Four years ago, I became a member of a frequent flier program. I'd just returned from my first trip to Europe, and I had been bitten by the travel bug. My former boss insisted that I sign up — she goes on great vacations every year and always uses miles to pay for her flights.

Flash forward to the beginning of this summer, when I redeemed my miles for three tickets to Europe which cost about $120 each, including processing fees as well as the annual fee on my rewards credit card for the last few years (the card is tied to the airline program and awards points with every purchase made on the card). It's a great deal to be sure, considering that we paid about $1,250 for a ticket the last time we hopped across the pond. This was long before I knew anything about smaller booking sites and how to find cheaper flights.

Some turbulence

Redeeming miles wasn't a piece of cake. In fact, we ended up booking part of the trip through another airline because the available flights that started in our hometown and ended at our desired destination were just plain nuts. Four connections, long delays, and a jaunt from LaGuardia to JFK, and I don't mean a connecting flight between the two airports, I mean we would have had to arrange to get ourselves from one airport to another to catch the next flight. Um, no thank you. An almost-free flight isn't worth that much hassle. Continue reading...

Wouldn't it be great if you could effortlessly communicate in another language? For many people, this seems like a pipe dream. We aren't going to wake up one day (à la Jason Bourne) suddenly fluent in a bunch of languages, and we can't download them into our brain instantaneously like they do in The Matrix. Such dramatic changes aren't possible.

However, it is possible for the average adult to learn to speak a foreign language confidently in a relatively short time.<

Let's start with the obvious: Costs aren't the same everywhere.

You may already be aware of this on some level, but until you've traveled extensively, it isn't something you really understand. The cost of living in major cities can vary by as much as 500% or 1000%, depending on how you want to live. I've found that it's almost impossible to reduce your living expenses as much as you can by living overseas.

Leaving the U.S. and choosing to live abroad (assuming you live in the right place) is the single biggest thing you can do to reduce the amount of money you spend. Period. Yes, it requires changes and sacrifices in other areas of your life, but if you're looking for adventure and to radically cut your costs, nothing can beat living overseas.

My travel mantra holds that travel should be free — or as close to free as you can get! Budget travel tips usually focus on ways to find cheaper airfare or hotels, and these are a great start. But thinking outside the box can yield some extraordinary vacations that are surprisingly affordable. Here are the different ways I travel to save (and sometimes earn!) money:

Rent a House or Apartment
If you want to stay somewhere nicer than a hostel, but aren't eager to pay hotel prices, consider renting a house or apartment. You'll be able to cook for yourself and avoid the $5 bottles of water. You're also more likely to get an authentic local experience, as vacation rentals are often located in neighborhoods, rather than in tourist areas.

Vacation rentals are a great proposition if you've got kids, since they can run around and eat Mac 'n Cheese — the epicenter of childhood, by my memory — without disturbing hotel or restaurant staff.

Travel has always been a priority for me. I love seeing new places, experiencing new cultures, and just getting away from the routines of my daily life. Even more important, my family and close friends are a pretty far-flung crowd. I have loved ones spread from Boston to Buenos Aires. We buy a lot of plane tickets in my family. We buy so many tickets that I should have become savvy about how we buy them much earlier than I did.

For years, I've mainly just flown with JetBlue. I use Farecast to see if there's a better deal available elsewhere. If there's not a significantly cheaper ticket on that site, I buy my ticket through JetBlue. They generally have low fares and a good frequent-flyer program. This is a pretty simplistic approach. Since I'd never researched it carefully, I didn't know if I was really getting the best deals on my travel.

Now, my best friend is moving to San Francisco. (Yes, between losing my cat and my health problems and my friend's move, it's been a doozy of a month). I'm suddenly looking at traveling a lot more than I already do! Figuring out how to squeeze a few trips a year to the West Coast into my budget is a challenge. Before I overhaul my other spending areas, I wanted to find out if I could get more travel for the same amount I'm already spending. Maybe I can make my existing travel budget take me further — literally. Continue reading...

This article written by Craig Ford is part of the "reader stories" feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes. Craig writes two blogs: Money Help for Christians and Help Me Travel Cheap.

On 16 May 2006, I boarded a Folker 100 aircraft with my wife and ten-month-old daughter. We made the short flight from Port Moresby to our new home — Alotau, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.

To be honest, the move had nothing to do with money. We moved there to do missionary work in Alotau. However, more than four years later, I've found that our decision to move to this third-world country located in the South Pacific actually had a very positive impact on our finances. (For some context, I have an interview with some PNG citizens so you can learn a little about their standard of living.)

Last Friday I arrived home from New York City after a week of Broadway, museums, twinkling holiday lights, and more cannoli than any one person should consume. (Thankfully, I spent plenty of time walking them off!) Visiting the city in December was on my life list of things I wanted to do, and it didn't disappoint.

Of course, New York City isn't inexpensive. But my husband and I stayed with a friend, which meant we didn't have to pay for a hotel room, and we lucked into a few deals. For example, our friend used his corporate discount to get reduced-price tickets to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we scored $25 tickets for front-row seats to Wicked through a lottery drawing held two hours before the show. I'd also prepared myself to expect higher prices so that I could relax a little and enjoy the first big vacation we've taken in almost three years. I can say in all honesty that every expense was worth it — especially the cannoli.

But want to know what travel expenses are not worth it? The new fees airlines charge for everything imaginable! Need to check two bags? That'll be $60. Want a pillow? That's $7, and we only take credit cards. Continue reading...

When I was packing for my trip to Argentina, a friend advised me, “Put everything you're taking on the bed. Now put back half the clothes, and take twice the money.”

Good advice. I tried to follow it and still ended up bringing more clothes than I could possibly need. I didn't bring much money, though, because one of my goals for this trip is to keep saving even while I'm traveling.

Saving for travel is relatively simple: You set up a targeted savings account and put a little money aside each week or each month. Setting a schedule and sticking to it is the key to saving for anything. Travel is no exception.

This article written by Michelle Russo is part of the "reader stories" feature here at Get Rich Slowly. Some reader stories contain general "how I did X" advice, and others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity, and with all sorts of incomes. This story is perfect for Memorial Day weekend, which kicks off the summer holiday season in the U.S.

I've traveled the continental United States, sampling a wide variety of cuisines, and I can say without reservation that the best meal I've ever eaten was a hamburger at a fast food chain just outside Mount Rainier National Park. But in all fairness, I'd spent the past nine hours climbing a mountain, the granola bars were long gone, and I was beginning to see spots.

Twice I've spent a month driving across the country, from Philadelphia to San Diego and back. I've logged over 20,000 miles, and I've seen more during that time than all the rest of my vacations combined. I've also done it for less than $2,500. Continue reading...

At one time or another, we've all been a day late and a few air miles short when purchasing a plane ticket. So we turn to the internet. But with all the bargain travel sites out there, which ones truly offer the best deals on a consistent basis? Surely, there must be a spectacular site out there that's going to get me the cheapest flight every time, right?

Testing the Premier Airfare Sites
I thought it would be fun — and educational — to actually go through a real-life example with a test flight that:

• Departs Atlanta, non-stop flight to L.A. (LAX) at any time on March 8.
• Departs L.A. (LAX), non-stop flight to Atlanta at any time, March 13.

So let's dive in and take a look at the different types of airfare sites out there to see how they perform. The first step to finding the best deal is knowing what the business models are for the sites offering these tickets. Knowing this will result in some time savings and myth busting.