Money saving tips for first time travelers – words Al Woods

If you are a first time traveler on a budget, then saving money on your travel ventures will probably be a topic at the forefront of your mind.

If it is, then you’ve come to the right place, because we’re going to discuss the best tips and strategies that you can use to save on the cost of travel as much as possible.

Here are the most effective money saving tips for first time travelers:

Budget Yourself

Traveling should never be treated like an excuse to become financially irresponsible. Just as you should budget yourself and carefully track your expenses in your everyday life, so you should do when you’re traveling too.

This means budgeting yourself for everything from airline prices to hotel rooms to food. Actually create a spreadsheet and create a daily budget. Never allow yourself to go over budget when you travel.

Don’t Buy The First Airline Ticket You See

Buying the first airline ticket you come across is a major mistake that novice travelers make all the time. This is a mistake because airline prices are also varying dramatically depending on the time of year or even based on the time of the week.

What you will want to do is watch the airline flight prices very consistently in the months or weeks before you travel. You can even use certain travel apps that will notify you of when a good deal comes up.

In addition, remember that you don’t always have to fly directly from your current location to your final destination. It may be much cheaper to instead take multiple shorter flights.

Watch Your Food Costs

Food is the one cost that really add up behind your back, which you definitely don’t want to happen. Fortunately, there are a number of strategies you can use to keep your food costs down.

The first strategy will be to eat in your hotel room with ingredients bought at the local supermarket as much as possible. Yes, it is fine to eat out from time to time, but to save money you’ll definitely want to eat out as few times as possible.

Another effective strategy will be to use food search and discovery services such as Zomato to look for good deals and even win coupons. Try searching for ‘Zomato offers on food’ or something to that effect and you should be surprised by the good deals that pop up.

Be Strategic About When You Travel

If you’re traveling for business purposes, you probably won’t get to choose when you travel. But if you’re traveling for fun or vacation, then you will get to choose, and you’ll really want to be strategic about when you choose to book a flight.

When it comes to travel prices, the year can basically be divided into two halves: ‘low season’ and ‘high season’ (also known as ‘on’ and ‘off’ seasons). The low season is when there are significantly less travelers, which translates to less demand and thus dramatically lower prices (as in potentially several hundred dollars lower for the price of an airline ticket).

Generally speaking, late spring and fall are the times of the year when there are less travelers and therefore also when prices are cheapest. In contrast to this, early spring (AKA, spring break) and the summer months of July to September will always be the busiest and most expensive.

Don’t Try To Get The Best Of Everything

Flying first class or getting the nicest room in the hotel? You’ll certainly want to do those things if you want to have a luxurious trip, but if your focus is on saving money (and it probably is if you’re reading this article), you’ll have to be fine traveling economy class or in the cheaper hotels at your destination (or even at hostels).

In all honesty, if you don’t have all the money to spend in the world, it’s not worth it to save up and buy the more luxurious and expensive travel options. What’s more important is that you enjoy the experience of traveling and exploring new areas, and the quality of the flights or hotel rooms that you book shouldn’t have that big of an impact on that.