we’re just insanely rich-my travel hacking journey

“How do you guys travel so much?”

“We are just insanely rich!” 😉

If I had a quarter for every time someone asked me how we afford to travel so much, I would be, as the title reads, “insanely rich.” Unfortunately, life doesn’t just hand out quarters for things like obnoxious questions and being extremely rich isn’t how we afford to travel as much as we do.

So, what’s my secret? I travel hack! Despite it sounding like some money laundering scam to rip off old people, it’s 0% shady and even less glamorous (see following paragraph about hauling kids to store after store) than it sounds.

First a little history. I jumped into this hobby full speed over 6 years ago after chit chatting with my cousin and her telling me of several fancy schmancy trips she had planned despite being poor college students. We are talking front of the plane to Europe fancy here.

I remember how she mentioned they had gotten some credit cards for the points and miles and used those bonuses to cover their flights. The entire time I was thinking that she had fallen into a dark and terrible world of debt and imminent financial ruin; plus everyone knows having credit cards is actually a sin! Anyway, long story short, and lots of conversations and research later, I was applying for my own credit cards and before I knew it, I had like 50 plus shiny hunks of plastic attached to my social security number, which, pro tip, also work great for scraping ice off of a frosty winter window.

With this discovery came a new full time job of hauling 4 young kids around town for hours on end, store after store after store and melt down after meltdown after meltdown to get those points.

My new hobby also impacted my relationship. Things I never thought I would fight with my husband about sounded like this:

“You bought that energy drink with your debit card? I don’t know if I can live with this betrayal!”

And

“They ‘had a special offer at Cabellas when you opened a new store Visa card’ ???? Do you even care about 5/24?”

Anywayyy, travel hacking is my life. Not only do I have bajillions of miles to travel all over, slight exaggeration on the quantity, I have met more amazing people through this hobby, many of whom I call my closest and dearest friends.

My intention for my website is not to turn it into another travel hacking blog, though; there are tons of them already on the internet with much better information than what I can offer. I do want to be open and transparent about how we travel so often. I want to share the different redemptions I use/used to get to wherever the heck we went/are going, and more than anything, I want to show you all that you can do it too!