Although the UK can be an expensive place to travel, there are many ways you can reduce costs and save money on your road trip. If you want to avoid overspending, consider all the expenses, set up a budget and get yourselves clued up beforehand with our top tips for saving.

  1. Create a budget

Total the number of days and miles of your trip and then create your budget for fuel, vehicle costings, food, drinks and sightseeing.

If your budget is tight, you need to prioritise. Figure out what’s more important for you: the best food or staying in a nice hotel? Maybe you want to visit numerous attractions and don’t care if you’re camping and cooking out of the back of your car for a week. Do what works best for you.

Share out your money accordingly, applying the bulk of it towards those prioritised activities. This way you won’t overspend or have to limit yourself from doing things you want to.

  1. Automatically transfer to savings

If you’re serious about your efforts to fund your travels, once you’ve worked out how much you can realistically save, set up a standing order to automatically transfer certain amounts of money to your savings every month or two weeks. Try to avoid using this money in the run up to your road trip.

  1. Your car

Having your own car is a huge advantage when it comes to road trips because this enables you to reach idyllic spots that are impossible to get to via public transport.

If you’re a young driver or have recently passed your test, you're probably now on the hunt for a car. There are many options for you online, from eBay to Auto trader as well as local car garages close to home. But don’t panic if you’re worried about affording your trip and car insurance at once. Insurance with a black box could help you save a lot of money. Black box insurance works when your car is fitted with a black box device which records speed and the time of day or night that you are on the road. The device will also assess your driving style by monitoring braking and accelerating to build up a comprehensive profile of you as a driver. This could stop you facing an eye-watering insurance quote and allow you to put more money towards your road trip.

  1. Track your spending

Money doesn’t have to be stressful and neither does effective money management. The stress begins when you’re too afraid to check your balance and have lost track of what your money is doing.

Tracking your expenses is important and is vital towards helping you save for your trip. Put aside a day on the weekend and go through your accounts, find out what your finances look like and see what you can cut back on each month. Write down everything from how much you spend on food a week, to entertainment and so on.

Money doesn’t have to be stressful and neither does effective money management. The stress begins when you’re too afraid to check your balance and have lost track of what your money is doing.

  1. Set up shop

Do you have a house full of stuff you don’t use? Clothes you’ve never worn, old CDs and DVDs? Sell them. You’ll be surprised at how nice a declutter too. Even if you don’t make a fortune from what you sell, you will still be able to add some extra money to your road trip fund.

We hope you manage to get your trip together! For now, enjoy the holidays and have a Merry Christmas.