CT FM 013:
Frugal Holidays & Going On Holiday Without Breaking The Bank! Brought To You By: RecipeThis.com
Introduction Welcome to our thirteenth Podcast from CT FM. Today I wanted to talk to you about those summer holidays that we all have and how we can save money on them. It’s that time of year when we all want to go on holiday but many of us can’t afford it or we can’t afford the extra expenses that goes with it. So I wanted to share with you how I have achieved a frugal holiday and how you can do the same. But before I tell you how you can change things let me tell you about our first family holiday abroad. It was July 2005 and at the time I was 23 and our 14 year old was just a month off his 5th birthday and we were visiting the canary island of Lanzarote. We were so excited about our first ever holiday with some sunshine that we ended up spending way too much on the holiday. As I recall we went self catering for 2 weeks which is a great way to do lots of cooking and save you money on eating out costs. But we didn’t do that. We ate out everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as taking part in every day out option on offer. We visited the local water park, zoo, submarine experience, camel rides, volcano visit and the list goes on and on. There were also the beauty treatments that I had before I went on holiday, the new suitcases, the new holiday clothes and that cheap family holiday in Lanzarote soon turned into something that would rival the cost of three weeks all inclusive in the Maldives. Even though we had found a really good self catering deal we were in a rather expensive area for eating out and before we knew it we had
clocked up over £1000 just on eating out. This was without day trips and other things we did. If I think that on today’s money 11 years later that £1000 on food would be the same as 13 weeks worth of grocery shopping. Clearly when I was young I was not very good with money.
The Holiday Flats I grew up living in holiday flats. It was my mum and dad’s trade. They had holiday flats from me being 7 up until me being 20. Therefore as a child and a teen I was always meeting the different customers they had staying. Because of the type of town that I grew up with the majority of the customers were over the age of 60. This meant that I was used to seeing how good they were with money and how they could make it last. They would probably eat out a couple of times a week but that would be it. When they arrived to stay in the flats they would often come with their groceries already bought and would use all the kitchen equipment throughout the stay and wouldn’t be wasting any money. Well all these years later I want to use these customers as my inspiration for a frugal holiday and how you can look after your money and still have a great time.
Spain in 2016 On the 10th of June we went on holiday to Spain for two weeks. We decided to go to Spain and to see how much money we could save by doing so. We will back in the next Podcast (that is Podcast number 14 of CT FM to show you how much money we saved) but in this one we want to talk
about the ideas that we had. And to outline ways that you can save money on your holiday. #1 – Book Last Minute So first of all I have been online watching the prices and going after the last minute holidays. This way you can save a small fortune on the actual cost of your holiday. Depending on how lost in the moment you get, depends on how late you would be willing to book your holiday. We are planning on leaving it to the day before and to see if the hotel we are most interested in is available at the last minute. When I look at last minute prices compared to booking six months in advance I have seen the prices go for 60% less of the original price. So just think that 1,000€ holiday could easily cost you 400€. Plus it is fun having the lucky dip and seeing what last minute has to offer you. I remember my mum and dad booked last minute to Skiathos for us when I was Kyle’s age. It was too cheap and too horrible. It was long before you had TripAdvisor for being able to check out a hotel and after a week I was so glad when we left. I think as long as you have checked online the credibility of where you are staying that last minute holidays shouldn’t cause you much problems. #2 – Travel By Road You can often spend a small fortune when you travel by road. This of course depends where you live and what you have on offer that is within a 12 hour drive.
If you imagine that you are willing to drive for 12 hours there and 12 hours back on the condition that you’re going on holiday for at least a week. After all it is only one day out of your schedule. It is also so much easier to travel with kids in your own car than via a plane. What I hate about travelling by plane is the messing about. For international flights you often have to be at the airport 3 hours ahead of your flight time, then say if your airport is a 2 hour drive away, then you’ve wasted 5 hours of your time when you could be on holiday in that time. You also choose what time you get up at and what time you leave your house. Plus plane travel is expensive especially with the different taxes that get charged and with your car you just have to worry about petrol. With this in mind we have decided to travel by road. We have decided on Spain because we can be as far up as the Costa Brava in 12 hours, or in Costa Almeria (which is our preferred destination) in just 6 hours or if we choose something closer to home we can be over the border from Portugal and be in Spain in just an hour and a bit. So if we do end up going to our favourite regions we plan to leave the house at 7am and will probably be at our hotel by 3pm when you factor in food stops, toilet breaks and the one hour time difference. So my Ipod is charged and we are ready for a great road trip! #3 – Self Catering Vs All Inclusive Now this is a huge debate. There will be many, many mums that will be saying I cook all the time so why should I cook on holiday? Well I love to cook and look forward to cooking. It is a pleasure for me and something that I love to do.
But I also love an All Inclusive holiday. The idea that you have all your foods and drinks already paid for, you don’t need to leave the hotel if you don’t want to and you don’t have to worry about spending money. I remember going on holiday to the Caribbean all inclusive with Dominic & Kyle a decade ago. We took £200 worth of spending money with us and failed to spend it all by the time we came home. Yes it will cost you more money, but in the long run you will make a lot of savings. I have always avoided them in Spain as I love visiting the local areas, eating out and lots of exploring. Plus when I go all inclusive I always end up eating way too much and end up way too fat! But sometimes you could have the offer in an area of all inclusive and also self catering and due to local costs it can work out cheaper to eat out all the time self catering than to pay for all inclusive. For example in the Costa Almeria area of Spain tapas is the food of choice and it is very cheap and delicious. You can easily pay 1,50€ for some tapas with a bar drink and meals out are also really good value for money. Then there is Benidorm – the prices itself for accommodation can be higher but eating out locally is so cheap. That what you pay extra for in accommodation you make up for in restaurant savings. #4 – The beach and swimming pool are free So you’ve booked into a hotel by the beach, and then just remember that you are allowed to use the swimming pool as much as you like and it makes a perfect day out. After breakfast enjoy a lovely day by the pool.
And you can do this as much as you like when you’re on holiday. The same can be applied to the beach. Don’t get a sun bed instead take your own towels with you and your own umbrellas. So much cheaper and over a holiday when you visit the beach several times it can save you a small fortune. #5 – Have a few big spends It is boring on holiday to just save all the time and you want to push the boat out and enjoy yourself at the same time. Plan for certain days for you to spend extra such as 3 planned day trips or plans to eat out every 2-3 days rather than everyday. That way you’re still enjoying yourself but you’re not breaking the bank either! #6 – Cooking with facilities If you are planning on going self catering and if eating out is not really cheap then you need to make sure you have excellent self catering facilities. That is enough facilities in order to make your own breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or maybe a balcony so that you can do your own barbeque. If you only have tea and coffee making facilities then you’re going to have to spend a lot on eating out.
This brings us to this Podcasts Sponsor: For Podcast 13 of CT FM we wanted to bring to your attention to Trivago.co.uk it is who we are using to find discount self catering accommodation and is an excellent option for grabbing some bargains. You can also use the site to find places with specific needs such as free wifi,
beach location or places that come with breakfast.
How We Plan To Save Money We plan to improve on how we spent our money all those years ago in Lanzarote. We plan to have less days out but more by the beach and by the pool. We also plan to cook regularly and to bring our own groceries with us. As we are all for our kitchen gadgets we decided that we can’t bring them all so we will settle for bringing the soup maker as with it doubling up as a steamer is our favourite.
Round Up! Thanks for joining us in our Podcast and we look forward to sharing more of our cooking tips with you in the future.
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