In today’s world, it is important to be as economical as possible.  Anytime you travel, you need to find things to cut in order to save a few bucks.  However, many families feel that taking a vacation is still important, because vacations provide an opportunity to spend quality time together and traveling to foreign countries is such an educational experience for children.  It IS possible to take an affordable vacation that will not put you in a financial bind though. If you are going on a trip soon, here are the top ten ways to save money on this excursion!

1. Be Flexible
Many airlines offer lower fares if you travel within a certain time frame.  If you fly during the off-peak hours or dates, you can get a cheaper airfare.  You might need to fly in the middle of the night or during the middle of the week.  You could also take a flight with a couple of stops along the way.  You just need to be flexible, and you can save money. Also, fly to bigger airports and consider traveling over land to a nearby location, if you need to get there.

2. Compare Prices
So many companies offer airfare, hotels, car rentals and any other thing that you need while traveling.  Look for discounts and compare prices.  You can save money just by shopping around for the best deals available.

3. Take an All-Inclusive Vacation
All-inclusive vacation packages include the hotel, dining and some of the entertainment.  Cruises are normally all-inclusive, or you could find a resort.  Airline tickets are not included in the package, so you will need to purchase those separately.

4. Travel by Car
Another way to help your budget is to travel by car instead of an airplane.  You can still take a fabulous vacation within driving distance. You could also save time and stress by avoiding airports because security is tight, and traveling by plane is becoming a hassle.

5. Visit Free Attractions
Most cities have numerous attractions that are completely free.  You can visit parks, some museums and neighborhoods for free.   The beach is usually free too. Before you take the vacation, search online to see which attractions offer free admission.

6. Ask Around
You can save on entertainment just by asking for possible discounts.  Some attractions offer student discounts, military discounts, senior citizens discounts and much more.  You could even receive a discount for paying cash instead of using a credit card.  Before you venture out into the city, look online for places that offer deals. If you’re in Europe, this will DEFINITELY pay off.

7. Pack Light
It seems like airlines keep finding ways to charge fees.  You are now being charged for each bag that you check in at the airport.  If you can pack light enough to carry on your bags, you will save money.  If that is not possible, make sure you pack light enough to get all of your belongings in one bag.

8. Credit Card Miles
If you have built up credit card miles or frequent flyer miles, you could save a significant amount of money on hotels or airfare.  Therefore, make sure you check with your credit card company to see if you have enough miles to cash in.

9. Save on Dining
If you stay in a hotel that has a kitchen, you could cook your own meals, which would save you money.  If you do eat out, research the restaurants in the area.  You can find many excellent dining facilities that are affordable.

10. Public Transit
Buses and subways are cheaper that taxis.  You also could get to your destination with your own two feet.  Trains are cheaper than flights or renting a car. You should look for hotels that are close to major attractions, and then you can walk!! In many countries, renting a bike is common, cheap and atmospheric (Denmark, anyone?).

Jeanie White likes to save money by visiting websites like www.creditreport.org.

A couple months ago my clothes dryer developed a horrible squeak. The heavier the load, the louder the squeak.

Not having the money to do repairs right away, I opted for using the clothes line to get us through the summer months.

Let me tell you – it was so nice to see such a drop in our electric bills. But, as with all good things – that too must come to an end. With all the cooler weather and rainy days as of recent, it became painfully obvious that I was going to have to do something about the dryer.

I only had a few options:

1. Call a repairman

2. Get rid of the dryer and get a new one

3. Fix it myself

I did try to call a repairman first. Let me just say that finding an appliance repairman these days isn’t an easy task. There used to be several of them locally, but now – the closest one is about 20 miles away. When I spoke to the closest one, he told me what he thought the problem might be and how much it would cost to have him fix it. Frankly, it would be cheaper to replace the thing with a nice used one from a local vender known for quality used appliances.

Next, I phoned the used appliance store – they had several in stock ranging from $80 – $175. For me to get what I wanted and needed, I was looking toward the higher end. Knowing that, I wasn’t quite ready to settle on that option. I still felt like there was more I could do and more I could save.

With the knowledge I’d gained from the first phone call, I hoped on Youtube and searched squeaky dryer, replacing bearing and glides.

After seeing how easy it would be to do the work myself, I clicked over to Amazon to see if I could find the parts I needed.

Of course, Amazon has just about everything under the sun – they had the parts I needed for $25! I placed my order with a shop called Partshouse.

The parts arrived in just a few days and earlier today I decided it was time to tackle the job.

My husband asked if I wanted help, but I felt confident this was a job I could do on my own and TWENTY minutes later, I had the job done, the area cleaned up, swept, vents cleaned out and was on my way with the weeks laundry.

If your dryer is squeaking – I would start off looking at the glides (sometimes called slides) and the front bearing. The job sounds WAY bigger then what it actually is – the parts are affordable – especially on Amazon and you can save yourself a bundle!

It’s always been my goal to teach my children how to manage money, the value of a dollar and proper budgeting. I usually try to come up with creative ways to engage them in a fun, but educational lesson.

