Unemployment rates are shooting up and car companies are closing down but this doesn’t mean we cannot travel. We only have to be creative so we can keep the costs at a minimum while still maximizing the fun and adventure!

Airfare

• Buy your ticket from airline ticket auction sites.
• Rates at Expedia.com are cheaper than booking directly with the airlines. Either way, expect the cheaper flights to be multi-stop.
• If you choose to book your flight with a travel agency, the rate may differ among its branches even if they’re within the same travel agency. So canvass. If you don’t plan to stay long in the US, purchase tickets valid for three months or less. They come cheaper.
• Don’t book unless you’re fixed on the date and sure about going. There are rebooking charges and non-refundable tickets such as those in Air Asia. 
• Check with your credit card company if they have rewards points system and if the points can be redeemed through travel reward program such as Asia Miles.
• Register in the airline’s frequent flyer’s club. To ensure you receive mileage credit, quote your membership number when booking your ticket and when checking in at the airport. If you forget to do so, mail-in your boarding pass as soon as possible. Have a list of the airline’s mileage partners. You can earn mileage from dining, credit card, car rental, business and home services, shopping, hotels, and their partner airlines.
• Avoid peak season. Not only are tourist destinations less crowded, airline rates are also lower during off peak season.
• If you travel on a peak travel season such as summer and Christmas when flights are most likely to be overbooked, consider the possibility of getting bumped off. This may have a good side. There’s a chance you can get airline credit or free roundtrip ticket for your next flight if you volunteer to be bumped off. Check the airline policies beforehand and if you find them in your favor, book and skip the electronic check in. Check in personally and inquire from the counter if the flight is full. If so, ask to have your name listed on their “bump list”.

Luggage

• Light luggage. There are bags which are heavy even when empty and they will use up the pounds which you can use for other items.
• Tip the scales. Weigh your luggage at home to avoid paying charges for overweight luggage. Charges for a few pounds overweight will cost you more than sending a boxload of items. Better send your extra luggage through a reputable forwarding company. There’s a fixed rate for the box regardless of its weight with Star Kargo, which charges USD$55 per balikbayan box.
• Stocky travelers get lucky. My brother is a stocky man and he was offered a seat in the plane’s emergency exit by the attendant at the check-in counter. Although his check-in luggage was over the weight limit by a few pounds, he was not asked to pay in exchange for having him sit there. There’s bigger leg space too!
• Pool your baggage allowance. When my luggage was overweight, I befriended a group of passengers who were ahead of me and whose individual check-in luggage was under the weight limit. I kindly requested that we check in our luggage together so the extra weight could be carried on to theirs. The aggregate weight was computed on the total number of passengers in our group.
• Better yet, travel light.

Food

• Eat like a local. Hit the grocery for your breakfast. Pack your lunch for picnic. If you want to taste local dishes, check out the market place or the bakery. Buy and eat at La Boqueria market in Barcelona.
• Save on budget meals. Or buffet meals if you have the appetite. 
• Bring bottled water.
• Foods which are near their expiry date are cheaper.
• Order big servings. That is, if you’re traveling with someone, you can share meals or you can order different meals and have a taste of what each of you ordered.
• Eat or drink at happy hours.

Tourist destinations

• Go paperless. Shoot with your camera instead of buying postcards.  Upload your photos on a computer and share it with your friends at no extra charge for postage.
• Need maps? Instead of buying maps, visit the Tourism office and get them for free or print them yourself. Driving a rented vehicle? Let GPS show you the way.
• Research. Check out schedules of museums you plan to visit. For instance, it’s free entrance at Museo del Prado Tuesdays to Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 5 to 8 p.m.
• Watch free shows.
• Visit off-the-beaten tracks. They draw less crowds and can offer more explorations. Create a personalized road-less-traveled trip. 
• Skip the tourist guide.

Shopping

• Fly to the flea market. Buy your souvenirs from night markets instead of malls. Be creative with your souvenirs, sometimes the best ones are not from the souvenir shop.
• Pay using cash. That way, you only purchase what you can afford and not worry on where to get the money when the due date comes. Also you pay more with your local bank. To illustrate this, if the prevailing exchange rate is at $1 to PHP50, when you purchase an item using your card, you pay it at your local bank for approximately $1 to PHP52. But of course there are services and establishments which only accept credit card payments.
• Close out sale. Stores with everything must go items, offer lower prices.
• Compare. Take home the free weekly sales circular which shows products at discounted rates or with rebates from K-mart, Wal-mart, Longs and Rite-Aid pharmacies, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. An item may be on sale in one store and not in its competitive store. Save Manufacturer’s coupon found in most Sunday papers. I bought the Braun rechargeable toothbrush at $30 off! I waited till the calcium tabs went on a buy one bottle – get one bottle free promo. Some items offer check rebates which you can use on your next purchase. If you buy perfume from Macy’s, they usually come with a free pouch or bag.  See sample at http://www.riteaid.com/stores/weekly_ad/
• Black Friday. If you go to the US in November, go shopping on Black Friday or the Day after Thanksgiving (celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November).
• 99 cents store. All goods at 99 cents or below. Check the expiry date of food products as some of them are near expiry. 
• Price Match. Generally, electronic items are sold cheaper in the US. In case of Circuit City, if you see the same item at a lower price elsewhere, they will do a price match for you. If you buy an item at Best Buy, check its price over the phone or on the web at the end of the week. Prices change on Sunday morning. If it goes lower, you can get a refund of the price difference. For more information, check in-store policies online.  

