Saving for Travel + Tax Refund Getaways

Happy Tax Day, everyone. Okay, collective groan. I hear it. Everyone hates tax time, but not me, because "refunds, man"! It's money you didn't have before and can use in something fun...hopefully, because hone repairs and student loans suck and  the only thing that sucks more is coming up with the money to pay for them.

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Use your tax refund as a vacation fund

If you don't have an official vacation fund started (or you do and want to add a good chunk to it,) you can look forward to using your refund as a "savings account" of sorts. You pay into it all year, so it's basically money you weren't able to spend. Unfortunately, you don't really know how much you're going to get back, but many times it stays pretty consistent if you're doing the same thing year after year. Use your hard earned money to take that vacation you deserve.

Gotta use your tax refund for other stuff? I feel ya. I do too. Here are some other ways to put money in your trip jar:

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Pay Yourself Automatically

Set up a savings account specifically for your vacations (make sure it's separate from other household savings) and have a set amount go there every paycheck. If you can afford $100 twice a month, you'll have saved $2400 by the end of the year. Woot! If you don't see it, then you'll be amazed how fast it adds up.

Toss Your Loose Change (into the piggy bank)

Anytime you pay cash somewhere, you're likely to get change back. Don't spend it. Put it in your piggy bank at home or in that cubby hole you throw coins in your car. Before your trip, take it to the bank. You'll be surprised how much extra spending money you've accrued in pennies and dimes.

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Sell Things You Don't Need

There's bound to be a bunch of things in your house (like your closet) that you don't need or use. Sell it on consignment, eBay, Craig's List or at a yard sale. (For tips on throwing a great sale, check out this post from Mavis on One Hundred Dollars a Month). Maybe you have some designer duds that don't fit anymore or kids clothes they've outgrown. Make room for new stuff, or just clear the clutter, and make some money at the same time. It's a win-win.

Do Odd Jobs

Got some spare time on your hands? I know, like all those hours you're not spending at work or doing lame stuff like work and sleeping, right? Well, maybe you have some extra time somewhere. Maybe the neighbor needs help in the garden or your friends would like your expertise at card-making. Sell your time. Find strangers who need your help on sites like TaskRabbit and turn your spare time into spare money.

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Use Coupons 

You're probably already using coupons at the grocery store (because you're thrifty, after all) but are you using coupons for other things? I find there are coupons or promo codes for the majority of things you use and buy if you do a quick web search. Retailmenot is a great site to find online and offline coupons and codes. Download the app to your phone so you can use it everywhere and show it at the register. No more clipping coupons for places like Michael's, so you save paper, too.

Use Daily Deal Sites

We have a normal routine where we have breakfast or lunch on the weekends and go to a movie. Groupon, LivingSocial and Amazon Local saves us tons with daily deals. You save 50-90% off regular prices (sometimes more), so your outings can be cheaper and your savings can go straight into your vacation fund. We also use daily deal sites to save when we travel. Sign up for notifications about three months before your trip and look for things you wanted to do and places to eat at. Boom! You're traveling even more budgety.

Get Cash Back

You're going to buy stuff. You just are. Ebates lets you save money on your online purchases by offering you a set amount of cash back on participating retailers, including a lot of travel sites. If you're going to spend money, you might as well save as much as possible. Ebates sends you cash back payments four times a year, either by check or deposited to your Paypal account. It's super easy, and those payments can be used as spending money on your trips. Want to know more about how it works? I wrote a whole post on it!

Make Your Own Coffee
I put this one last, because it's a small thing that makes a big impact. If you're someone who frequents the coffee house, be it Starbucks, Peet's or the local mom and pop, those $3-5 cappuccinos and lattes can add up quickly, even if you just stop in once a week. Instead of spending $20+ a month on frothy drinks, invest in an espresso machine, French press, a Kuerig or a Nespresso. In the long run, it'll save you a ton on caffeinated beverages and you can put those dollars you don't spend into your change jar. Either that, or ask everyone for coffee cards for Christmas and your birthday and make them last. (As for pastries, those can cost even more. Trader Joe's has some great ones in the freezer section. You just have to bake them yourself. A pack of four can cost the same as one to go with your coffee.)

