5 Easy Steps to Enjoy a Free Vacation in 2024 (For Real!)

Without a doubt, inflation was one of the biggest stories in the financial sector in 2023. You’re paying more for everyday items than you’ve ever paid before – and unless you’re very fortunate, your salary probably hasn’t risen to match your expenses. Nowhere is that truer than in the hospitality sector. Hotel room prices have increased much faster than the rate of inflation in 2023. Hospitality companies have essentially told the public that they can expect more of the same in 2024 because of increased labor costs – and that means planning a family vacation is only going to get more difficult for the foreseeable future.

What if we told you that you could take a vacation for free in 2024? You’ll still have to pay for it, of course, but we’re going to explain how you can come up with the money without making any major sacrifices. Instead of paying for your vacation by giving up the things you enjoy, we’re going to list five simple and painless substitutions that can help you save money for a terrific vacation in just one year. Here’s how to do it.

Switch from Smoking to Vaping

Total savings: $195 per month

If you’re a smoker, cigarettes definitely represent the biggest source of wasted money in your budget. In 2023, the average price of a pack of cigarettes in the United States is a whopping $8.00. If you’re a pack-a-day smoker, you’re spending $2,920 per year on cigarettes– and you’re spending twice that if your spouse also smokes.

You’re well aware of the amount of money that you spend on smoking, and it’s likely that you’ve already tried unsuccessfully to quit – perhaps even more than once. If quitting smoking was easy, you probably would have done it long ago. Here’s the solution: You need to switch to vaping. A disposable vape from a company like VapeJuice.com costs around $15 and can last thousands of puffs – roughly the equivalent of two cartons of cigarettes or more. If a disposable vape replaces even just one carton of cigarettes, that’s a savings of about $65 per 10 days.

Bring Your Lunch to Work

Total savings: $220 per month

In a survey of 2,033 consumers conducted in July and August of 2015, respondents reported that the average cost of a restaurant lunch was $11.14 – and that was before the current period of rampant inflation. Today, that $11.14 price tag is more like $14.33. If you’re eating in a sit-down restaurant with your coworkers, the price for the meal might be upwards of $18-20, including a tip.

We’ll say that you’re splitting your time between sit-down restaurants and drive-throughs and that your average lunch cost is $15 per workday. That’s a total of $3,900 spent on takeout meals per year. Restaurant meals are certainly tasty, but taking your family on a vacation is a lot more fun. If you make your own lunch at home from groceries, you can expect to spend about $4.00 per meal. You’ll save even more if you just eat your leftovers from the previous day’s dinner.

Cancel the Streaming Services You Aren’t Using

Total savings: $13.37 per month

People love streaming services because they provide instant access to our favorite content – often without commercials. Along with that benefit, all of the most popular streaming services, such as Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Netflix, also produce their own original content. The downside of streaming services, though, is that the original productions are exclusive to those services. If you want to watch more than one series, you’ll need to maintain multiple subscriptions. The combined cost can really add up – especially if you’re still paying for traditional cable TV as well.

Here are the monthly subscription fees for some of the most popular streaming services.

• Amazon Prime: $14.99 per month
• Apple TV+: $6.99 per month
• HBO Plus: $16.00 per month
• Netflix: $15.49 per month (standard tier)

Do you really need all of those streaming services? You can save $13.37 per month on average if you cancel just one of them. That might not seem like a very significant amount of money on the surface, but you don’t have to stop there. You may have multiple subscriptions that you don’t actually use. If you only watch content online and don’t use your standard cable TV service, you could cancel that and just maintain your Internet service. You can also save money by looking for product bundles. If you’re a baseball fan, for instance, you can get a free subscription to MLB.TV through T-Mobile.

Brew Your Own Coffee or Switch to Tea

Total savings: $60 per month

Are you the type of person who enjoys buzzing through the Starbucks drive-through on your way to work? If you are, you’re spending a median price of $3.65 per beverage – and potentially a lot more than that if you enjoy the more elaborate coffee drinks. If you’re buying five median-priced Starbucks drinks every weekday on your way to work, that’s $73 per month – more if you’re also tipping your barista.

Buying your own beans and brewing your coffee at home, on the other hand, costs just 62 cents per day and will probably even taste better. You can save more than that if you switch to tea, which typically costs around 20 cents per serving. Suppose you’re not a tea fan and can’t give up the arabica; switching from Starbucks to brewing your own coffee results in a savings of $15.15 per week.

Don’t Pay for Unlimited Phone Service if You Aren’t Using It

Total savings: $60 per month

Are you still paying for an unlimited phone plan even though you finished paying for your phone long ago? If you are, you should ask yourself whether you’re actually using all of the data that you’re paying for each month. Even if you’re a major phone addict, you’re probably connecting to the Internet through Wi-Fi when you’re at home – and you might even do the same thing at work. It’s possible that you only end up using a gigabyte or two of mobile data per month. If that’s the case, you should strongly consider ditching your overpriced unlimited plan and switching to a carrier that allows you to build your own plan instead.

A custom mobile phone plan with unlimited talk and text and 2 GB of data costs around $15 per month, and many carriers are now offering custom plans for light phone users. With the major carriers, an unlimited phone plan has a median cost of around $75 per month. If you don’t need unlimited data, switching to a custom plan can result in a monthly savings of around $60.

Enjoy Your “Free” Vacation in 2024

By making all of the substitutions described in this article, you can save nearly $550 per month. That’s upwards of $6,600 per year. A three-day vacation for a family of four, meanwhile, costs an average of $3,609. You can use the leftover money to stay a few extra days or splurge on souvenirs – it’s up to you.

Although you won’t really get a free vacation simply by making a few substitutions in your daily life, we hope this article has helped to illustrate how easy it can be to put a little extra money in your pocket every day, even if a promotion at work doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now. Saving money for a vacation or another major purchase doesn’t require you to give up the things you enjoy because you’re probably paying far more for those things than you really need to. It’s possible to have the same experience for less by swapping an overpriced product or service with a less expensive equivalent – and before long, you’ll be able to spend all of that extra money on something a lot more fun.