13 Effective Ways to make Saving for a Holiday Easier

Last updated: 30 July 2023

Updated April 2023. It’s one thing to travel more often, but the question of money always comes up. How can you afford to travel more often? In this post we will cover some of the best ways to help make saving for a holiday easier. The world is a big and exciting place and being able to travel it more is worth taking the time to learn some strategies to help you save more to achieve your travel goal. 

After a really successful post about juggling working full time and travelling people asked us how we afford it. After all, we do live in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world. To be honest, it’s a mix of all of the below. Have a read, see what works for you and come up with a recipe that enables you to save money for a holiday. So here’s part two of Roma spills her travel secrets and some sure fire ways to save some cash for your Wanderlust account to ensure you can take more trips!

Here’s 13 Sure-Fire Way to Make Saving for a Holiday Easier

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1: Join Loyalty Programs

Start by joining every loyalty program you know about. I’m talking airlines, hotels, supermarkets like Tesco and Nectar.  Join them all. 

While these programmes are free to join, they will be accessing your data.  To avoid being bombarded by their junk mail I suggest you use a separate email account for newsletters and subscriptions like this.  I tend to keep it with the same domain (like Gmail) so make it nice and easy to flick over to scan the inbox without it dominating my personal inbox.

If you think you don’t have time to check this inbox every day, then don’t! Just set and forget and when you’re ready, start scanning. Eventually it should become a part of your daily (or weekly) routine. This way it doesn’t take a lot of time but allows you to continue to focus on saving for a holiday whilst getting great discounts at the same time. 

When scanning the inbox, keep an eye out for sign up bonuses, specials and email-only deals. Talk to family and friends about their needs and see if you can help each other.  In some cases, when you sign up to a programme you get a sign-up bonus and so does the person who referred you.

2: Be Prepared To Wait

Remember that old adage, good things come to those who wait? Well, that just might be a reality.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

 – Leo Tolstoy

When I first started collecting points it took me FOUR years of spending before I had enough points to do anything worthwhile. But you know what, I simply collected and forgot about them. Then one day when I wanted to fly to London, I checked, and I had MORE than enough points to fly from Sydney to London instantly saving myself a few thousand dollars. What did it cost me to accrue those points  – Nothing. Nothing but time.

3: Understand Needs vs Wants

Take a look around you. That’s right, wherever you are right now. On the bus? How new is your handbag? Are you in your home? Is that a new TV on the wall?

Now is the time to have a long hard look at your life and decide what do you need vs what you want. There’s nothing to say you can’t have both, but there has to be a point where you don’t actually need everything that you want. This tip is really essential to saving money for a holiday because you need to be able to determine if you really need something right now or if you can save the money for travel. 

Read More:Things to Do in London Under £10

A need is food, shelter, love, clothing. A want is the latest Xbox, UberEats, and your third pair of new boots this winter. Start asking yourself how much you need that new blouse? Those trainers? That brand new phone? Can you make do with what you have for another 6 months? If so, put that money away in your Wanderlust account, I mean you were going to spend it anyway and at least now you can spend it on travel!

4: Save Your Pennies

Budget. No it’s not a sexy word for most people but it’s one worth understanding.

Providing have the financial capacity to pay for all your needs (see above), start saving money from pay day. How? The same day you’re paid, ensure you transfer 10% into your Wanderlust account. This shouldn’t be attached to a debit card, but simply an online-only bank account like Monza, First Direct or one of the big banks like Barclays and Santander offer them.  – Just make sure there’s no fee for having the account.

Why do this?

Having money at hand when that error fare pops up or your friend says ‘I have a spare ticket to insert dream destination, do you want to come?’ you can jump at these opportunities without hurting your wallet, having to say ‘I don’t have the money this month’ and letting the opportunity pass you by, or or paying ridiculous interest on a credit card. Start putting aside those pennies today, and you can start saying yes to these opportunities when they arise!

5: Get A Credit Card With Rewards 

There are 101 different ways to spend your money.  Ask yourself can you manage the risk of a credit card? Do you have the self restraint not to go mental and shop up a storm if you have access to £5000 on a credit card?  If so, get one.

Don’t just sign up for the first one you see, do some research and get a credit card that offers you something. It might be a balance transfer, access to a rewards programme like Avios, worldwide lounge access, or bonus points/miles. Choose a card that works for your situation is the best option for you. This will also vary from where you are in the world and what bonuses are available.  Our American friends rave about the Chase Sapphire bonuses but these don’t apply outside the US.

