One of the most common questions I get is “How do you afford to go to New Zealand every year?” I don’t have one really good answer for that question, I think it’s a combination of a lot of tools we use to help us save money for travel, and save money in general. I’ll give you our 5 ways we save money to fund our flights. Here’s how we do it.
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First, I want to start by saying we are NOT financial experts by any means. Neither one of us has taken a single financial class. And the tools and tips I have mentioned here, are not tools that I think you should use or shouldn’t use, or recommendations that you should or should not do. But this is actually what we personally do. I’m sure there are better ideas and tools out there. I just wanted share how we save money. It seems to work for us, but we are by no means saying that this will work for you. Hopefully you can read this article with an open mind, and that it gives you some ideas to consider in your own life.
1: Travel Credit Cards
Credit cards are not for everyone. And a credit card might not be right for you. But for us, we put every expense that we can on our credit card. Grocery, gas, and utilities all get put on the card. We never spend more than what we have in our account, and we always pay it in full at the end of every month.
About a year ago, we opened a Chase United Explorer travel card that allows us to earn miles as we make daily purchases. The Chase United Explorer card offers a one time sign on bonus of 40,000 miles if you spend $2000 in the first 3-months. To put that in perspective, a trip to New Zealand from Detroit is 80,000 points round-trip. So you’re basically already half way to New Zealand! That’s a huge bonus. With a sign on bonus (and I think my sign on bonus was a bit higher than 40,000 miles…), we were able to earn enough miles for one round-trip ticket to New Zealand and one round-trip ticket to Florida. AND I still have miles left over.
Not only does Mileage Plus offer miles for basic every day spending, but they also offer bonus miles for eating at certain restaurants or shopping at certain stores. In fact, just for signing up with their Mileage Plus dining they give you 1,000 miles for eating at one of their restaurants within the first 30 days. That’s a no brainer.
I also discovered Mileage Play, which is a survey company through United. Like any survey website, the surveys are about a variety of topics and you have to “qualify” to participate in certain ones. It took me an hour to find a survey that I qualified for, but it was worth it! Because just for signing up and completing your first survey, you can earn 600 miles. Plus if you have enough patience and are bored, you can earn around 50 miles just for completing a survey. I won’t lie, completing surveys can be quite tedious, but the sign on bonus was worth it for us. If you’re interested, use my referral link by clicking on the underlined text or this link here: agirlandakiwi.com/mileageplay
I also get extra points for using a BP gas station because I registered my MileagePlus card with BP Fuel Points. You’re not likely to earn a whole airfare ticket with surveys and filling up your tank, but at least it will rack up your miles. In my book, every mile counts!
I would say that so far I’ve been extremely satisfied with the Chase United Explorer card. I love searching for deals and ways to earn extra miles. If you want to sign up, you can use my referral link here: agirlandakiwi.com/chaseexplorer
2: Grocery Savings
Grocery shopping is a huge expense, that makes up a lot of our monthly spendings! Its unavoidable, we have to eat! And I like healthy, organic food. So this is one area of our life where I have to try harder to save money. I do the basics to save money, like I always use my Kroger card to get extra savings. I always look for deals when I am grocery shopping, and if it’s on sale I buy more of it. This may mean that I end up spending more money to buy two rather than just buying one if it is one sale.
Also, about a year and a half ago I discovered the Ibotta app. Let me tell you, I love that app. Its addicting. Basically, all you have to do is select the store, then scroll through the app and search for offers. You will get a $10 bonus just for signing up and redeeming your first offers. Usually the Ibotta app offers deals for specific things or brand names . That means that sometimes I might buy one brand of barbecue sauce versus another, but either way I end up with barbecue sauce – which was on my list. After checkout, I scan the barcode and upload the receipt. Then I can redeem the cash I earned by Venmo, Paypal, or use as gift cards to select stores.
I’ll be honest, the savings aren’t usually that big. Sometimes it’s $.25 on the box of cereal, or $.50 on a frozen pizza. But sometimes it’s $2 off a bottle of wine or more! It doesn’t sound like much, and you’re probably thinking “Brooke what am I gonna do with $2.75?” But I’m telling you it adds up. You also get extra bonuses as you redeem offers! In the last 15 months I’ve earned over $250 cash back simply by redeeming offers. It’s not a lot, but it’s $250 more than I had before! I’ll take that as a win. Seriously if you’re not using this app you need to start. Use my referral code: agirlandakiwi.com/ibotta, and receive $10 for signing up in redeeming your first offers.