Nightlife

• Ladies’ night out. For women, check out bars offering free drinks and entrance on ladies’ night out.
• When in Spain, “ir de tapeo” or stroll from bar to bar. Each person in your group will pay the round as you bar hop.
• Staying out late? Check the commuter’s train schedule for the last trip lest you miss it and be forced to take a cab.
• House party. Alternate bar hopping with occasional home parties. Bring a bottle of wine or food to share in the potluck. Less expense, more consumption, same amount of fun.

Transportation

• More means less. As its name implies, save with saver pass train tickets instead of buying on a per trip basis. You pay for more trips for less. It also saves you time from queuing.
• Ask for the transfer ticket. County Connection buses in Central Contra Costa, California issue transfer ticket upon request. You can hop on two more buses at no extra cost within the next two hours. If you take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), there’s also a transfer ticket from the train to the bus at a discounted rate of 85 cents. Regular bus fares are at $1.75.  http://www.cccta.org/
• Why not walk? If it’s just a short distance. Since you can’t go to the gym, this can be your exercise while on vacation.

Communication

• Calls are free for Skype to Skype account.
• Buy prepaid local sim card. In the US, there’s a tracfone kit for $10 which includes a Motorola cellular phone plus a load of $10. So, you end up just paying for the load.
• Use call card instead of hotel phone. There’s a one cent per minute call card but the calls are only for a maximum of three minutes. You may need to redial if it’s longer than that.
• No laptop or internet connection? Drop by the public library. At Contra Costa County, California, a library user can use the internet for one hour a day. It’s open seven days a week.
http://www.contra-costa.lib.ca.us/

Accommodation

• Two-in-one. There are travel packages for hotel and airline at hotels.com or your local travel agency. You will save money when you book them together than separately. Traveling with a group may also get you a group discount.
• Proximity. Choose hotels that are near public transportation.
• Eat like a king. If your hotel offers buffet breakfast, don’t skip breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you eat a moderate to heavy breakfast, you don’t need to eat morning snack and you have the energy to perform the day’s activities.
• Use hotel toiletries instead of bringing your own. You save up on luggage space and money.
• Alternative accommodation. There are alternatives to hotels which are more affordable and give you an authentic feel of the place you’re visiting. In Japan, there’s ryokan or traditional Japanese inn. There are camp sites for backpackers. There are youth hostels. See membership types and costs of Hostelling International.
• Have your Embassy or Consular Office number and address. This is not just for emergency. When I was a scholar in Spain, I called up the Philippine Labor Office to request if they could accommodate us for two nights. They did let me stay and my fellow scholar.
• Stay with relatives or friends. Inform them ahead of time of your intended trip. If it’s your first time, chances are they will be very eager to take you around, have you stay in their homes and pay for the restaurant bill. 
• When trains meant more than transport. If you’re traveling by train in Europe, you save up on your hotel when you sleep at the train so schedule it in such a way that your trips are in the evening.

Clothing

• Blend in. Avoid looking like a tourist. There are opportunistic people who overcharge tourists.
• Again, travel light. Except when you’re going to cold places, wear light clothes. When you wash them, they dry up faster. They also weigh less and take up less space for your baggage.
• Hide them. Use a hidden body bag to safeguard your passport and money. By hidden, I mean really something inconspicuous.

Avoid paying for the avoidable

• Bring first aid or non prescriptive medicines for headache, colds, allergies, motion sickness, diarrhea and constipation. For women, sanitary napkin. They are a lot more expensive abroad.
• Bring an adopter.
• Bring charger for rechargeable batteries.  Travelers want to tread on as much earth as they can and hard times are not road blocks to their destinations if they know how to stretch that dollar.

Author’s Note: 

My father is a full-blooded Ilocano from Tayum, Abra. Ilocanos are famous and infamous for being spendthrift. As his blood runs through my veins, people have expected me to be just the same. In hard times like these, I appreciate that we do not really have to adjust that much as it is in our nature to find ways to save and spend little without compromising quality or things we hold dear. Traveling is my passion and I continue to enjoy that by traveling on a budget.