I have been never much into brainstorming money-saving ideas. However, from time to time, I browse through the tips on cost-cutting, pick up a few that I can easily follow, and make good use of them. There are several areas to cut costs, at least I have learned that but I am reluctant to try them all. One such idea that I have recently applied is how to save money while making a trip across the country.

I went for a fortnight trip to Sydney from Melbourne by road. After I came back, nobody was willing to believe that I had managed to travel with a petty sum. But I did and here is how I did that.

Moderate Driving

Driving moderately is a way to make improvements on gas mileage especially when you are making a long trip. I made it sure not to go over a certain limit so that I could save on my gas expenses. Most of the motorists pick up high speed while traveling along the highway and during a long trip.

It feels like going on an adventure. But the fact that you fail to realize is it adds to your fuel bill. We had some bags and baggage in the cabin as well as on top of the car. When you carry such loads, it is more important to go slow so that you can get the optimum mileage. It was a tour of 4000 miles that we covered. So it was not a small sum that we saved. Even if small pennies are saved in several aspects of traveling, it could be a big amount.

Discount Deals

My husband says that I have some bad habits and one of them is to collect discounts on grocery items, clothes or whatever else I could afford even without a markdown on prices. I just turned a deaf ear to his arguments and did the same on the eve of our trip. Discounts are available on total packages or individually on some special aspects like hotel booking, flight reservation, or special activities.

I did make my vacation plan without involving a tour operator. However, that did not prevent me from enjoying discounts on hotel booking and some particular activities. It was not a peak travel season and most of the hotels had discount offers on booking. Usually, hotels adopt such a marketing strategy to drive travelers when tourist flow is not very high.

We also availed discount coupons on adventure activities. The organizations running these activities also attract customers during the slack season by offering discounts. We also picked up some passes from our hotel and on the whole, all these contributed to our money saving.

Going for some unusual ways

When you are bent on saving money, you should be ready for some sacrifices if those don’t take pleasure away from your travel. Go with some unusual thoughts to cut costs on your traveling expenses. We booked our hotels for four nights and three days. For the rest of our trip, we went camping. It gave us a real thrill of adventure and at the same time, we saved a lot on accommodation. While resting in the camps, we ordered food at the roadside restaurants. The food was tasty but inexpensive.

I managed to save $800 on our road trip. What about your plans for saving money during a trip by road?

This is a guest post from Tina Roth. She is a personal finance blogger at personal finance blog – a blog for money management and frugal living. When she is not blogging you can find her busy with her kids and home renovation work.