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Are you a skilled couponer? Lyn shares how to use your couponing mindset to not just earn free boxes of cereal but to fly your whole family for free!
Want to make more family travel memories without breaking the bank? Longtime travel journalist Lyn Mettler shares her top tips to help families quickly and easily travel for less using rewards points and inspires you with ideas of where to travel on your next vacation.
Do you love to travel and
save money or do you wish
you could travel, but money is
holding you back?
You're in the right place.
Welcome to the Families Fly Free
podcast, where I show you
how to fly your family free
forever using my simple
Fly Free Formula.
I'm your host Lyn Mettler.
My family of four has mastered
the art of flying free as simply
as possible since 2015.
And I want to show your family how
to do it too.
Hello. Hello everyone.
Welcome back to the Families
Fly Free podcast.
I am your host Lyn
Mettler.
So this week
we are going to talk about
couponing.
So why couponing
on a travel-saving podcast?
Well, it's because it requires
the exact same mindset
and skillset to be able
to travel for free
as it does to stack coupons
and save a bundle on your groceries
and at the drugstore and even
make money back on some of those
things. So I love to talk
about this topic because people who
love to coupon are the
perfect candidate to be
able to travel for free
with their whole family if that's
something that they're interested in
doing.
And the stakes and the
rewards are here are so
much better than it is
with couponing, you end
up with free trips
for the rest of your life versus,
you know, a stack of free
boxes of cereal or toothpaste
or fill-in-the-blank. But I was personally a couponer. And I think that that is why miles and points and travel rewards really appealed to me. I could see the connection between the two. That was really a light bulb moment for me. I you know, back in the days of extreme couponing, I definitely
really got into that hobby
and followed lots of different
sites. And I printed out coupons
and I literally would go look in
recycling bins for coupons
and I would have my family save
their coupons for me.
When we lived in South Carolina,
they had many different grocery
stores there in the Charleston area,
including Publix and Publix would
like double your coupons and they
would match competitors and
you could really do some damage
down there.
And so I really enjoyed it.
Seeing that was a time where
my family could definitely not
afford to travel
and we were trying to make ends
meet, you know, for a young family
of four. And so by me being
able to shave off, you know,
hundreds of dollars on our grocery
bill was a tremendous
help. And it really was
fun to learn how to do that.
And so when I came across
travel rewards using frequent
flier miles to fly for free,
and this whole concept of
you could collect those miles
without paying for flights,
I really saw it as, Oh my
gosh, this is like the couponing
of travel.
But literally, yeah, instead of
stacking up, you know, free
toothpaste, I'm stacking up
potentially if this thing works,
you know, the ability for my family
to take trips for free.
And so I was bound and determined
that I was going to figure out if
this really did work or not.
And here we are many, many
years later, and it totally
works. It's still working.
But so I wanted to just
talk about how the two are similar
and the skill sets and mindsets
that you have as a couponer,
or even if you're just someone who
likes to find a good deal, like
you never want to pay full price for
anything you always want to find,
you know what's the best possible
deal you can get on something.
That's really the same mindset that
a lot of us have that are
flying for free.
We are looking to see how
much we can get for
how little, and that's really
the game and it really is becomes
kind of a game because you
enjoy this
learning and seeing truly
how much you can get for how little
that becomes sort of the art of it.
So when I talk about and compare
couponing to travel
rewards, I always like to
use the example of
Doritos and how I would go about
getting the cheapest price, just say
for Doritos for my
family back in my couponing days and
what that's how that compares
to flying free. So, you know,
when you're couponing, the
first thing that you learn
how to do is to know what a good
price is on any
particular product.
And so you learn that
by watching it over time.
You look at the sale books for
all the different drugstores and
grocery stores and you
see like, oh, okay.
Doritos rock bottom
price, and goodness knows, in
today's inflation, I don't think I'd
ever find it for a dollar 99, but
I used to combine.
That would be the rock bottom price
for Doritos and usually it would be
like around Memorial Day or it'd be
around the Super Bowl or times
when people are getting together and
having those kind of snack-type
of items as a gathering party-type
scenarios.
So I knew from studying
the sale books that I wasn't
going to find a better deal than a
dollar 99 on Doritos.
So that means that when
Doritos go on sale for
a dollar 99, I
need to grab up all the Doritos
that I'm going to need until
I think the next sale is going to
come along. So maybe at
the Super Bowl time, I get enough to
last me through Memorial Day because
I'm never going to pay lower than
that. So it's understanding
the rock bottom price and then it's
understanding and knowing
when they're on sale
and they reach that price.
And then, you know to buy
then.
You don't buy one they're $4.99.
You wait until the sale.
