Happy Sunday!!  I apologize for the delay here in announcing our HotelClub giveaway winners, but unfortunately we didn’t have the proper time earlier to sit down and really give the entries a good review before finalizing our favorites (and I’m glad we waited cuz y’all had some GREAT tips!!! Check them all out in the comments!).  The last four days we’ve been doing wedding stuff for a friend, and celebrating our own 4-year anniversary (woo!), and now we’re ready to announce the winners :)

Before I put them out here though, I just have to say again how AWESOME these travel tips were that you guys came up with. Seriously, it was a really hard decision for us to make, and in the end we chose the ones that singled out a specific good tip AND had some good flair about them all (the creativity part).  We also picked those that were different from the rest of the pack – even though they all were super helpful (and now I remember why I love *random* giveaways so much too – they’re so much easier to do! haha… ;))

So, without further ado, here are the two $500 HotelClub winners!  CONGRATS!

1. Jen from The Happy Homeowner! Who is the new owner of $500 in HotelClub rewards! Her travel tip is as follows:
   

   I’m surprised that nobody’s mentioned it yet, but I LIVE by this rule while traveling (actually, in most realms of life…haha):

   GET OFF THE BEATEN PATH!!

   Not only will you most likely get to experience a location like a true “local,” but you’ll save boatloads by not being sucked into the typical tourist traps/areas where prices are overly inflated. It also helps that navigating this way provides endless opportunity for adventure after adventure…

   After all, you never know when the little old lady you met at the cafe will invite you over for authentic Spanish paella and when you go to her house, you realize she’s a local celebrity and she & her friends fall in love with your sense of adventure then immediately invite you to their homes, businesses, etc. (true story! I netted free meals, excursions, places to stay, etc. Thankfully I wasn’t sold into some sort of slave trade… hehe)

2. Amiyrah from 4 Hats and Frugal! The new owner of $500 in cash :) She wrote up an excellent blog post – And CHALLENGE, at that – for saving money while out there traveling. I’d never heard of this before, but we loved it!
   

   My kick ass money saving tip is to use gift cards as your make-shift meal plan. The gift cards automatically give you a budget or price point for each meal, and it gives you the challenge of using the gift card as the only means of payment and not pull out cash or your credit card. I elaborated on this tip (when to use the cards, where you can get them from for free, etc) on my blog: Money Saving Travel Tip – Gift Cards

Again, y’all had some KILLER tips out there so thanks so much for participating!  I honestly learned a lot :)  And while we don’t have any prizes for 2nd or 3rd places, I do want to give a shout out to Michelle, Wendy T, Cristalle and Griffin who gave the winners a run for their money – well done!

Until next time, keep on saving those pennies! And big thanks again to HotelClub for hooking us up!