How my family of 5 affords to take multiple, weeklong vacations every year

How the heck do we afford to travel like we do?

If you have been following along with our family’s travel adventures for very long, you have probably wondered to yourself at some point, “how the heck do they afford to travel so much?”. Totally legit question. We are a family of 5, living on a single income, with a mortgage (although, thank you global pandemic for those low interest rates we scored 4 years ago). 

Sure, we road trip versus fly, and we pack our own food on most of our trips to help cut costs. But that still doesn’t add up to enough savings for us to take 4-5 week long trips a year, plus multiple weekend getaways. Two years ago, we absolutely could not afford to travel as much as we do now. We had a budget that allowed us to take a single trip a year, and maybe an extra weekend away if we were lucky.

So what changed that allows us the financial freedom to travel like we do? No, we didn’t win the lottery, and my husband’s raises each year barely cover the cost of living increase. 

But, we learned how to use our regular, everyday spend to work for us in ways that would allow us to travel so much more. 

In 2023, we took our family of 5 on an amazing trip to Disney. The memories we made were priceless, however, the trip itself was not. Disney is so expensive. When we returned home, I was on a travel high and itching to book our next trip. Unfortunately, my dearest husband had to break the news to me that we had just blown through our entire travel budget for the whole year, plus the following year. 

Are you serious? No trips for 2 years?! That was crazy. Our kids were at the perfect age, and my nomadic heart could not take the thought of waiting so long to travel again. My husband told me if I could find a way to greatly reduce the cost of another trip, we could go. So, I started researching “how to travel for free”, thinking in my delusional head that there HAD to be someone out there that could share a secret about traveling cheaply that I didn’t know about. 

And I was right. 

I came across something called travel hacking. In layman’s terms, it’s using your regular, every day spending that you are already doing, but instead of using debit cards to pay for your purchases, you use credit cards to earn points that you can redeem for free travel. I know, sounds like a scam, right? Nothing in the world is free. And I will be the first to tell you that this hack does NOT make travel free. 

However, it does greatly reduce the cost. In 2024, my family stayed in a hotel over 40 nights, and we didn’t pay cash for a single one of them. My husband and I are taking a dream trip to Hawaii this spring for our anniversary, with a cash value of nearly $9,000 for airfare and hotels, paid for completely with points we earned by putting every single purchase on our credit cards. Of course, our trip will still cost money- food, activities, rental car, ect. But if we were paying for all of these hotels and flights with cash, we would never be able to afford to travel as much as we do. 

So, how? How can you do this, too? 

I want to start by stating that I am not an expert in this hobby, by any means. There are some really amazing blogs and Instagram accounts out there dedicated to learning all you can about how to strategically maximize your spend, and which card to open, to be able to take some insane trips (think Bora Bora overwater bungalows). But for our family, U.S. travel is our goal for the next several years. We enjoy road trips, and want to visit all 50 states before we start thinking about traveling internationally someday when our kids are a bit older. And I want to show you how this hobby can benefit regular families out there, just like us, who have average travel goals and just want to help offset the cost so they can stretch their travel budget farther.

So, I am sharing my very basic, and easy to follow strategy that helps my family of 5 stay in hotels all over the U.S. for $0, and fly domestically for free. 

First, there are a few things you need to know about this hobby. 

1. You MUST be responsible with credit cards, and be able to pay off your balance IN FULL every single month. If you are paying interest on the cards because you keep a balance on them, then it is pointless to play the points and miles game. 
2. You have to get over the mindset that annual fees are bad. For years, we used a cash back credit card because it had a $0 annual fee. But, think of it like this: If someone offered you $1,000, but you first had to pay them $100, you absolutely would, right? Credit cards are the same concept. The value you will get from the points you earn are worth much more than the annual fee. 
3. Do not buy anything you would not normally buy, just because you’re using a credit card. The things we put on our credit card to earn Sign Up bonuses and accrue points include: groceries, gas, utilities, doctor’s bills, restaurants, ect. Everything we buy using our credit card is something we would already be purchasing, regardless of how we pay for it. 
4. The best way to earn a large chunk of points is by signing up for a new credit card, and earning a Sign Up bonus. This is a large amount of points that will be awarded to you after you hit the cards required minimum spend (an example would be: spend $4k in 90 days and earn 75k points). These points can in turn be transferred to different hotels and airlines to redeem for free stays and flights. 
5. Start with a single card, and learn how to manage it and utilize your points for maximum value before moving on to another card. This is a long term game, and you will find people who open 10+ credit cards each year for the points! Do NOT be intimidated by what others do, though! My husband and I are much more conservative, and we still have accrued enough points to take some really amazing trips. Last year, we opened 3 credit cards each and it gave us enough points to book 5 week long trips (one of them to Maui), plus get BOGO flights for 2 entire years on Southwest. 
6. When you apply for these cards, do not put your spouse or significant other as an authorized user or a co-owner of the card! Instead, have them open their own card, and boom- you now have TWICE the points to use! 

So, what is your first step? 

This card, right here. This is your very first card you want to open. The Chase Sapphire is the most valuable and flexible travel credit card, and should be your #1 card if you want to earn points to cash in for free hotels or flights. We use this card to stay at Hyatt hotels, and fly on Southwest flights for $0. And right now, there is an incredible elevated bonus of 100k points. 

So once you sign up, you are going to want to use this card for everything you buy. Again, remember to only use it to buy things you would normally be buying- never spend outside of your means- and then pay it off in full every single month. Once you hit the minimum spend, Chase will deposit your chunk of points into your account, and you will be ready to start planning your first free trip. 

We used these points to book an amazing resort in Hawaii for our anniversary trip that cost over $1,000 per night, but instead we paid 30k points (the current bonus on this card would get you 3 nights here for free!)

We also used these points to book 4 nights in this hotel in downtown Chicago, that would have cost us over $2,000, but instead we paid just 60k points for our stay. 

When you don’t have to pay for 7 nights in a hotel, a week-long trip becomes instantly more affordable, and will greatly reduce your family’s cost to travel! 

Once you have earned these valuable points, check out this post to learn about the best way to redeem these points for maximum value!  (coming soon!)

If you are on the fence, I encourage you to give it a try. Start with this single card, and once you earn your bonus points and book those free hotel nights, I promise you that you will be hooked. This truly has been life changing, and has allowed our family to take some really amazing trips that we would have had to spend years saving up for otherwise.