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3: The $50 Rule
James and I have an unspoken rule. I call it unspoken because we never talked about it. I don’t know how it started. If something is more than $50, we usually talk to the other person before we buy, in order to decide if it’s what we really need. We first started doing this when we were first married, and though our savings account looks different now, it is still something that has continued.
4: Meal Plan
We regularly meal plan. With meal plans, I am more likely to only buy what we need, and it reduces the risk of wasting food that we don’t eat! And when I cook, I cook a lot. I love to have leftovers for lunches and dinner. James is THE BEST leftover man. One time, he ate homemade chicken quesadillas for SIX MEALS in a row! We were freshly married, and I wasn’t sure about proportions just yet. I made so many quesadillas. So he ate quesadillas for dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner the following day, and then breakfast and lunch. They must have been pretty good quesadillas.
But anyway, about once a week I schedule a leftovers night where we just eat leftover food in the fridge from previous meals. Also about once a week we do a “FFY” night or “fend for yourself” meal where we just eat whatever we can find. This may be leftovers, but more usually is tuna and noodles, a wrap or a fruit and veg smoothie. Whatever we want or can find. It’s usually a cheaper meal.
We also don’t go out to eat very much. We will schedule date nights in, open a bottle of wine and make a nice charcuterie board. I say we go out to eat maybe once every two weeks. During the work week, we pack lunches. Now, sometimes when work is really stressful or home life is busy, we will buy lunch. But we really try to limit spending here!
5: DIY – Do It Yourself
Another thing that we like to do to try and save money is DIY! This is an adventure and DIY blog because we help fund our adventures by DIY’s. We do all of our own painting and wallpaper removing. We’ve painted floors, and bathtubs. Even the decorations for our winter wedding I did most of it by myself. Not only is DIY super rewarding but usually very cost-effective.
We have saved thousands by painting our own walls, ripping out carpet, building a dog kennel so we didn’t have to pay for doggie day care, and even laying our own vinyl planking floors. (DIY post to come soon!)Â I have made Christmas stockings, ornaments, table runners, and blankets. You name it we will try to do it. James and I are project people and thankfully we work on projects really well together as a couple. James is one of those guys that can basically do anything or learn to do anything, and I am his ever encouraging wife that doesn’t shy away from using a crowbar, a paintbrush, or occasional power tool.
Related: DIY Floral Wreath
We also have saved money in the past by building our own furniture! When we were in a rental property in New Zealand, we knew that we probably wouldn’t be there for too long. So, we decided to make tables, side tables, a wood box, and a TV stand out of wood pallets and logs. It was something that we did together with a saw and sandpaper, and honestly has been some of our favorite pieces of furniture ever! We actually plan on making a TV stand similar to this in the future!
When we moved to the States from New Zealand, we started asking friends and family if they had any furniture that they wanted to get rid of or were selling, or if they knew of anyone getting rid of any furniture. It’s amazing what you can find when you start asking for it. We got a king-size headboard, a reclining leather couch, a coffee table and side tables from friends or friend of a friend. We also bought a $40 beautiful oak table and chairs at an estate sale. A were given a TV stand that we literally sawed in half so it would fit our TV. Yes, it’s a little bit of a hodgepodge of furniture, but I love it and I think it actually goes together really well. It’s amazing what some decorative pillows and strategically placed plants can do to bring a room together!
Hopefully over the next few years we will slowly replace these modified second-hand items, but in the meantime we will enjoy them! Again, this might not be for everyone but it is for us and we love her hodgepodge of furniture that just seems to fit together. And I love making it work together!
In Summary…
Again, we are not financial experts, but I hope that these ideas give you guys something to think about for your own life and maybe a couple areas where you can try and save money. Hopefully we’ve inspired you to try that DIY project yourself rather than hiring it out. Maybe you would like to try the Ibotta app and save money on your groceries! Maybe a travel credit card is for you? I’d love to hear, what are some things that you do to save money? Leave it in the comments below because we are always open to fresh ideas!
Save On,
*This post contains affiliate links. That means, I may receive a commission for some of the links in this post- at no cost to you. See our Disclaimer page for details*