Some people will tell you that a fee-free credit card is the only way to go however I disagree. Take a look at your situation and make that decision for yourself as some bonuses can often outweigh and offset the fee for the card.

I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again. Only get a credit card if you can manage the responsibility and ensure you pay it off in full every month.

How to get one? 

A good place to start is to check with your current bank for any loyalty signup bonus schemes and ask family and friends for referral codes for a win/win.

Need a referral code? Get in touch!

6: Take Lunch To Work

This seems like such a frugal thing to write but have you calculated how much money you could save if you took your lunch to work? Let’s take a few examples:

The UK’s favourite sandwich provider, Pret a Manger, appears on just about every street corner. Convenience is key at this upscale sandwich shop which is certainly succeeding with their hybrid fast-casual concept.

Pret targets the time-crunched, attempting-to-be-healthy urban customer with a range of products averaging £4.50 for sandwich, plus a drink, rounding out at roughly £6.50-£8. 

Coffee

If you’re anything like us, you can’t start the day without a strong coffee. But where do you buy it? And more importantly, are you willing to part with it?

Doing some quick sums on the back of an envelope, you can save £2.99 per day or £15 per week if you skip your daily Starbucks.  If you’re a coffee like we are then this is an important point to keep in mind when saving for a holiday.

Food

In Summer most of us can get by with salad for lunch. A visit to healthy food haunt Tossed will set you back upwards of £7, while in winter workers are seeking hearty hot food on the high street at places like Itsu and Wasabi who charge £7 for a katsu curry with rice and goes up when you upsize or include a drink with it.

It’s all very well and good to splurge now and again but to do this every day is a costly exercise when you could have easily thrown last nights leftovers into a container and brought it with you saving you some significant pocket change. 

Just How Much?

Well let me do the math for you.  If you buy lunch every day of the week you’re likely to spend around £30 total. If it’s lunch and coffee, then you’re looking at closer to £45 per week. A quick conversion for our non-British readers that’s $80 AUD/$58 USD/€53 per week.

By being a little bit prepared with your meal preparation you can save yourself ~£2000 per year. Now how many trips can you take with that?

7: Skip Drinks and Avoid Rounds

This is not a news flash, but in case you missed the memo, the Brits LOVE a drink.  

Anyone that has ever worked in an office is familiar with the 5pm query, ‘Quick Pint?’. 9 out of 10 of us have also experienced the quick pint morphing into a Tuesday night booze fest.  It doesn’t take long before these boozy nights seriously add up to be a costly expense.

Drinking with a bunch of mates or colleagues often results in buying rounds. This is a dangerous game in my opinion. Not only do you get stuck into buying people a drink time and time again, you also end up a bit more drunk that you otherwise would be. Being pushed into another beer before you’re ready… Result? Spending more money at the bar!

Know How Much Things Cost

I recently winced as I handed over just under £20 for a single G&T in London. TWENTY POUNDS! That’s outrageous! I reflected on the expense and realised I’d flown to Aalborg AND Nice combined for less than this single G&T had cost me.  

I had a moment of stupidity and didn’t look at the menu, nor did I take note of my surrounds (posh postcode!) or give any of it a second thought. It’s my own fault, but I learnt from it. I had just the one and promptly left.

Heed my advice so you don’t fall into the same trap. Look at alternatives. I’m not saying you shouldn’t drink. I’m definitely not saying that! But do you HAVE to drink at that pub/club/restaurant? Consider alternatives like hanging out in your friends garden and drink prosecco in the sunshine, or do you have a park nearby where you can pack a picnic, and play street cricket? You’ve already cut your bill by half, at least!

8: Dining Out

I. Love. Food. This is not new information to any of you I’m sure.

You may be interested to know that we budget for life at home so we can travel regularly and as a result we don’t eat out all that often. We have a rough monthly budget for entertainment and date nights and try very hard to stick to it.

We fill our schedules with alternatives that are more cost effective. Can you cook? Have a dinner party! Cooking from scratch is a huge way to save money. Those chicken kebabs you buy pre-made from the supermarket?  Yep they’re made with chicken thigh and covered in god knows what sort of marinade and probably laced with loads of sugar. None of that is a good thing. Buy your chicken fresh, make your own marinade. With the access to the world wide web at your fingertips it’s not as hard as you think.

An added bonus is the credibility to answer those tricky questions of ‘what’s in this’ and be proud of the outcome and extra kudos from the mmm yum!

Take a little tip from GBBO, don’t try a recipe for the first time when you have guests! Practice a few times at home  and save the leftovers work lunches.