I used to would even go to
because there's many different
grocery stores in that area, I
would look at the sale books for
each grocery store and I had
a baby at the time and so
we had our day of the week and he
would come with me and we would just
hit all the different stores and I
would buy the products
at each store where they were the
cheapest.
So it gave us like our morning out
and then we got some really good
deals by making sure we
paid the least possible for each
product, by buying it at the store
where it was the cheapest.
And the same really applies,
you know, with flying free
too. Because here's
the reason why I talk about
Southwest so much is because they
are the airline that's the cheapest
in most cases.
You can, nine times out of ten,
they are going to be the one.
So that's kind of where that comes
into play.
Then the next thing you do is
you have a coupon, right?
So if I've got coupons for Doritos
that I've been saving up, maybe
again, my family shared with me
their coupon for Doritos
and then I got it from my own
newspaper and I pulled some from the
recycling bin.
There were even back in the day,
maybe there are still, sites where
you could buy coupons for
less than what they were worth in
bulk. So maybe you have all these
coupons saved up and when they
go on sale, I take them to the store
and now I'm buying Doritos, not just
at a dollar 99, but I'm applying a
coupon to it, let's say for $0.50.
So now I'm getting it for a dollar
49.
And that is going to be the best
deal I'll ever
probably find on Doritos.
And so we've taken multiple
steps there. We've learned the rock
bottom price.
We've looked for it to be on sale,
and that's when we're taking action.
We have saved up our coupons
and then we go buy when
it's on sale and we use our coupons
and we buy enough to get us through
to the next time.
So here's how that is similar to
flying for free.
Number one, I always recommend
that you understand the rock-bottom
price for destinations that
you want to fly to.
So I recommend
sitting down with your family,
making a list.
This is kind of like making your
plans for where you want to travel
in the next year, and maybe you've
already done that per my earlier
podcast, but make a list
of places that you want to go and
places that you need to go.
So maybe you need to go visit kids
in college or you need to go visit
your parents or for work.
You're going to have to travel here
or there. But then also list the
places that you're interested in
going, even if you don't think
you're going to go this year, it
doesn't hurt to start getting a feel
for what is the price the airfare
going to be from your airport
or even a nearby airport if you're
willing to check those as well and
drive to a nearby airport, they
may have cheaper fares.
Keep an eye on those prices.
And I recommend checking on Tuesdays
because Tuesdays are when airfares
tend to be at their lowest.
That's a good solid data check.
Put it on your to-do list.
Do a quick check of
what the airfare is
to destinations that you want to go.
And we have a spreadsheet even that
you can keep track of that inside of
Families Fly Free.
And so then over time you start to
learn, okay, I always check
Southwest, of course, because I know
that's what we're going to fly, but
I can know, okay, the cheapest
I'm ever going to see to Orlando
from Indianapolis is 2500
points per way.
So I'm always looking at it in
points because I'm never paying
dollars to fly,
but I want to buy when the points
are lowest.
So I'm looking for the lowest points
price and then I can even get a
sense of what's a high, what's
at the highest I would
pay and I know I don't want to pay that. So that's step number one, understanding what a good fare is to the places that you want to go. And then the second one is to watch for when the fares hit that point. And so this could be when the airline's having a sale it. Could be when there's competition going on between airlines. So we see that a whole lot going to Hawaii.
You know, if Hawaiian drops a price
on some routes, then Southwest
usually matches or vice versa.
And so that's something
that we keep an eye on inside of
Families Fly Free, particularly when
it comes to Southwest, because
you can even if you already booked a
flight with them, you can rebook
it and get your points back
in your account if the points price
has gone down since you originally
booked it.
And so we let our members know like,
Oh, there's a really good sale to
Hawaii right now.
So but sometimes these only last,
you know, a matter of hours.
Sometimes they last a couple of
days, but not usually
longer than that.
You need to be able to take quick
action.
So having a system
to check for sales,
and that's where Families Fly Free,
one of many great benefits, is you
don't have to worry about that.
You know that we will alert you
on your phone or via email,
whichever you prefer
when that happens.
And so you can know to go check
and take immediate action.
So there's sometimes
during the year, not a lot when
Southwest prices tend to just
really go down and we watch
those prices.
Overall, over time, I've been
watching them, you know, since 2015.
So I know
when it's a good sale.
A lot of their sales are not good.
They say it's a sale, it's nothing
great.
And so we do let everyone know
that there's a sale this week.
But it's really ho-hum, you know.
Sure. Check and make sure prices
haven't dropped.
First flight, you're already booked,
But we're not seeing any great deals
out there. And then there's times
where like book now the prices
are amazing!
So we saw one of those last we've
seen was in October.
We had nothing's come around since
that lasted maybe a day
or two.
