Debt Help Ideas

Since I have to travel fairly often, I am always on the lookout for helpful travel solutions, especially when they offer ways to save money. Here’s four that have helped me:

If you are flying my favorite airline, Southwest, and want to have a snack on the plane but don’t care for peanuts, or worse yet, are allergic to them, just ask the flight attendant. They almost always have pretzels available as well, even if they don’t mention them. I would ask for them right away though, as they do occasionally run out of them, especially on long flights.

And by the way, if you are allergic to peanuts, I would strongly encourage you to bring your own snack. I read the small print on each of the six different snacks I got from them and three out of six of the packages mentioned they had been packaged in the same plant as peanuts. The other three didn’t have any comment either way. If it was me, I wouldn’t want to take any chances! Even though it definitely saves money to use their snacks, it’s not worth it if it could cause a health problem!

If you are trying vainly to open any kind of package on the plane – pretzels, peanuts, etc. – try using your pen. Just carefully stab it into the top corner, then use the hole it makes to successfully open that irritating yet tasty little treat.

If I am flying for several hours, I always sit in an aisle seat in the back so I have easy access to the restrooms. If I am on a short hop or have to make a connector flight with not much time to get to it, I try to sit in an aisle seat close to the front. For those trips, I make sure my carryon is small enough to fit under the seat in front of me. If I have to get it from the top luggage bins, I’ve found it slows me down and makes me feel totally awkward as well due to all the other travelers who are in a rush and not always patient at waiting for me. That definitely makes for a more frustrating flying experience. By having my carryon in front of me, it’s much easier to just pull it out and plop it in the aisle all ready for me to hop out and head out the plane to the airport. By sitting close to the front, I ensure that I make my connections on time which probably makes it one of the best ways to save money in the long run!

Working towards the goal to eliminate debt doesn’t have to mean no traveling . Vacations can be an important part of a family’s life.  For that matter, many of us have to travel for non-vacation purposes, such as business and family needs. Travel can be expensive but there are some great ways to save money. Here are three:

1.  Try to fly the same airline every single time. Unless you are traveling weekly, if you use several airlines, you will probably not accumulate enough frequent flyer miles to do much good. It’s better to pick one airline and see those miles go up, up, up. I personally love Southwest. I have earned several free trips thanks to their generous frequent flyer policy. They are very customer-service oriented. One time, we were diverted overnight to another state and didn’t land at our destination until twelve hours later. This was caused by circumstances beyond their control (not weather). I was thrilled to get a letter from them a week later, explaining what happened and that, even though it wasn’t their fault, they were giving us a free round-trip ticket as an apology! As you can imagine, I was definitely impressed even more with them. Their prices are great and they are definitely a good choice offering many ways to save money while traveling.

2. Once you make your plane and car rental reservations, don’t stop there. Check the prices of each a couple of times before the trip. Several times, I have been able to change my reservations in order to take advantage of a price drop. I was able to do this with both Southwest, and a couple of car rental agencies. I’m not sure which other airlines allow this, although I believe there are at least a couple that do. Call the airline reservations desk to see what their policies are. On a trip I took last December, I saved over $150 with this simple travel solution.

3. AAA is a great resource to help you when your car breaks down while traveling . I occasionally have to drive long distances from my home, so I pay extra for their premium service, which means I will be able to have my car brought home even if I am far away when it breaks down. Not only do I save money using them for car travel, they also are a great resource for other types of travel. I have been able to take advantage of Hertz’ wonderful #1 Club Gold Membership for free because of my AAA Premier card. This saves me  time, stress, and money. I can also use my AAA card to get discounts at hotels, motels, and amusement parks.

These three travel solutions are very useful ways to save money. And think how fun it will be to for us to take the money we saved and apply it to a loan payment as we “travel on” towards our goal to eliminate debt .