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[quote=Anonymous]I'm the one that commented maybe on page 5 that I grew up in Arlington and traveled around the US with my family (middle class Arlington standards, upper middle by most of the country---parent had master's, one a k-12 teacher, another a mid-level fed. employee.

I mentioned that I traveled as much as I can with my kids and do it as affordably as I can (I have gotten a lot of flights to Europe between $350-$480) and I find apartment rentals as low as $600-$1,200 a week for apartments.

Someone asked how I find these deals. I thought I responded but I can't find it so here it is.

Here's how I do it:

1) I search a TON for deals on google flights, skyscanner, and budget airlines- mostly Play airlines these days.  I used to find more deals through full-service airlines but that has been decreasing, especially as I need flights during school breaks.

2) I start my search and price tracking (google doc for me) almost a year in advance for multiple locations and spring break I find the best deals between May-June (scattered deals much later on through major airlines, but it's increasingly hard to snag those and dates usually don't align).  Summer: book september-november for best deals. Christmas- start searching early January and book within first few months.

3) I use reward points - Chase Sapphire preferred but I'm not amazing with how I use my cards and we are nervous about opening too many cards nor do we earn any points through work so I just accrue points and use every few years.  I typically accrue 2-3k worth of points. I used to pay for our childcare through my credit card to earn points and that helped.  I found this year that the benefit of booking through their system has drastically decreased and it's the same value as getting cash back when it used to be maybe 20% more.

4) I book apartments SUPER early- not quite as early as airfare (though I do a quick search for general pricing).  There are times we have gone with a nice family hostel- we've used Meininger and it's been excellent- better than many hotels in the US and way more family oriented.

5) We prioritize travel and don't spend as much on our home, clothing, toys, and limit eating out at home.

6) I found a position through a public school system that allows for me to take all school breaks/holidays and 1 month in the summer, soon I will have a 10 month contract- woohoo.

I will also add that I live in another area of VA that has a MUCH lower cost of living and I'm able to live a middle class (borderline upper middle class) lifestyle that would be impossible in northern VA. Most families do NOT travel luxuriously in my area...there's a handful of families that I know that are also travel lovers, but not many. Most families do go to Disney, US trips, cruises, [/quote]

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