Can’t cook?

Host a pot-luck! Host on a rotating schedule with your group of friends/family each week or each month and each guest brings a plate. Surely you can manage that? A great way to help increase saving for a holiday whilst being able to catch up with friends/family. That’s what we call a win/win.

If you’re dead-set on going out, consider moving your date night to a Monday or Tuesday when restaurants often have great deals, or go early for a fixed menu where you can score 3 courses and a glass of wine for £20! Another option is to get yourself a Taste Card. For a small fee (monthly or annually) you are connected to hundreds of restaurants that have 2-for-1 offers! (For our Aussie readers, a Taste Card is a bit like a digitised version of the Entertainment Book)

9: Discount Cards

Continuing on about discount cards, do you have/can you get a student card? 

In parts of Europe, student discount applies to those <25. But not everywhere! In the UK there are some distance education courses that you can enrol in (at any age) and get a student card (aka NUS/ISIC/Totem card). These will open doors that you didn’t know existed! 20% off at Nike? 30% off at Pizza Express? Discounted movie and theatre tickets. Discounted or free entry to many museums all around the world. Honestly, the list is endless!

How To Get One?

Find any course with a low fee and no submission requirements and as an added bonus to your education, you get a student card! You’ll thank yourself later!

10: Buy Annual Passes

If you find yourself travelling a lot around historical sites in the UK, or perhaps to a place that you love to go to (national park, amusement park, etc.)  you might be better off purchasing an annual pass.

In the UK, historic sites are run by either English Heritage or National Trust, both of which offer annual passes.  For an annual fee you now have access to hundreds of historic sites across the country for an entire year. This is one of our favourite ways to increase saving for a holiday because it still allows us to save on the high costs of entry fees across various properties that we would visit anyway.

11: Travel Off Peak

Train prices in the UK can be extraordinarily high. In order to maximise saving for a holiday it might be time to consider travelling off-peak to save some cash.

Can you shuffle your start/finish times at work to score off-peak rail fares and benefit from emptier trains? 

It’s worth noting that peak and off peak times can vary from train company to destination. Check before booking and book well in advance for the best prices.

12: Cancel Subscriptions You Don’t Use

Often known as Set And Forget, direct debit subscriptions can seriously add up. Do you have magazine subscriptions that you don’t read? Or a gym you never go to? What about that Online Course you wanted to do but never got around to it?

How To Do It? 

Have a look at your monthly bank statements over a period of three months to identify any regular spending on subscriptions you may have forgotten about. This is a really helpful activity to do when you’re looking for ways to make saving for a holiday easier.

Some popular subscriptions are:

• Netflix/Prime/Disney+/NowTV – You might need one entertainment subscription but do you really need all of them?
• Gym membership – Got one but never go? Ditch it! That will save you ~£30-£50 every month.
• How about those Graze snack boxes? Buy your nuts and rice crackers in bulk and use Tupperware to transport it. There’s also the added bonus of reducing plastic waste.
• Food delivery – are there cheaper options for your groceries?
• A cleaner – do you really need a cleaner to scrub your shower? You may not want to but you could do it.
  

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13: Shop On Sale

Big retailers have big sales, and often. There’s no need to pay full price for anything these days unless you’re desperate for it with an immediate need. Keep the thought of saving for a holiday in when and sign up to mailing lists for discount codes and follow brands on social media for alerts to sales.

Be mindful not to shop unless you really need something but do keep a list of items that you would like or that need replacing so when the deals start flooding in, you have some perspective about what you need and can snap it up without going overboard.

Diarise annual peak sale periods like Black Friday, post-Christmas/January, Freshers/Back to School and if you manage to get one of the aforementioned student cards be sure to flash it everywhere to get 10-25% off high street retailers like Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Accessorize, Forever 21, Warehouse, ASOS and more.

There you have it. Just a few to get you started on your journey to saving for a holiday.  

1. Join Loyalty Programmes
2. Patience
3. Reflect on Your Needs vs Wants
4. Save Your Pennies
5. Get a Credit Card
6. Pack Your Lunch
7. Avoid Rounds
8. Dining Out
9. Discount Cards
10. Buy Annual Passes
11. Travel Off Peak
12. Cancel Subscriptions
13. Shop on Sale

Many of these suggestions are age appropriate.  If you’re younger then you might not be prepared to skip drinks or bring your lunch to work, but I can assure you, THESE TIPS WORK. This list has helped us with saving for a holiday – big and small travel. If you have a tip we haven’t mentioned leave us a comment below!