<commit_before>---
title: Vacation on a Budget
date: 2016-09-30 17:59:00 Z
categories:
- budget
- Travel
---

I'm in Iceland right this very second. (!!!!) So I thought a good topic this week would be travel. Specifically, how to travel when you're on a budget. 

I hear a lot of people say that they'd love to travel but they just can't afford it. They think travel is only for the rich. I will mention the places I've been and they'll say "lucky you, I wish I could do that". Well, with some planning, you can.

## Start using rewards credit cards

Credit cards aren't for everyone, and I definitely wouldn't recommend this method to all of my clients. But rewards cards can actually be amazingly useful. Two years ago, I flew to the UK and back for only $106 thanks to my US Airways credit card miles. And this summer, my boyfriend and I are using American Airlines miles to get back from Spain for only $60 each. If you don't want to be loyal to one airline by signing up for their credit card, there are [other cards ](https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/rewards-cards)that get you points that you can convert to cash. Some sign up bonuses can get you up to $500 in rewards! (*But be careful with these cards; interest rates tend to be very high, so make sure you pay them off every month!*)

## Plan ahead

It's pretty unrealistic for a lot of people to take advantage of last minute travel deals. It's hard to take off from work and even if it's an amazing price, you still might not have the money to pay for it. And as I said [last week](http://us13.campaign-archive2.com/?u=7b0d49f10f1aef89a45167c3b&id=89a927a65a), a travel opportunity doesn't count as an emergency expense. Start saving for travel before you even have plans. Set aside money every month in a travel savings account. This way, you won't have to pass up wonderful opportunities, and you won't put yourself in debt. My travel savings is one of my most important financial priorities.

## Be flexible<commit_msg>Updated Vacation On A Budget<commit_after>---
title: Vacation on a Budget
date: 2016-09-30 17:59:00 Z
categories:
- budget
- Travel
image: 
---

I'm in Iceland right this very second. (!!!!) So I thought a good topic this week would be travel. Specifically, how to travel when you're on a budget. 

I hear a lot of people say that they'd love to travel but they just can't afford it. They think travel is only for the rich. I will mention the places I've been and they'll say "lucky you, I wish I could do that". Well, with some planning, you can.

## Start using rewards credit cards

Credit cards aren't for everyone, and I definitely wouldn't recommend this method to all of my clients. But rewards cards can actually be amazingly useful. Two years ago, I flew to the UK and back for only $106 thanks to my US Airways credit card miles. And this summer, my boyfriend and I are using American Airlines miles to get back from Spain for only $60 each. If you don't want to be loyal to one airline by signing up for their credit card, there are [other cards ](https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/rewards-cards)that get you points that you can convert to cash. Some sign up bonuses can get you up to $500 in rewards! (*But be careful with these cards; interest rates tend to be very high, so make sure you pay them off every month!*)

## Plan ahead

It's pretty unrealistic for a lot of people to take advantage of last minute travel deals. It's hard to take off from work and even if it's an amazing price, you still might not have the money to pay for it. And as I said [last week](http://us13.campaign-archive2.com/?u=7b0d49f10f1aef89a45167c3b&id=89a927a65a), a travel opportunity doesn't count as an emergency expense. Start saving for travel before you even have plans. Set aside money every month in a travel savings account. This way, you won't have to pass up wonderful opportunities, and you won't put yourself in debt. My travel savings is one of my most important financial priorities.

## Be flexible
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.058647367107561764, 'fraction_numerical': 0.023458946843024707, 'mean_word_length': 4.079847908745247, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 3, 'https://': 2, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 2, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '3897', 'n_tokens_mistral': 1138, 'n_tokens_neox': 1023, 'n_words': 672}