A few months before Christmas, I begin talking to the boys about Christmas and how much I will be able to spend. With that dollar amount, they set out on the internet to do a little window shopping and make their lists.

Their list consists of bookmarking links to items they like. Once they have the items collected, they then watch eBay, Amazon and Google Alerts for the best prices.

What has happened over time is my kids have learned that items that are slightly used are just as good as new – but when you are on a very tight budget – if planned properly, you can get twice as much for used as you can for new.

That lesson has rolled over into other areas of their life. They have become wise and thrifty shoppers that makes mama very proud.

Take the pressure off yourself this year at Christmastime – give the kids a budget and access to the computer and let the list of links arrive in your email and Christmas gifts to your door.

Believe me – when it’s a cold, blistery night with snow flying – there’s nothing quite like being curled in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate and hearing the big brown truck pull into your drive.

I’ve been doing the couponing thing on a very small scale level for a couple of months now. While I do have a little success, I haven’t forced myself to invest much time just yet.

Do you ever get the feeling that your “to do” list just keeps growing and that you’ll never actually catch up?

Yep, me too!

As I’ve shared recently, my family was very blessed to have found a foreclosed lake home that has needed quite a bit TLC – that’s where our main focus has been recently. It’s all coming together nicely. As the fun projects come together, the need for a tighter budget is also making itself very well known.

One of the greatest pieces of inspiration I have encountered thus far was received as a housewarming gift from the mother to my sons girlfriend.

The boys came home bearing gifts following a visit with her family. Two clothes baskets FULL of items she told me were FREE!

See… This is what FREE stuff looks like:

Can you believe this?

There was a time when I thought I would be embarrassed to use coupons – but why? That was just dumb!

Coupons are FREE MONEY given to consumers by the manufactures and stores. If they gave you a hand full of George’s or Lincoln’s I would not have had a problem.

My entire mindset changed the day I saw my former boss and President of the company I worked for clipping coupons. The fact she was the President of a retail business was quite telling.

Obviously she knew something I didn’t.

The thing is, I can either pay full price for laundry soap, shower gel, razors, bread, buns and cereal or I can invest a little time in couponing, save that money and spend it on things that are far more fun!

Laura gave me a quick lesson and a couple of suggestions to help get me on my way. Those suggestions are:

Join CouponMom.com – it’s a website that organizes coupons and best sale deals by state and by store. Simply check off the items you wish to have on your shopping list – match those with the coupons and you’re all set. They even tell you exactly what issues and dates you can find those coupons in. Super EASY people!

Buy multiple issues of the newspaper – Laura said she has access to and purchases about 20 papers per week. I’m thinking 4 to 6 issues would do me just fine.

Laura went on to tell me she’s not the most computer savvy person and she’s had no problem learning and catching on. Logic tells me, I should be able to do this especially since I’m looking at doing about a 1/4 of the amount she’s doing.

What’s holding you back from couponing?

ou’d think waking up to a snow storm and a 180+ local school closings would make for a pretty rotten day – but not here! No Sir!

I woke the kids up a couple hours before Justin had to be at his final college class for the semester. Rather then have him drive himself in this horrible weather – the three boys and I went on a snow day adventure.

We dropped Justin off at his class – went for lunch and did a little shopping to pick up a few gifts that remained on our list.

Once Justin sent me a text that he was ready to be picked up – we checked out and headed back to pick him up then off to the college bookstore to sell his first semester books in hopes of getting enough back to get his second semester list.

We’d been alerted to the benefits of renting books on BookRenter.com – and wow – what a HUGE savings for sure!

Once at the bookstore – I asked Justin if he wanted me to go in with him. He told me I could if I wanted to. Jokingly, I told him I’d go in with him and use my powers of influence to make sure he got at least $230 out of his books.

That was our goal!

We entered the bookstore and took our place in a very lengthy line. While in line, while Justin was noticing the pretty girl in front of us, I was noticing she had a book in her hands that was on the list of books Justin needs for next semester. I wanted to make sure to listen to how much they were going to give her for that book because I’d just seen the book on the shelf priced at $155.25.

While at the checkout, the girl was told they weren’t buying that particular book back. She seemed disappointed.

As she was about to walk out the door, I approached her and asked if she was wanting to sell that book. She explained the store wasn’t buying it back from her – I told her I’d be happy to buy it and asked how much she’d like to have for it.

I felt my soul break into a dance of cartwheels inside when she said “Fifty-dollars.”

Deal!

I asked her to wait for just a moment while Justin was being taken care of by the book return agent.

The girl scanned each book carefully – and once she’d entered all the books, she told Justin they’d give him $252!

Remember I said I was going to use my personal powers of influence to get $230?

Those powers of influence were nothing more then claiming a set dollar amount.

We got that and more.

Tonight we placed his order through BookRenter.com – that order, coupled with the $50 purchase we made today resulted in a HUGE savings.

The original cost of the books he thought he was going to face was $624 – with a little effort put into searching on the internet, asking good friends via Facebook, a little belief in the Law of Attraction and claiming all that is good – we ended up with a total of $162.12.

That is a savings of $461.88