etc.  can track where you have been and your patterns.  While I am not doing anything illegal, I still want my privacy.     

This is why I pay cash.   

And otherwise good advice.   You should definetly try to figure out where the money is going.  I can almost guarentee if you keep a log and make yourself write down everything you spend for one week you will be suprised and just keeping the log will make you aware of your behavior and likely cause changes in it.  So will paying cash for everything.     

I used to have a no rewards (aka rewards) card from a evil terrorist cell named Citibank/Citicards.   They lied to me about the card completely, and when I asked where my rewards were kept on lying.   I never saw a dime from them.  Worse than that these thieves stole 200 dollars from me.   From what I later learned it appears they use one of most messed up screw with your mind techniques in the books.  In order to confuse people they actually give some people the rewards they are suppossed to get some of the time while not giving them to others.  Never use citicards.  I don't trust other credit card companies either.  The amount you will get in rewards is small to the amount of money the corporate thieves who run the credit card companies can steal from you.   They can and do play all kinds of mind games with you.  They can charge you late payments even when you are not late.  Unless you send every payment by certified mail you will have no way to dispute it.  If you ever forget to pay they can also charge you ridiculous amounts of interest.  You don't even have to ever have made any mistakes before with the one credit card company, they can cite other payment mistakes with other companies.   Keep this in mind before you use a credit card.    

Also keep in mind that if you use a credit card the government/business etc.  can track where you have been and your patterns.  While I am not doing anything illegal, I still want my privacy.     

This is why I pay cash.   

And otherwise good advice.   You should definetly try to figure out where the money is going.  I can almost guarentee if you keep a log and make yourself write down everything you spend for one week you will be suprised and just keeping the log will make you aware of your behavior and likely cause changes in it.  So will paying cash for everything.     

I started using a calculator to shop in 1984.  It works especially well at the supermarket.  Determine what you can spend, tally as you go (allowing for tax to be added on some items) and you'll be amazed at the number of impulse items you won't buy. 

Shop the clearance sales and racks for clothes, especially at really good stores.  The bargains are great.  Thrift & Resale shops carry more than you think.