If you’re writing off business expenses (that you have NOT been reimbursed for by your employer, of course) this year, don’t forget about your travel expenses! I just dug the receipts out for my airfare and hotel in Las Vegas out of my laptop bag…I knew there was a good reason for saving those things. I wouldn’t have been in Las Vegas if not for the PayPerPost / Blog Expo conferences, which is related to my blogging income, and therefore, tax deductible. My total for airfare was $507.70, and my hotel was $843. Of course, I’m only deducting the things I have receipts for, which means all of the food I bought related to the trip won’t be going onto my taxes. I didn’t think to save any of those receipts.

Travel expenses related to charity work are also deductible. I not only donated money to the 3-Day for Breast Cancer last year, I walked in it as well. I had hotel expenses related to the walk (we paid for a hotel when our campsite was rained out, rather than sleeping on the concrete floor of a stinky, loud parking garage) and I can deduct the cost of the hotel under the charity section of Turbo Tax.

If you’re spending thousands of dollars on your dream vacation, it makes sense to spend a few extra dollars on insurance to protect you, especially if you’re traveling outside of your home country. What would happen to you if you injured yourself on that trek through the rain forest in Belize? What would happen if you feel ill in Prague? Do you think the local doctors are covered under your regular insurance? I don’t think Blue Cross Blue Shield has that far of a reach!

I’ve seen people get sick on trips and end up paying BIG bucks for medical care they received. There was the guy on our cruise who had heart issues while snorkling, and the family member who fell ill in Panama. Getting sick in another country equals big bills for you - can you imagine the bills if your insurance company only covered 50% of your claim…or nothing at all?

Travel medical insurance can cost you as little as $1 a day, and the cost is well worth the coverage you’ll get. Maybe nothing will happen on your trip…but peace of mind is worth the money. For a FREE Quote, click here, and let your next trip only cost you the cash for airfare, hotel, and food - not a hospital bed.

When I was making my travel arrangements for Boston, I called a local car service to inquire about the cost of getting from Logan Airport to my destination. It’s only about a 45 minute trip, with traffic, so you can imagine my surprise when I was quoted $120 - ONE WAY! I can take the shuttle from Tampa airport just as far for under $40. And before you go saying “big city prices”, I checked rates for New York City by Googling “airport service NYC” and I found rates for a LIMO for half of what I was quoted for a regular car pick up. It makes me wish I was flying into NYC - for $70, I’d have a driver with a sign waiting for me at baggage claim, and I could ride into Manhattan in style!

A friend asked me last week how we booked our cruises. We’ve been on quite a few, and the last few I’ve booked on a site called CruisesOnly.com. I love, love, LOVE this site because they always have fantastic deals, and they feature all of the major cruise lines. You can usually find the same price, if not better that you’d get by booking through the cruise line directly, and they also offer special deals (like shipboard credit) that most of the cruise lines won’t offer you. We booked a cruise through the site a few years ago, and between the time we booked and the time of our trip, the cruise price dropped. I called Cruises Only and mentioned it and they sent me a credit for the difference!

My husband and will be heading off for a beach weekend in August, ALL by ourselves! The reason for the trip is to attend my husband’s 20th high school reunion. It’s being held at a resort on Clearwater Beach, in Clearwater, FL. The resort is high priced - normally $300 for a suite, but thanks to the reunion organizers, we got our suite for half of that. The first night will be an informal night at a local restaurant, and the 2nd evening is a banquet and dance.

Even though the events aren’t until the evening, I plan on taking advantage of my time at the beach. We’ll be leaving home on the morning of the event so we can spend the day on the beach before schmoozing that night.

If you haven’t checked out the sample sizes aisle at your local store - do it! We hit the one at Target on Sunday and found a lot of useful items for our vacation next week:

• Mini jugs of Tide - 4 loads for 99 cents! The last time I did laundry in a hotel, I put $1.00 into a vending machine for a one use box of powdered detergent. That’s all well and good if you’re traveling alone, or only with one other person, or if you only need to do laundry once during your trip. But we’re going to be gone for over a week and there are 6 of us. I bought two little mini jugs and they’re small enough to pack, and I’m saving money!
• Toothbrush covers - both the tube kind which encase your whole toothbrush, or the snap on head type that only protect the head. (Those snap on head covers are great for the kids bigger electric toothbrushes.)
• A small bottle of hand sanitizer with a loop attached to it so that it can be hooked onto a purse or keychain - 99 cents!

The sample aisle is also a great place to get stocking stuffers for Christmas, or things to fill gift baskets!

We used my Priceline tip last night from my list of 6 tips to save money traveling. We needed to rent a minivan for our 9 days in Canada next month. I researched prices at all of the major companies using Sidestep.com, and then figured out which company was the lowest - that was Budget. Their price per day, not including tax, was $35.

We went to Priceline and put in our airport location (Detroit) and dates, flight times, etc, and selected a minivan. We put in our price per day as $20. Priceline will add taxes and fees to this, so don’t include those in your price per day. Our initial bid was rejected, but we knew it was a long shot. We were asked to adjust one of our options - the car type, pickup or drop off dates, or location - we can’t change any of those, so how do you get around that? I ended up making a new request, and I put it all in my name this time, and used my own credit card (everything was in my husband’s name on our first request.) For my 2nd request, I upp’ed the price we were willing to pay to $25 (still a deal, remember - the cheapest company wanted $35 a day) and we found out in a minute our bid was accepted.

The company that accepted our bid wasn’t the cheapest - in fact, they were one of the more expensive, quoting almost $600 total including taxes and fees for our 9 day rental. Our total by using Priceline though, will be only $300! Not bad for a 9 day minivan rental with unlimited miles, from a major rental car company.