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Simple ways to save money without making crazy life sacrifices. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section below!

Pizza night

Create your own dinner and a movie experience that is fun and on-the-cheap:

• Heat up a frozen pizza at home but with your favorite fresh toppings
• Rent a movie (RedBox is less than $2.00)
• Popcorn with soda for a family of 4 doesn’t cost more than a single share of FB stock!

Get a Coin Jug

Trick yourself into saving

• Label a big jar or jug “Vacation”
• Throw all loose change into it during the year
• Turn in the coins and may be surprised at how much you have at the end of the year

Room with a fridge

If you are going to a destination location for vacation (like the beach) then get a room with a fridge.

• Fill it with breakfast or lunch items in order to stay away from the buffet
• Buy fruit for the room for snack time
• Save tons of money by making sandwiches in your room instead of eating at a restaurant

Take a shuttle or taxi

• Why rent a car for a week if you’ll be in the same place most of the time?
• Hotel shuttles can often get you where you want to go
• It can be cheaper and they come with a designated driver!

Drink Water

• Drinks at restaurants are overpriced, not to mention full of sugar
• Convince the kids to join in by offering them $1.00 to drink water
• It saves you money on the overall bill (not to mention the tip!) and gives the kids their own money to spend while on vacation

Redeem membership points

Use points earned from hotel and airlines – not with Credit Card points. Why not? Here’s the example I use in the video.

• This hotel room (in video) would cost $1,000 for a 5 day stay.
• Points required would be 25,000 points per night, or 125,000 points for those 5 days.
• In order to earn that many points with a credit card that “rewards you” with 1 point per $1.00 spent you’d need to run $125,000 in purchases through your debt product!

I don’t know how much you earn in a year but can you run $125,000 through a credit card to pay for a vacation?  If you could, why wouldn’t you just save money instead?

To add insult to injury:

• Studies have shown more than 67% of reward points go unredeemed
• Average debt on credit cards is $6,576
• It would be easier to make it a line item in your budget. Put away $250 a month and you’ll have $3,000 for a yearly family vacation. YNAB budget software makes it easy

Turn points into gas gift cards

• Redeem various clubs (airline, hotel, etc) into gas cards you can use on vacation
• Use Points.com to transfer points into one club where you can redeem
• Exchange gift cards at http://PlasticJungle.com
• Carrie from CarefulCents.com wrote a great article about unused gift cards

Mentioned in the show: My Route 66 roadtrip

Day #1 – I’m on Vacation!

Day #2 – The Long and Winding Road

Day #3 – Route 77

Day #4 – Air, Water, and Dirt

Day #5 – Detours

Day #6 – Mechanical Problems, sort of…

Day #7 – Bridges

Day #8 – Bonus day!