One of the most common questions I get asked is how we can afford to travel so much while working a non-traditional job. And before I left the Army the question I was asked was how I could travel so much while being active duty in the military. So I figured I would combine both answers into a blog post to share some of our tips for making time for travel, and how to get the most for your money. I think it’s also a good opportunity to point out that while I share a ton of our travels on Instagram and my blog, that doesn’t mean I’m traveling all of the time. Travel is my passion, it’s what makes me the happiest and it’s one of the main pillars of content for my page. I like to share my love for travel with others, so that’s what makes up a large portion of my content. But it’s typically a few short trips a year and some weekend day trips. So while I may spend a few months sharing pictures from our trip, that doesn’t mean we spent months away just traveling.

HOW TO MAKE TIME FOR TRAVEL

Regardless of what your job is, most full time positions offer vacation time. For the military, we receive 30 days a year. I typically always saved 10 days as “emergency leave” in case something happened, but I always used the rest of my vacation time and planned out in advance how I wanted to use it. We all get the same amount of time, it’s just dependent on how you use yours. For me personally, spending vacation days to sit at home is a waste. So I always planned out at least 2 trips a year with my leave. Ideally, I would like to use my leave on longer, international trips. So those would be my big trips.

If you have the budget to afford more travel in addition to your 1-2 bigger trips, a great option is short domestic trips on longer weekends. We get about 10 long weekends throughout the year in the US that are either 3 or 4 days off dependent on your job (in the military it’s usually 4-day weekends). So we would plan to use these longer weekends to visit a new city within the US, so we have a little extra time to account for travel.

And regardless of where you live, I’m sure there are at least some things that you can go do on a normal weekend. We currently live in the middle of nowhere in Southern Alabama, but we’re a 2-3 hour drive from a lot of other places like little beach towns in Florida, Atlanta, Montgomery, etc. so we try to use our weekends exploring the areas around us. If you’re not sure what’s around you, try searching on Instagram and Pinterest. A lot of the random places I find are by simply searching hashtags or locations for the areas near us.

So as a breakdown:

Vacation Days / Leave = 1-3 Long (possibly International) Trips

Long Weekends = Domestic City Trips

Normal Weekend = Short Day Trips or Weekend Getaways within 2-3 Hours

HOW WE AFFORD TO TRAVEL

I’ll start by saying that I’m aware not everyone has the budget to travel internationally. My family really struggled growing up and didn’t have money, so family vacations were non-existent for us. However, as I got older and started seeing places on pinterest and social media, I knew that I really wanted to be able to travel and experience new places and made it a priority in my budget to save for travel.

While we’re definitely not rich, we prioritize travel over a lot of other things and also do a few things that help save money on travel. Below are a few of those things:

-Don’t Be Afraid to Use Budget Airlines. To be honest I literally don’t care how nice our airline is as long as we get to where we want to go. We’ve taken countless flights with Spirit and Frontier so we can save several hundreds of dollars per flight. While they might not be the comfiest flights, it’s just a few hours of being slightly uncomfortable so we can afford to see more places.

-Budget Car Rentals. Same goes for our cars we use; I just need it to be safe, but I don’t care what type of car we’re riding around in for the weekend. To me the experience is about seeing new places, not about riding around in a range rover for one weekend.

-Shop Around for Hotels / Airbnbs. I’m a little more picky when it comes to the places we’re sleeping. I don’t need it to be crazy fancy since we’re just sleeping there, but I do want it to be clean and safe. We typically shop around and compare prices on hotel apps and Airbnb to find a place to stay.

-Travel During Off Season. Obviously there will be some times where it’s worth it to splurge on a vacation during the peak season. However, for some places that are just as nice during their offseason, you can save a ton of money by visiting in a different season.

-Make Some of Your Meals. I definitely enjoy going out to eat and experiencing new foods while we’re traveling. However, restaurants tabs can add up quickly and take a huge portion of your budget if you don’t plan it out. We typically try to make a few of our meals, pick more budget friendly options, and then splurge on a few of our meals. For example, if you’re staying in an Airbnb, you could make your breakfast at home before heading out for the day, grab a more affordable lunch option like a sandwich or tacos (or pack a sandwich) and then splurge on a nice dinner. If you’re staying in a hotel, you could choose a place that offers free breakfast and coffee in the morning.

-Use a Rewards Program. Most airlines and hotel chains offer some type of loyalty rewards program where you can earn free flights or a free night’s stay. Additionally, you can choose a credit card that offers travel points. So while you charge your credit card for all of your necessities (groceries, gas, etc) you can earn points towards travel. Just make sure you immediately pay it off so you don’t get hit with interest.

I hope this post was helpful. I’d love to hear some of your tips for saving towards travel. xoxo