What are some holiday-related frugal tips and tricks you have?
What are some holiday-related frugal tips and tricks you have?
...I know the title sounds like some clickbait crap, but I'm honestly looking for some ideas that I might not have thought about myself.
Speak to no one. Don't spend anything. Disappear completely.
Every year I get closer. About halfway so far. One of these years I'll get there.10You know, that's totally valid. Some folks just have completely shit families and it's easier just to not engage with the drama bullshit. And nobody should be guilted into spending money into that sort of nonsense.
All the people I spend holidays with are found family. Blood family can go take a hike.
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About vacation, I have a few tips.
I live in Europe, so the context for these is when visiting another European city for 3-7 days, with the intention of getting to know the city and local culture better.
How to get to the place varies a lot, and there's no tip here other than the usual: ride shares (blablacar.com) and scouting for cheap flights/busses/trains.
1. Accommodation
Usually, the most expensive part of these trips is accommodation, and it'll of course vary a lot based on your tolerance for crappy rooms.
I'm older and won't do shared bedrooms anymore, so my tip here is to use booking.com or airbnb to find a room as far away from the city center as possible, as the price difference is huge. Just make 100% sure that there's public transportation from that place to downtown and that it's not like a 2h commute.2. Food
Do not, ever, eat at the tourist places. It's always expensive subpar food. If you want to experience a city's local cousine, eat where the workers go out for lunch. You can find these places in google maps by looking at the photos: local places are usually shabbier looking and the reviews are in the local language. And of course the prices.
3. Activities/attractions
Cities often charge for going into museums, historical buildings, etc. These can get pretty expensive depending on how many you visit, so make sure to look for weekly passes, you can save so much money with those.
Also, and some people think they're lame, I've only had extremely positive experiences with guided city walks/bike rides. They're usually extremely cheap (5-10 euros total) and you learn and experience so much in one go.
4. Transportation
Do not take cabs around, that's throwing money in the bin. Look for a daily/weekly public transportation ticket as soon as you get there, and you'll experience the city in a slower and more genuine way.
Rental bikes can be a great option too.7I save the butcher paper that comes in a lot of the packages I order, and use that + twine to wrap things. It can look cute and old school and saves a bunch on buying wrapping paper (I also try and buy that on massive clearance after Christmas, and if I can get more generic or even just winter themed paper I'll angle for that to use for birthday gifts later in the year)
5Initially I thought this was a “vacation-related” tips request, then I remembered Lemmy is mainly US English not UK English. You can buy a pyrography set, an engraving tool some sandpaper and the things needed for acid etching for less than $10 With a little practice you can make a cheap gift more personal by adding the recipients name or a message personal to you both on wood plastic, metal or glass. I used some vinegar, a q-tip, 9v battery, electrical tape, salt and copper wire to acid etching a hunting knife last year as a gift.
8Yeah, I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me that the word "holiday" is very different for the UK peeps.
If you have frugal holiday-as-in-vacation tips, I'd love to hear them though.
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I've a friend who saves gift bags given to them and reuses them. There's gift bags that have made the rounds several times around the friend's group at this point.
3My family has gift bags and bows older than me... Some from the 1960's, some from the 1980's, and pretty much tops out at the 90's. We never buy bags anymore, just add to the collection when gifted something. Seems silly to buy something for 5 seconds of use one time. Everyone knows to save them and brings them back after holidays and such to store in one house usually.
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You don't always have to go out for lunch. Make sandwiches from supermarket ingredients. Buy a short serated knife (life the victorinox) with the round tip. You can cut bread, meat, veg AND you can butter said bread with it. Best freaken travel accessory! Make epic sandwiches in your hotel room and save money when you're out during the day. We did this in Spain and Portugal and saved a tonne. Free hotel breakfast, cheap super market lunch, "fancy" restaurant dinner. I mean, come on!
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