Taking a vacation is great. You get to relax, leave behind work stress and spend some quality time with your family. Unfortunately, traveling and vacations also take a heavy toll on your savings. Vacations don’t necessarily have to cost an arm and a leg. Here are a few things you can do to minimize your costs.

Buy a local cell phone connection: Never ever use international roaming. Not even for receiving text messages. It’s always more economical to buy a local prepaid cell phone connection to use. International calls will cost you less and so will the local ones. If you’re a believer in using Internet through your phone, it will be cheaper too.

Eat at your hotel: Try to find a hotel deal with meals included in it. Usually hotel packages have one meal included in them. If you have one or more meals in your hotel package then use it. Passing up the hotel meal to eat at a restaurant is a waste of a good meal and money.

Avoid high end dining. The idea is to sightsee and explore a new country; not eat at expensive foreign restaurants. Eating fast foods or at local cafes will save you money.

Avoid souvenir shops: Souvenir shops are notorious for ripping people off. Don’t go to popular souvenir shops and avoid hotel souvenir shops like the plague. Instead, find shops off the beaten path. Bargain, haggle and depending on which country you’re in, start bargaining at half price.

Another point to ponder is to avoid buying souvenirs at all. Anything you buy – even if it’s just a scarf from India is a souvenir. It just isn’t a miniature of Taj Mahal but it’s a beautifully woven handmade scarf from India all the same.

Exchange currency before leaving: It’s always smart to exchange your currency into the currency of the country you’ll be visiting. If you wait to reach your destination to get your currency changed, it might cost you more in terms of exchange rate. Do your research into what the services charges will be if you use your credit/debit card abroad and how beneficial traveler’s checks will be.

Buy tickets early: When buying airfare for international travels, it’s often better to buy tickets at least 6 months in advance. The closer to your departure date you buy tickets, the more they will cost. Find out what the off seasons are for your airlines and then buy when the fares are low. If you’re traveling in winter then buy your tickets in the summer or earlier.

If you find the prices have dropped after you’ve purchased your ticket, contact your airline. Most airlines have a policy that returns the balance to you. Don’t forget to research different airlines before buying your ticket.