Five ways to be frugal on holiday

We are so lucky – we have a holiday booked in the south of France! Because I have a lovely, long term friend who owns an apartment there, she said we could go and stay for free. The money saving won’t stop there. Hopefully, the sea and sun will mean there is little to spend our money on and we can find ways to be frugal on holiday.

Here are some ideas – not necessarily for those holidaying in France, but anywhere.

Five ways to be frugal on holiday

Get cheap car hire

We won’t need a car the whole week, but plan to have one for a day or two so that we can visit a couple of attractions that are further away. It can cost a lot and car firms abroad are notorious for bumping up the charges as much as they can.

However, having read this article on the Money Saving Expert website, I am going to organise this in advance to save a ton of money! It is well worth a read if you are looking to rent a car whilst you are abroad this summer.

Save money on food out

As we are self catering, we will be able to cook for ourselves. As I want to try not to stray too far from my Slimming World plan whilst we are away, this is perfect.

We will eat out sometimes! It is a treat to be on holiday, after all. However, we always take a picnic and flask with us when we are out and about during the day most of the time.

Filling up our water bottles

It really bugs me that you have to get rid of full water bottles or empty your refillable ones at the airport. I know why it happens, but it is still so wasteful!

I plan to take our refillable glass bottles and find a fountain the other side of security to fill them up again. I know they exist at Stanstead.

Saving on sunscreen

Branded sunscreen can be quite expensive. I always use some though – I don’t want to end up super wrinkly and have fair skin that will burn.

In my experience, own brand supermarket sunscreen is every bit as effective as the branded versions. You can spend £3 in Lidl or Asda, as opposed to £10 or £12 on the posh stuff. So that’s what I will be buying!

Buying second hand

Regular readers will know that buying second hand anything is my default position. I want to save money, of course, but am also concerned about the environment. See this post for more details on this.

I need some new black leather sandals. My old ones aren’t going to last the summer and I want some that I can walk in. So I am currently watching several pairs on eBay. I hope I manage to find some I like before we go!

These are just five ways to be frugal on holiday. There are loads more ways to save money when you go away. Please share your tips in the comments!

I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.