"Avoid travel fees"/ "How to afford a vacation when money is tight and costs are rising"

May 21, 2019 "Avoid travel fees": Today I found this article by Lesley- Anne Scorgie in the Star Metro:

My fiancé and I are heading to Greece for our babymoon and to attend a friend’s wedding this month and we’ve been extremely careful about our costs; perhaps more so than ever before considering our financial lives have been upended — engagement, new house and baby all within the past six months. Not surprisingly, we’ve been fixated on stretching our travel budget as far as it can go.

Our flights to Athens were booked on a massive seat sale, and two round-trip tickets (not a milk run), totalled $980. We’ve taken advantage of pre-booking specials for AirBnBs and hotels. And, we purchased our Euros on a day when the exchange was favourable. The next step is to avoid any annoying, and preventable, travel fees, and you can too, by planning ahead.

Baggage fees: Try taking a vacation with one carry-on bag. You’ll need to think ahead about what you’ll actually need and wear. Pack the essentials and leave the rest at home. If you need inspiration on how to fit it all into one bag, we love the approach that Marie Kondo, Japanese organizational specialist, takes to organizing a closet. You can apply the same techniques to your packing. If you need to check a bag, try sharing it with your travel partner; so one shared checked-bag and two individual lighter-weight carry-ons.

Too much travel insurance: Sometimes you can get by without buying extra travel insurance. Check your current home, auto and work policies, as well as your credit card insurance policy, to see if you have coverage for things like medical emergencies, car rental coverage, fire, theft or trip cancellation. Don’t duplicate coverage.

Toll roads: Most of the time you can find an alternative driving route that doesn’t cost a penny. Yes, it could take a little bit longer, but if you build that extra time into your calendar, you can avoid paying unnecessary tolls.

Seat upgrades: I totally get it. Sometimes it’s really nice to be pampered on the plane or train you’re travelling on. But, if you consider its only use is to get you from point A to point B, you might think twice about spending the extra $100 on this unnecessary luxury.

Late fees: If the hotel says you need to check out by noon, be out by noon. There’s no sense in paying for an extra night, when you can check out on time.

Data overage: Don’t leave home without checking your data roaming plan with your cellular provider. 

Do you need to add another package to your plan to cover you while you travel? 

Or, could you use free Wi-Fi while you’re on the road. Whatever you do, don’t turn your phone on in a different country without being crystal clear about what you are, or are not, covered for.

Car rental overages: Depending on where you rent from there can be limitations on the number of kilometres you can drive, and how much fuel needs to be in the tank when you return it. Don’t scrimp here. Pay attention to your travel needs and use Google maps to map out the distance as best as possible. 

Then choose the most flexible rental agreement. And in most situations, you need to refuel the tank upon return of you will be forced to pay up to three times the market rate for gas when the agency refuels on your behalf.

Traffic violations: Just because you’re on vacation, don’t be lackadaisical about your parking and speed. Read and obey all road signs and speed limits and you won’t get ticketed. If you’re not sure, err on the side of caution; slow down or move to a different parking spot.

If you’re successful at saving money on these fees, pat yourself on the back and e-transfer $200 into your savings account, because that’s about the average amount that travellers spend on silly unexpected costs.

https://www.thestar.com/life/2019/05/18/avoid-these-annoying-travel-fees-this-summer.html

May 24, 2022 "How to afford a vacation when money is tight and costs are rising": Today I found this article by Sandra Fry in the Financial Post:

Many people are getting the urge to travel again as countries reopen and relax their COVID-19 restrictions. Even if travelling wasn’t something you did before the pandemic, two years at home is more than enough time to give anyone the travel bug.

But before you spend hours surfing travel websites and researching where you want to go, review your finances. 

It may feel less spontaneous than simply booking a last-minute special, but ensuring you can afford to fit your dreams into your budget without accumulating credit-card bills will help prevent buyer’s remorse.

Maybe you’re one of the fortunate ones who can count on receiving a sizable tax refund. If you don’t need the money to catch up on other bills … great. Put it in your travel fund and use it guilt-free. If you aren’t so lucky, then it’s a good idea to start reviewing your monthly budget to determine what you can afford to save towards a vacation. Planning your vacation spending mindfully helps avoid struggling to repay unplanned credit-card bills when you get home.

If your budget feels too tight to fit anything extra in, start tracking where your money is going. We can often control impulsive or unnecessary expenses better when we pay more attention to our daily spending. 

For example, it may not seem like much at the time, but a daily stop for coffee or lunch adds up. Do the math: spending $10 per working day on lunch out adds up to approximately $200 a month. 

Over the course of a year, that amounts to $2,400, which can go a long way toward paying for a week at an all-inclusive beach resort.

But what if you have reviewed your budget and, with the increase in living costs, you are barely making ends meet as it is? The next step would be to review what those costs are and if they can be cut back. Some two-car families have found since COVID-19, and the transition to working from home at least part of the time, that they no longer need a second vehicle and the associated expenses. It may take some schedule coordination to work with just one vehicle, so focus on why you’re jumping through those hoops. 

The savings you create by having only one car could free up enough money to balance your budget or cover that tropical getaway.

If the cost of fuel is hurting your budget, consider trading in your vehicle for something more fuel efficient or improve your driving habits to save more at the pump. If that’s not feasible, consider other ways to reduce your transportation costs. Maybe a co-worker lives nearby and is willing to carpool. Public transportation might not be as convenient, but it is much cheaper than operating a vehicle.

It also never hurts to review your cable, cellphone and internet bills to ensure you are not paying for features you don’t use. 

Streaming services can be much cheaper than cable, but subscribing to several at a time adds up. 

If you have several cellphone users in your household, explore changing to a family plan that has lower costs and allows you to share data.

Inform your kids about the cost of using data when Wi-Fi is not available to further save on that cellphone bill.

Home and private auto insurance (where permitted) can also be reduced by shopping around for the best price. Some provinces offer lower insurance costs on vehicles that are not driven daily or for drivers who have a good driving record.

If the rising cost of groceries has put a strain on your budget, some savvy shopping can help reduce costs. That doesn’t mean driving all over town to save $2 on a block of cheese; it means knowing where to do your overall shop. 

Bigger chain stores are often able to offer lower prices than smaller, local stores that can’t pass on significant volume discounts. 

Also, the more meals you can prepare from scratch without expensive pre-packaged foods, the more you will save. 

You may find that eliminating processed foods has a positive impact on your health as well as your bank account.

If you’ve done all these things and still find that a vacation is financially out of reach, don’t automatically turn to credit to make your dream come true. 

Look at staycations, 

home swaps with friends or family, 

or taking on a side job to create the necessary room in your budget.

For some great ideas on how to make extra money on the side, check out 65 Side Hustles, one of many free, educational webinars offered on the mymoneycoach.ca website.

If your goal is to save $200 per month over the course of a year towards a vacation,

break it down to earning an extra $46 per week to achieve it. 

Taking small steps can add up to help you take a big step away from your day-to-day routine.

Sandra Fry is a Winnipeg-based credit counsellor at Credit Counselling Society, a non-profit organization that has helped Canadians manage debt for more than 25 years.

How to afford a vacation when money is tight and costs are rising | Financial Post