How in the world where we able to save all the money for our Germany Trip

I hear people talking all the time, telling us “You must be rich” or did you win the Lotto? or “Oh your Mom & Dad must be paying for your trip”. Honestly this couldn’t be further from the truth and I wanted to share some tips with all of you on how we, a middle class family of 5 from Florida, during the downtime of the economy to boot, was able to save the money to make the trip of a lifetime.

Trust me, we are no rich folks nor do we have money stacked away but we plan ahead; I haven’t been home in 12 years, it was just never in the budget and looking at air fair for 5 of us would run anywhere from $5000-$8000 depending on the airline and the flight departure/arrival airport, making it not something you can do every year.

We are truly ordinary people who work very hard every day just like you and me. Some of our tips that helped us accomplish this trip are:

• Plan ahead; we had a 5 year plan, that was actually 3 years ago. We started planning and looking into how much money was needed to go on the trip, what we expected from the trip and what places we wanted to visit.
• Coupons, Coupons, Coupons played a BIG roll in this; we used coupons to cut our grocery budget from $200/week to $50/week for all of us and the extra money was put away for the trip, no excuses!
• We opened a separate checking account with Capital One and all our trip money was deposited into that account; the reason we choose Capital One over any other bank account was a big thing; they do not charge any international transaction fees and that would be HUGE for our trip if we use the account Debit card to make purchases and get charged $5-$8 per transaction; No FEES and awesome costumer service to boot.
• Any extra income was added to the account; if we received unexpected insurance refund or maybe tax refund, all that money was placed into the account faithfully and never touched. I had a Debit card for the account but I NEVER carried it or even took it out of the envelope; it is tucked away in the house and I’m the only one who knows where it is.
• Any increase in payroll, that extra money went straight to the Germany Savings account every month or each pay day; again, no exceptions.
• We NEVER TOUCHED the money, it was never an option and we never ever looked at it as a “Security” account; we had our ups and downs and emergencies like a Water heater break, but that money was never touched, we just cut our strings a bit tighter to pay the additional expense.
• PLAN PLAN PLAN ahead.. ALWAYS plan and figure out what your Budget would be; we had our budget set fairly high, with a trip like this you don’t want to go and sit in the Hotel for the entire trip; I’m fortune and I do have family there, so we get to go and eat at everyone’s house if we wanted to,  but we are not staying with them, we rented a vacation home instead;
• Check into prices for everything; write it down and make a goal, 5 years out or maybe even 10 years; and the closer you get to your expected budget the more you can move up your trip.
• Pay cash for everything, don’t ever charge, if you don’t’ have the cash for what you want.. YOU DON’T NEED it… is always out motto!!
• Find cheaper alternatives; we got a cheaper flight going out of a different airport then if we would have stayed with our original plans; being flexible is also a BIG key.

See, we are just an ordinary family, we didn’t win the lotto nor do we have parents that are super rich; we make ends meets but the key to all this is.. KNOW HOW TO SAVE!!!!!

If we can do it, anyone can do it… you just have to believe in your dream and you can do it; may not be today, may not be tomorrow, but as long as you don’t give up and work towards that dream, you will make it!!!! trust me, if you keep dreaming, time will fly fairly quickly and once your dream is in reach… It’s an amazing feeling….

Looking back, we had that 5 year plan; to save and to do whatever we needed, 18 month ago we decided we are ready to get serious and book and get passports; a trip like this won’t happen overnight. We are 2 years ahead of schedule and only 20 short days away from take off…  WHOHOOO I’m beyond excited to go home…….

Some sacrifices we had to make while planning the trip:

• We got a cheaper flight out of a different airport,which is 4 hours away from our home here in Florida; good thing we have family in that city and we can combine this with a  visit; the same with the arrival airport is in a different city then we wanted, however we decided since it was cheaper by over $1000 to combine the arrival with a 2 day city tour in that city, which for us happened to be Berlin. Win win for all of us
• We did get a rental car, but we had to settle for a standard transmission, rather an automatic, saved us again close to $1000 just for that tiny change… I would have preferred automatic, but I do know how to drive a standard, so we should be ok.
• We can’t see EVERYTHING!! Our main goal is to spend time with Family and Friends and travel through Bavaria; rather then across the entire European Continent; sure we would love to spend a few days in Italy or France, BUT we have to have something to look forward to for another trip, in another dream……

As you can see, there are always “Deals” to be found and ways to make your trip of a life time work; you just have to do your research and take  your time… this isn’t something that will happen overnight…..

We want you to come along with us ….

So, come on, pack your bags and grab your passport and let’s tour Germany with all the Sightseeing, ins and outs this Country has to offer; who knows what we will explore and where we will end up each day….

You can keep up with us on our trip by following our Newsfeed in your E-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Don’t forget to bookmark or friend us…..

Happy Travel…..

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way by anyone for writing this post or linking to certain links; this is strictly  helpful tips for my readers; however I may have affiliate links in this post unrelated to our travels.