And there were some amazing, amazing
deals during that sale.
So sometimes we see one
coming up here in late
winter for beaches and
tropical destinations.
So maybe that one will
come around, we'll be letting our
members know if so.
And to go book quickly before
the prices, before the
flights sell out.
So that's number two, watching for
sales, knowing
when to take action.
Number third, Number
three, when we were talking about
couponing, is pairing it with a
coupon.
So our coupons here are
our miles and points.
So that's why we're always saving
up miles and points under my
system.
We're not opening cards
all the time to get big chunks of
points. Instead, we're choosing
the everyday spending card that's
right for our family and our
family's goals and the points
we want to earn and the
places we want to go.
And we're replenishing constantly
through our everyday spending.
And by doing that, we're always
stacking up coupons so that
we have them ready to go when
these sales hit.
And when we see, and sometimes the
price drops when it's not during
a sale, you just have to keep
an eye on it and even we'll see
on Southwest sales, the
destinations they promote is on sale
or is on sale sometimes there's
other ones they don't even promote
that are really good deals.
So you just never know and you
need to keep an eye on it.
So when we see a sale, we see
a deal that's good.
We want to take our points and
we want to book.
And on Southwest
again, one of many reasons to
that they are so great.
If you want to fly a lot of places
for free and bring a lot of people
with you, is that you can
cancel a flight with them.
You can change a flight with
them at any time
with no penalty.
The only restriction there is
you have to have canceled a flight
at least 10 minutes before it takes
off in order to avoid losing
your points or losing what you
spent.
And because we always teach you to
book Southwest in points,
what that means is when I see a
good deal on a flight
to somewhere that I want to go,
I should grab it because it doesn't
hurt me to do that.
I can book it in points and then
later on, if we decide that we're
not going to take that flight, no
problem, we just cancel it and the
points go right back in our account.
There is no penalty.
But I need to hold that points
price because I may not see it again
or it may be months before I see it
again.
And so I do this all the time
and there's so many flights that I
cancel that we never take, but it
never hurts to grab those flights
just in case we do want to take
them. We now have them.
And that is a very important
mindset that I think that you
need to develop in order
to be successful at flying free
is is exactly that.
You need to be able to grab
something when you see it.
You need to grab a deal when you see
it. You can't be someone who sits
around, you know, and
weighs all every single pro
and con and detail and, oh, I
don't know, go and do this.
There's no harm in doing this.
You lose nothing.
You spend your points, and if you
don't want to take it, you
cancel and get your points back.
And a lot of our members tell us
when they first join, they're very
nervous about booking
their flights because they've
been trained, as we all have,
because is how it works in every
other airline.
When you book a flight, you're
locked in. That's it.
So you want to be very sure that
you're definitely going to take that
flight and that everyone's on
board and you don't see
any potential issues
coming up that you would need to
cancel. The dates are exactly right
before you book and you're locked
in. It's not the case on Southwest,
which is so great for families in
case something comes up, in case
somebody gets sick or you have a
change of plans or you
know, you're going to meet,
you know, another family or you're
meeting extended family there.
And they need to change the dates
around a little bit.
You can be flexible.
You can move things if you need
to. Now, you will pay, if you can,
to move it to a different date.
And the points price is higher.
You'll pay that higher price.
But there's no change fee.
There's no penalty for doing that.
So that's a big thing to keep in
mind. So that's the pairing it with
a coupon part.
And then again, just the constant
collection of miles.
So we are knowing a good
airfare to where we want to go.
We are having a system where
we know when there's good deals on
our chosen airline
and system, and then
three, we have a system to stack
up plenty of miles and points
so that when we see that good deal,
we are able to jump on it.
Now, I want to talk a little bit
about the mindset and
the skill set here.
I mentioned being able to
act quickly, be decisive,
go with your gut.
Sometimes you have to take a little
bit of a leap there.
And if you have someone like us
who are experts in this, who know
how it works and we're
telling you it's okay, that can
help alleviate a lot of the anxiety
and stress that you're doing
something wrong or you're
locking yourself in and all of that.
And you can always, as a member,
ask us any questions at any
moment that
you're not sure, should I do this,
Should I do this?
Or you can post in our community and
other members will reassure you.
No, no, no. We do this all the time.
All of that can help.
The other couple of mindsets that
work really well with couponing
that translate over into
flying for free is
understanding that
you have to spend
some money sometimes
to make even more
money on the other side.
So I love to use the
example of CVS.
If you have CVS near
you, if not, maybe you have a
similar drugstore.
But when you're couponing, the way
CVS works is they
give you back CVS
Extrabucks and these are,
you know, dollars that
you can use to buy things at CVS
in the future.