Look at all those ways you can make and save money for your vacations. If you make traveling a priority, you'll figure out how to pay for it instead of making excuses about how you can't afford it. Even if you can't fly to France, you can make your way around the country to cool places you've never been before. Remember, my best friend and her husband have five kids and still figure out how to go on trips, with just one salary. Learn some of her secrets here and here.

How do you save money for your travels?

Review: Traveling Scarf by Napper

Ever tried rolling up your jacket and using it as a makeshift pillow for the airplane, car, train or bus? It doesn’t work so well, does it? At some point it starts to slip down and unroll and then your head clunks against the window and your sleep is ruined. Most people can’t just sleep anywhere, and it’s nice to be able to catch up on your Zs when you’re traveling and need to get on a new schedule. Neck pillows are okay, but they don’t block out light or keep you warm or hold any of your stuff. They also don’t pack very small, or if they do, you have to blow them up to use them.

Napper may be the answer to all your commuting sleep problems. Designed for travelers who spend a lot of time on busses, it is also great for all other forms of transportation, including road trips. Napper combines the best part of a hoodie, a scarf and a pillow, all in a convenient little package. It folds up small to fit in your carry-on or a jacket pocket, plus has its own pocket to keep items on-hand when folded up, and two big pockets when unfolded.

The Napper is super soft and feels great against your skin. It’s like your favorite sweatshirt. Throw the hood on and you’ve got sweet padding over both of your ears, so when you lean up against the window (or a wall if you are unlucky), you can sleep easily even through bumps and turbulence. So much better than being woken up with a big knot on your head.

Is it too bright out, or just don’t want people looking at you while you sleep? Napper has drawstrings like a normal hoodie to pull the fabric down over your eyes and blocking out the sun – or your neighbor’s reading light. It also keeps those plane air vents from freezing you to death. Even on a flight that’s hot, I can never turn mine on because having it blow on the top of my head gives me a headache and it blowing in my eyes is super bothersome and drying.

The drawstrings double as earbuds, so if you want to listen to music, play games or watch that in-flight movie, you can do it without extra cords, since the wire is hidden in the scarf and the jack for your phone or other device is in one of the pockets and won’t get all tangled up in your clothes or seatbelt. They have great sound when I used them to play on my phone.

You can totally use the Napper to keep yourself organized while commuting or in the air. Keep all your travel docs, cash and even your ID or passport right on-hand without having to carry it all in your hands or dig through your bag when you need it again. Toss the scarf around your neck – hood on or off – and put those things you need in the pockets. I’m always using my phone on-the-go, so I plugged it in (which also keeps it more secure) in the one pocket and then put my travel wallet (ID, credit cards, cash, boarding pass and passport) in the other with a pack of tissues and my lip balm. Convenient! Now when I go through security, everything is right where I need it and I can take off the Napper and put it right in a bin with my shoes.

Once on the plane, I can put my wallet back in my carry-on and instead use the pocket to keep a pen and puzzle book. A pen is always a useful item to have when traveling, and it’s even nicer to not have to rummage in a bag to find one, and we all know that there’s barely room to spare on a plane anyway.

Does your neck or hands get cold when you travel? The Napper can keep you warm. The scarf is long enough to wrap around your neck for extra coverage and the deep pockets are nice and cozy to envelope your hands up to the bottom of your long sleeves, so you don’t have icy wrists.

If you’re someone who travels a lot on the bus or train, it can be important to keep your valuables and travel docs close, especially while you’re sleeping. The Napper allows you to do that, plus the pockets face your body, so nobody can tell you are even carrying anything on your person. This can also be great when you’re just walking around a city in the cold. Keep items from the prying eyes of thieves while keeping yourself warmer in the process.

Just wearing the Napper around home? Keep your gloves in the pockets, so you’ll never lose them. Got the opportunity to lay down somewhere? Fold the Napper back up and use it as a real pillow. This item is so versatile and useful, you’ll want to buy one for everyone you know who travels or has a long(ish) commute. With Mother’s and Father’s Day coming up, you might have just found the perfect gift.

Napper doesn’t require special care either. If it gets dirty, just toss it in the washer with your other laundry. Even the earbuds are washable.

