Working For Financial Freedom

4 Stops You Need to Take Before You Go on Your Next Vacation

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Travel purchases tend to be one of the larger purchases a person might make. Plane tickets, rental cars, hotels…it can all add up really fast.A month ago I was preparing to purchase tickets for our family of five to fly out to California in December for a Christmas/househunting trip. I turned to my readers for help and learned about some necessary stops everyone must take before they book their next flight.

Find it Cheap

Years ago when I bought plane tickets I would visit dozens of websites, input my flight itinerary and compare prices. This time I used Kayak.com. You input your flight itinerary and it automatically compares prices at four different sites for you. Once you find your cheap flight, look at the airline offering it. Then, visit that airline’s website directly to see if they are offering an even cheaper fare. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t.

Get a Rebate

Once you find the best available price check rebate sites to see if you can earn a percentage of your purchase price back. You found a good deal, now why not make it twice as good?

The top three sites I use are:

Upromise - A large selection of ways to earn money back on your shopping. It’s not just for parents either; anyone can join. Money earned does not need to be invested for college. Just request a check and the money is sent straight to you. Drawback? Checks have to be requested and can take 8-12 weeks to receive.

Ebates- Earn $10 just for signing up and making your first purchase through them. A HUGE assortment of ways to money back on shopping; a must-have site if you are doing any online shopping. Rebates given are larger than most other comparable rebate sites. Checks are automatically sent out every 3 months if you have over $5.01 in your account.

MyPoints - Mypoints is more than just a rebate site, you can earn for taking surveys and reading emails also. You earn points for shopping, reading emails, and taking surveys. You can redeem the points any time you want for gift cards from hundreds of retailers. Plus? Gift cards are sent out as soon as you request them. Drawback? Some rebates aren’t as high as what Ebates or Upromise gives.

Using Kayak I found the best price for us was from Hotwire, and thankfully it was even a non-stop flight. I then logged into Upromise and purchased the tickets through their Hotwire link earning an extra 2% back on my purchase.

4 round trip non-stop tickets- $1,620.00
2% cashback from Upromise - -$28.60
1 round trip non-stop ticket - FREE using frequent flier miles

Total for 5 tickets - $1,591.40