Here are the facts: 1. You are an adventurer at heart and feel just as comfortable out in the big world as you do in your own home. 2. You love to travel and want to do more of it, but it can be expensive and time consuming.

And this is the struggle of being a habitual tourist (hello, my name is Denise and I’m addicted to travel). 

But joking aside, getting out of your normal routine is necessary and an important part of self care for you and your family, yet it’s the first thing we justify NOT doing. Traveling takes resources like time and money, and we can always find more important uses of those than travel. 

Tony Robbins says, “It’s not about your resources, it’s about your resourcefulness,” and this has always been true for me with a little bit of flexibility and planning. So it is possible, fellow wanderlusts, we can have our New York cheesecake and eat it too!

Here are some of the ways I have found to be more resourceful to save time and money when traveling.

Have a value mindset for travel.

You have to start with the right mindset. If you can’t find value in traveling, it’s hard to ever make it happen. Travel brings so much value to your life. It becomes a part of who you are, if you allow it to. Coming home after that, you can give yourself to your community in a different and renewed way. Your children will come back with all of that too, and that is priceless in my opinion.

Make travel a financial priority.

The traditional model of travel planning is very reminiscent of a lay-away program; you select your trip 6 to 9 months in advance and then you save for it or make payments to pay it off. But it is more resourceful to save for vacations in advance, without a concrete destination, a little at a time. Once you have money saved, it allows you to pull the trigger on amazing deals immediately for an exciting adventure that reflects who you are right now, based on what is in the account at the time rather than 9 months ago. 

Investing .5-1% of our paycheck to an account for a yearly travel budget is easiest for us. It’s plenty and doesn’t feel like a huge sacrifice. Although, it should be noted, we have used the traditional model for certain vacations (such as a cruise around the holidays where advanced planning is necessary and there is no fee for making payments), but this different outlook offers variety and is more financially responsible to search for the best deals based on a very obvious budget.

Travel hacking.

Travel hacking is when you use frequent flyer miles, reward programs, and credit cards to pay for your travel. It is nothing new, you are most likely already travel hacking in some way. A little extra of this and you can have some incredible free (well, almost free) vacations. 

When flying, try to use the same airline so you can earn miles faster. You have to be in it for the long game, but it pays. I wait for when the airline is running frequent flyer special and get even more on my return.

Always get on a hotel reward program. This gets you discounts for future stays and also puts you on a list that most likely will qualify you to be a guest in their vacation club property. This is when you can stay at a seriously fantastic hotel/condo for an entire week for $99 or so. In return for this crazy cheap rate, you are required to tour their resort for two hours (read this as “timeshare investment opportunity”). The property tour part can be annoying a bit of an inconvenience, but I can’t tell you how many times this has worked in our favor, and we are still not owners of a vacation property real estate (timeshare). 

Getting credit cards that award airline miles is a great way to earn travel fast. You have to be very careful to pay it off every month or the interest doesn’t balance the rewards, but running all of your bills through a credit card like this can bump up your travel life to a whole other level.

Be open minded for your destination, where to stay, and how to get there.

Our family has a wish list for travel, but rarely do I reference that for our upcoming vacations. Most of the time I base our travel on the best deal that I can find for our budget at the time. Websites like slickdeals.net, groupon.com, or skiplagged.com can save you thousands and there are lots of others like them if you look. 

Consider destinations that are close to home, especially with babies or young children. Kids do better with short travel days and will find almost everything fascinating and fun. Camping trips, local hiking, staycations, or short drives to KC or OKC were our go-to choices when we had little kids.

There are people that swear that VRBO or Air BNB are the cheapest for travel lodging but aggregate sites like trivago.com make finding a hotel, even last minute, a competitive option for lodging. 

Don’t forget about a train experience too. Our family has taken Amtrak out of Newton to Chicago and that was a great adventure. The time on the rails was just as much a part of our vacation as walking the city streets once we got there. It was cheaper than flying and the kids didn’t have to be buckled up in a carseat for 12 hours. There is a dining car, an observation car made of mostly windows (perfect for crossing the Mississippi River), and large comfy seats with great views. 

Take “mini” vacations.

Who says you have to use an entire week of vacation to have a good time? Not only are mini vacations exciting, they cut back on lodging and food expense in a big way. Many of our four-day vacations were some of our favorites and it saved our budget. It is the perfect amount of time to get where you are going, enjoy it for a couple of days, and you’re out before you lose that inspiring feeling and start to miss home.

With all of the resources available to us, it is literally the easiest time in history to see the world. Thank goodness, because I am a truly a wanderlust at heart.

How have you been resourceful when traveling?