More information

Colors it comes in: gray/black | gray/red

How much is it?: $58

Where you can buy it: Napper website

Other specs: Made 100% in the USA, Shell: 50% Cotton 50% Polyester Heavy Sweatshirt, Lining: 50% Cotton 50% Polyester Jersey

Disclaimer: I was provided with the Napper for the purposes of this review, but all opinions are 100% mine. 

Filling Your Time on the Plane

I know a lot of people dread plane rides and packing for one. In my last post I talked about what to wear on the plane and now I’d like to talk about how to enjoy flying, even in your cramped economy seat, when you aren’t sleeping, because that’s not always easy or an option. (See that jet lag post I wrote.) When you have hours ahead of you where you’re basically stuck in a seat, how do you keep yourself entertained? I bring a range of things, because I almost always travel with my husband, but a lot of times he likes to sleep and I’m on my own.

Games – I love games. I bring several different kinds – ones for just me and ones to play with others. I have a favorite game that I take with me everywhere, even when I’m not traveling. Fluxx is a game that never gets old, because the rules change as you play, as well as the way to win. Through goal, action and rule cards you try to beat your fellow players and outwit them so they don’t win. A typical game lasts about 10-15 minutes, but we have played with six people and played for an hour. Unfortunately, you can really only play with three people, tops, on the plane, because you need to be near each other and have the use of seat trays. There are several different versions and I have four or five and they are all fun.

A deck of cards can go a long way, as well as regular travel games everyone likes: Connect Four, Battleship (though those little pieces hurt your fingers), Guess Who and more. If you have kids, you might like Zigity. It’s a fantastic game from the makers of Cranium that asks players to spell, add, complete a picture and match objects. The cards are plastic coated, so they are pretty much child-proof. Spills and spit wipe right off!

For individual gaming, we bring handheld games (Nintendo DS) and the iPad mini, because it is a multipurpose gadget. I also like Pocket Posh range of notebook games and often carry one of logic problems around with me. They have ones for Sudoku, crosswords, acrostics, word find and just about any other paper game you love, in a convenient pocket-sized book.

Books – I’m a reader. I’m almost always in the middle of a book. I find it a great way to pass the time on the plane and to relax in the evening on my trip. Of course, books can take up a lot of space in your carry-on that you need for, I don’t know, clothes probably. Also, when you finish in the middle of your trip, you have two problems: 1. You need another book. 2. You’re stuck with a book you might want to keep taking up valuable packing room. This is where ebooks come in really handy. Your tablet (or phone) not only lets you play games on it, but you can download the Kindle app on it and take a bunch of books in a little package. If you’re traveling with another book reader, like I do, I also bring my Kindle, because even the two together are still pretty slim and smaller than two books.

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Magazines – I don’t always want to put forth the effort of reading chapter after chapter on the plane. Sometimes I just want to stare at pictures or read the latest celebrity news. This is when I turn to magazines. I always pack two-three in my carry-on. Yes, I know I can also get these on my tablet, which is a great option and space-saver, but I like turning pages and actual paper. Since I’m not carrying around copies of Vogue and Cosmo, an Entertainment Weekly and People takes up a lot less room and can slip into the outside pocket of my carry-on. And when I’m finished with them, I can leave them for the flight attendants or next traveler, making it an even better deal, because other people are reading them, too.

Movies – Sometimes your flight is long enough to have movies on the overhead. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to have your own screen in your seatback. If there’s neither, then you can always load some videos on your phone, tablet or laptop to amuse yourself with. Just make sure to bring your headphones, so you aren’t disturbing others.

Ideas jotted down in Evernote

Work – While not as fun as some other options, work may need to get done. As a blogger, inspiration can strike anywhere, so I need to jot ideas down when I think of them. I have Evernote on all my devices, so I can make notes and also work on blog posts wherever I am. I keep my editorial calendar and articles in the works for clients in Dropbox, which I also have on all my devices, so I can access anything important I need anywhere I go and share files as needed. This is a good place to store copies of your important documents, passport and credit cards, in case you lose them or find them gone missing at any time during your travels. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use them.

There’s never a shortage of things to do or bring on the plane with you. Always remember a bottle of water and some snacks, just in case, because flying’s much better when you aren’t hungry or dehydrated.

How do you amuse yourself (and your spouse/family/child) on the plane?