I’m saving for some future trips. I hope these recommendations can help you boost your own travel savings account.
We love the Irish Pub inside the New York, New York casino and hope to stay there on our next Vegas visit.
Goals:
* earn enough frequent flier Rapid Reward points to get me to/from Vegas in the future
* build my travel savings account in hopes of a big 25th anniversary trip in 2019
How did I do in the second quarter of 2017?
Southwest Rapid Reward points
0 – one roundtrip Bradenton flight to celebrate my dad’s 75th birthday; my mom purchased this for me using her Rapid Rewards points – Thanks, Mom!
575 – Rapid Rewards dining program
500 – Rapid Rewards dining program bonus (for having earned 1,500 Rapid Reward Dining points to-date)
270 – Rapid Rewards Shopping (gift shipped to Mom)
200 – using Super Shuttle to/from Bradenton airport (had been 350 last trip; maybe fewer because I also received a AAA discount?)
1,200 – e-Rewards earnings from January – March that posted in April
total: 2,745
Travel Savings Account
I continued to earn via Ibotta. Ibotta is an app that pays money for purchases made within the app (grocery stores, Hallmark, Groupon, etc.). Using Paypal, I transfer the Ibotta funds to my Travel Savings Account at my online bank — that way I’m not tempted to fritter away my earnings. Which I would totally do.
April $29.50
May $49.71 (included $24.96 earned from a Groupon purchase made last quarter)
June: $27.76
Quarterly earnings: $106.97
The Ibotta app also offers bonuses based on purchases made by teammates. (Of the above total, $7 this quarter is from bonuses = free money.)
You can join my team here to start earning towards your own travel fund.
You’ll receive a $10 welcome bonus if you make your first Ibotta purchase within a week. This first purchase can literally be one banana. Or whatever fresh produce purchase is being rewarded at that time. Or whatever else you’d buy anyway. And then you’ll receive a referral code of your own that you can use to invite your friends to your team and get a $5 referral yourself.
What I especially like about Ibotta is that I’m rewarded for purchases I would have made anyway – fruit, veggies, snacks, laundry soap, toilet paper, etc.
Progress so far
Currently, I’ve accumulated 10,091 Southwest Rapid Reward points. A flight to/from Vegas is currently running 6,500 – 11,000 Rapid Reward points. Looking at that upper limit of 11,000 points, I have nearly enough for one leg of my Vegas flight.
I’m almost half way to my goal of a free round trip flight!
(Sing it with me, fellow Gaelic Storm fans:
“Another five or ten
in her pocket and then
she’ll be closer to the price of her flight.”)
– Pina Colada in a Pint Glass
Ibotta earnings so far:
January – March: $48.85
April – June: $106.97
total Year to Date: $155.82
I’m not even 1/4 of the way towards my goal of $900 (estimate on cruise deposit of $450 per person for a British Isles cruise).
Good thing we’re not going until 2019 at the earliest.
And then there’s the To-do List…
Last quarter I wrote about (1) contacting Hyatt to inquire about the Rapid Reward points that hadn’t posted from my March stay and (2) selling stuff on Craig’s List to boost my travel fund. Nope, I haven’t gotten around to either of these yet. Sad but true.
Let’s make the most of our vacation days!
Are you saving up for a special trip too?
What are your go-to ways for boosting your travel savings account?
