Starting this series of frequently asked questions with one of the most popular questions that’s been coming through: How do you afford to travel with children?
1. We prioritize travel. We spend very minimally outside of our needs–in fact our two biggest spending buckets are food and travel. Outside of these, we spend our time on the beaches and trails–both of which are free! Instead of gifting toys and other goods we choose to gift experiences, we also emphasize quality over quantity. Many of our toys have been cycled through at least two (and sometimes all four) keiki! Our holiday celebrations center upon traditions and rituals versus gift giving.
2. We fund our travels though multiple income streams. When we were both working in the trailer for The Fresh Shave we’d save all of our cash tips for travel. Daniel has also been great about picking up seasonal side gigs. All the meanwhile, I’ve taught graduate school part-time online–a win-win because I truly miss my days as a classroom teacher. Now any work I do creating content (for brands we love) is often instantly converted to travel plans.
3. We take advantage of frequent flier programs–often enrolling our keiki in them as soon as they have their own seat. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by joining their free programs! We also use a credit card from our favorite airline that scores us perks and an annual companion fare (drop me a note if you’d like to learn more).
4. We set up travel alerts from our closest airports via Going. Even the free membership works great for tuning me into crazy deals. For example, I found flights to Europe because of an alert and we scored roundtrip tickets from Kaua’i to Europe for less than $600 per person. Amazing, right? We pay for the Premium subscription and it more than pays for itself with just one booking. I haven’t upgraded to the Elite membership because I’m not sure my heart (or wallet) could handle that quite yet.
5. We pack light! Nowadays, this truly pays off because checking luggage (especially internationally) can cost a pretty penny. We prefer to travel with just the essentials and it has saved us hundreds of dollars per trip. Plus, you’ll have less clutter to pick up once you’re on vacation! And if you invest in a solid carry-on like ours from Monos, you can pack in an organized and efficient manner. We love their compression cubes as well and if you hurry you can use the code KAUAILIFE10 on top of their current sale!
6. Last but not least, I do want to mention that while we do put all of our travel expenses on our airline card (in order to maximize earning miles), we make sure to pay off the full amount every month to avoid paying any interest charges. That means we don’t book or spend anything we cannot immediately afford to ensure that our vacation costs exactly what we intended to spend on it.
