For me the shift was pretty boring: I stopped treating travel like this special thing I was only allowed to think about after every other money goal was perfect.
What finally worked was giving it a normal line in the budget, the same way I do groceries, car maintenance, or annual bills. A little goes in every month whether I have a trip picked out or not.
That made me less likely to panic-save right before a trip, and less likely to book something and then spend weeks feeling irresponsible about it.
Anyone else get more frugal with travel once it became ordinary instead of aspirational?
Travel got easier once I treated it more like groceries than a reward
byu/Destroyerpoint5 inFrugal
Posted by Destroyerpoint5
3 Comments
Ya we travel 3 or 4 times a year depending on available deals and it’s an important part of our lives.
We are frugal in many ways to be able to afford travel, and fully funded retirement accounts. Those are our priorities.
Something else that really works very well is using something like chexy to pay monthly bills and churning cards to make travel basically free
(Eg. Get the aeroplan reserve and the bonvoy cards – run rent through chexy for abt a year total (probably less depending in how much ur rent is and then u got a hotel and a flight for free – repeat the churn every year with different cards)
Recreation which includes travel is an important part of maintaining your mental health. Good mental health supports good physical health and good work performance. Good physical health and steady employment provides a good foundation for good financial health. All fits together. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but its a start.