And so the deal here a lot of
times and especially it would be on
like Black Friday, there'd be like a
million deals. You could just go
into CVS and you get all this stuff
free, really end up with all these
CVS bucks.
But what it means is sometimes you
have to spend like, I
might need to spend $2
to buy the item at CVS
in order to get $3 in
Extrabucks back.
So that's a net positive for me.
I made a dollar on that that I'm
going to be able to use to buy
whatever I need at CVS in the
future.
And it's but I
did have to hand them some
money first to get that net
positive.
And so you have to understand that.
So that comes to play with
travel rewards in a
couple different ways.
So one concern I hear a lot
of people have is, is we do
recommend, of course, that you sign
up for a couple of strategic
travel credit cards and those
travel credit cards are going to
have an annual fee.
And so people will be like, I don't
want to pay the annual fee to get,
you know, miles and points.
Okay.
So like most of the
cards that we recommend have
about a $95 annual
fee on average.
So if you follow our
system and
you are going to end up with
thousands and thousands
of dollars in free
flights, but you did have
to outlay $95
in order to get those free flights.
That is a super duper net positive
for you.
But you have to be okay with
understanding.
It takes that a little bit of
investment and it's going to take
that across, you know, two or three
cards in order to get that
full net positive
back.
Another example would be
like on the Capital One Venture X
card, which we
like that card for certain people
who have certain goals
and like certain modes of travel.
But for example, on that card,
you're going to spend
a $395
annual fee.
And yeah, that's an
outlay that you're going to have to
pay at the front end.
But on the back end
you get a $300 travel
credit when you book through their
system. You can book almost any
hotel, airline, car
rental, whatever, through there.
And then every year they're going to
give you 10,000 of their rewards
that are worth $100.
So you just
came out a little bit positive
on that one by about $5.
And then it has some other perks,
too, like a free TSA Precheck.
So if you use that, you're going to
be even further in the positive
column.
And it's worth having this card
because, again, that's
like a net,
you're even on that one if you don't
use the TSA Precheck.
But you still get some things like
Priority Pass lounge access at the
airport. That's a huge perk that
you're basically paying nothing for.
So can you see the benefit
of doing that?
Now the other place this comes to
play is if you're deciding to join
Families Fly Free, it costs
money to join Families Fly Free
because we offer tremendous
value, amazing
personal support, and it's
just overall an incredible program,
just full of valuable
content, alerts
about all of these deals.
You know, so many live
webinars and personalized
plans and just so many
great perks and features
of Families Fly Free.
So it does cost money, but we
guarantee that on
the other side you're going to save
at least double what it costs
in travel. You're going to save at
least double in travel than
what you paid to join Families Fly
Free.
So that's like handing
me a dollar and me
guaranteeing I will hand you back
two, and you might get back
ten.
A lot of our members save.
We see them save on average $7,500
in the first year and we've had
members save $10,000, $11,000.
And I just saved $14,000
in 2022 on
flights following my simple
system.
So is it worth it
to invest this money in
the membership in order to save
guaranteed double that
amount?
You have to have a mindset that
understands the value of that.
If you can't see that,
sometimes you have to invest
something to get a whole lot more
back, then you're not going to be
successful at travel rewards.
If you can't have the ability
to jump on a deal when you see
it. And again, if it's just
a factor of you don't trust that
it's right, something like Families
Fly Free can help reassure you
that you're doing the right thing so
you don't have to spend all that
time weighing all the pros
and cons hemming and hawing around
you can take action.
So those are a couple of skills
and mindsets and,
you know, steps that couponers
take that translate so,
so well to being able
to fly free. So all of my couponers
out there, I was right there
with you.
This you're going to love flying
free if you've never done
this before.
You're going to take all those
skills that you already know how to
do and you're going to apply them
to allowing your family
to be able to not just drive
places, but be able
to fly anywhere that you
want to go. If you follow my system,
we'll show you how to do it within
the U.S., the Caribbean, and
to Europe as much as you want.
And this is going to be a game
that is going to be fun.
You're going to be amazed at
what you are able to accomplish
by just having the right mindset
and the right skill set.
All right.
So come take
step one, all my couponers
and start learning how you can fly
your family free.
And everyone else, I
will see you on the next episode.
Have a great week.
If you're ready to fly your family
free forever, I
invite you to join my
Families Fly Free membership.
You'll learn how to stop paying for
airfare throughout the U.S.,
Caribbean and Europe so you can
make those priceless family
travel memories before your
kids or even your grandkids
leave home for good.
And you'll learn it using my simple,
proven formula that's helped
hundreds of families.
Plus, it's risk-free.
You either get your investment in
the membership back in free travel,
or I give you your money back.
You can get more information at
Families Fly Free dot com
slash join.