Travel Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

How to Make Money as an Airbnb Experience Host

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 9 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you want to learn how to become an Airbnb experience host?

Whether you want to host cooking classes, walking tours, bike rides, pub crawls, paddleboard adventures, or something else, there are many different types of Airbnb experiences that you may be able to host and make money with.

This can be a great way to make extra money, as well as meet new people and tourists.

You could make hosting Airbnb experiences a side gig or even a full-time job. It simply depends on your availability and what your goals are.

Today, I have interviewed Martin Dasko on how to make money as an Airbnb experience host.

Martin is an Airbnb experience host and he takes guests to unique coffee shops around where he lives. He is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the topic of how to become an Airbnb experience host.

In this interview, you’ll learn answers to questions such as:

What is an Airbnb experience?
How much do Airbnb experience hosts make?
What are some examples of Airbnb experiences that I can host?
How do I start an Airbnb hosting experience?
Is hosting an Airbnb experience worth it?

And more! This interview is packed full of valuable information on how to become an Airbnb experience host.

Martin also has a book, How You Can Start Making Money With Airbnb Experiences Today, as well as a course, Experience Empire Builder, if you are interested in learning more on this topic. [Read more…]

How Much We Spent To Visit All 50 States In One Year

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I have a great guest post to share from Alyssa Padgett, author of RVing Across America. Four days after her wedding in 2014, Alyssa and her husband Heath set off on an unconventional honeymoon to all fifty states. They’ve been traveling ever since, now traveling the world with their two young children. You can find them on their website at HeathandAlyssa.com.

When my husband and I started planning our honeymoon, we knew we wanted to start our marriage with an adventure.

That’s when I came up with the plan to visit all 50 states in a year.

Which I realize makes me sound like I inherited a trust fund that allowed me to easily take a year off to full-time travel.

I didn’t.

I was just a broke college graduate about to marry another broke college graduate and we would both be quitting our jobs to make this crazy honeymoon happen. This was in a pre-COVID world too, when remote work existed, but wasn’t yet common.

Heath, my husband, suggested sleeping in the back seat of our car to make the trip as cost-effective as possible. I pointed out that was a great way to ensure a divorce before we actually made it across the country.

Further research determined that the best, cheapest way to travel to all 50 states was to buy an RV and take a year-long road trip.

We didn’t know how much it would cost, how to make money while traveling, or anything about RVs. But we were determined to kick off our life together by accomplishing something amazing and visiting all 50 states sounded just wild enough.

RVing across America surprised us with beauty and adventure, but also with a surprisingly low price tag. The cost to visit all 50 states in a year—and full-time RVing in general—was cheaper than we expected and even cheaper than life in our apartment.

Let’s look at your basic travel costs first, and then get into ways to make and save money while traveling. [Read more…]

How My Family of 4 Flies Free 6 Times Every Year

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 8 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Today, I have a great guest post to share from Lyn Mettler. Lyn is sharing how her family of 4 flies for free. You can also download her free “How to Earn the Southwest Companion Pass” eBook.

My family just got back from Kauai.

This is our second spring break in a row flying free to Hawaii. Last year, we scored an amazing deal to fly all 4 of us to Maui, and this year, we decided to return to check out the “Garden Isle” of Kauai.

But that’s only one of 4 trips we’ve taken by plane in the last 7 months. Add to the list Miami, Universal Studios Orlando and Disney World.

This is how my family rolls these days. We’ve been flying all 4 of us free 6 times a year since I learned about travel rewards back in 2015.

Back then, air travel was not even something I considered. Pay to fly 4 of us anywhere? Not in the budget, because there was no money to spare on anything besides bills.

If we got lucky, my in-laws would pay for us to meet them at Disney World every few years, and a couple times, my husband and I dipped into our credit cards to take a couples’ trip to a condo my family owned in Colorado (so no hotel expense!). Otherwise, no travel for my family.

But everything changed in 2015.

As a longtime travel writer for outlets like US News & World Report, the TODAY Show and USA Today’s 10Best, I frequently interviewed travel experts, and one day I was pitched a story about a couple who was flying around the world FREE using frequent flyer miles, but they weren’t earning their miles by flying. This blew my mind, because I thought to earn “frequent” flyer miles, you had to frequently fly, right? This is how my dad, a longtime business traveler, earned his miles, at least.

But no. They were earning travel rewards in other ways, never paying for a flight AT ALL. [Read more…]

How I’ve Traveled Full Time For 20 Years (And Make/Save Money)

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I have a great guest post to share from Patrick Schulte from Bumfuzzle. Patrick quit his job around 20 years ago and has been traveling full-time ever since. He and his wife have circumnavigated the world by boat, and have also driven from Alaska to Argentina as well as Europe in a 1958 VW van. Here is how they made it happen. Enjoy!

Life was much simpler when I was content with living the American Dream.

I walked to work from my downtown Chicago condo, traded commodities for a few hours, came home, walked up the street to pick my wife up from her job, walked to a restaurant, walked home, watched tv, went to bed. On the weekends we might take in a Blackhawks game.

That was life.

Relaxing, easy, and comfortable.

We had plenty of money, a nice home, a convertible, didn’t want for anything, and we were still in our twenties.

We should have considered ourselves lucky, had a baby, and moved to the suburbs. That would have been the appropriate next step. Throw in a white picket fence and we would have completed the package.

Instead, within just a few months, we were floating at anchor on a 35’ catamaran in the Bahamas.

It was the kind of dramatic left turn that makes the car’s passenger door fly open in the movies. [Read more…]

How To Find A Remote Job In 2022 (Best Sites, Tips, & More)

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Want to learn how to find a remote job?

Remote jobs are extremely popular. And, the best remote opportunities allow you to eliminate your commute (which may save you hours each week!), travel more, and sometimes even have a more flexible schedule.

Plus, you get to work from home!

The idea of not having to deal with the hassles of commuting every day and being able to work from home sounds like a dream come true. It’s one reason you might be interested in how to find a remote job.

However, many people aren’t sure how to begin looking for a remote job.

Fortunately, there are many websites and resources that can help you find the best remote positions for you to apply for.

The internet has transformed how we look for jobs, how we connect with others, how we learn and how much money we can make from our work. It’s very hard to imagine what life would be like without it!

When it comes to finding a remote job, the internet is definitely your best friend.

In today’s post, you will learn how to find a remote job. We will also cover what remote work is exactly, the best remote job sites, the benefits and challenges of working remotely, and more. [Read more…]

24 Best Ideas To Vacation On A Budget

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 4 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you planning a trip and want tips that will help you vacation on a budget?

Taking a vacation can get very expensive very quickly. There’s the time you need to take off work, travel expenses, the cost of staying somewhere, food, and much more. When you add it all up, it might feel like a vacation just isn’t in your budget.

In fact, one of the top reasons I hear for why people don’t travel more is that they feel they don’t have enough money to do so. However, it’s very possible to vacation on a budget.

Many people think that they need to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars in order to have a good vacation.

But, that’s simply not true.

There are many ways you can take family vacations on a budget, spend less on solo travel, or take a vacation with your friends and not go into debt.

You may have to rethink the way you travel, do a little more planning and research, or stay a little closer to home. But, there are low budget vacation ideas for almost everyone.

Remember, vacationing should be a time to relax and help you escape the stresses of everyday life. [Read more…]

How we moved a family of 5 to one of the most expensive countries in the world (with no income)

Last Updated: July 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 11 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Are you interested in making a big move? Here is how Jill and her family moved to Norway (one of the most expensive places to live), without jobs or dipping into their retirement savings. Enjoy!

A lot of people point out (and rightly so) that moving to a low-cost location is one of the best financial moves you can make.

With much cheaper living expenses, the money you have saved can just go a lot farther.

But what about when the place that you want to move is NOT cheaper? What about if it is consistently ranked as one of the most expensive countries in the world?

AND what if you are planning to move there on a student visa, leaving two solid salaries behind with no guarantee of income? AND what if you have three kids who like to eat daily?

Well, that is exactly what we did in 2019 when we left a midwestern city with a relatively low cost of living to move our family of 5 to Stavanger, Norway.

It took several years of planning and included lots of unknowns and delayed plans.

But almost 3 years after our initial move, we know that we made the right choice for our family.

So how did we do it, and how did it work out? Here’s the low down. [Read more…]