My Annual Shopping Spree at Dillard’s

For the past 7 or 8 years I’ve gone shopping on Jan 1 at Dillard’s, and I usually buy the majority of my clothes for the year during that one sale.

I don’t think I’ve ever walked out of Dillard’s from a Jan 1 sale with less than 15 items of clothing (usually 20 or 25), and I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than an average of $20 per item that would normally have cost $60 to $100.

Even better, because they have so many name-brands to choose from, I can be 10 times more discerning than any other time of the year when shopping for clothing.

$60 Levi’s jeans for $20? Not when I can get $150 Armanis for $28

Dress shirts I buy range from $12 to $26 and I only buy brands people don’t bat an eye at paying $75 to $150 for any other day of the year.

I rarely even bother giving my kids clothes for Christmas any more because I know I won’t find a better deal than what I find for them on Jan 1st.

As I was walking out of the store feeling like Santa with a huge bag of goodies slung over my shoulder, I realized something…

Finding a good deal on vacations is a lot like shopping.

Sure, you can “wait until you’re ready” to search for flights to Cabo like everyone else does, and you can pay what everyone thinks is a good price.

Or…

If you can be flexible on where you want to go,you could find flights and an all-inclusive resort for the exact same price as what procrastinating travelers pay (if not less).

you could fly to Belize or Aruba AND stay for 7 nights for even less than what most people pay for a flight alone to Cabo.

Depending on how long you’ve got for a vacation, you could spend even less for flights and lodging for a couple weeks in Europe or Asia.

Much like buying summer clothes during winter sales, if you plan vacation time around when you find an amazing deal (vs expecting to find an amazing deal to a specific place at a specific time) – you can save mind-boggling volumes of money. (That only works if you plan ahead though.)

Decide to try a new credit card once a year in return for 50,000 to 100,000 frequent flyer points, and the game changes even more.

Make the following 3 things a priority and I promise — you’ll save more on your next vacation than you ever thought possible.

1. Watch for deals every day. (Don’t have a system for finding deals every day, and don’t want to pay for my premium service that does it for you? Here is a blog post about how to do it yourself for free.)

2. Don’t look for trips that fit your vacation schedule. (That’s a sucker’s bet, and you’ll lose more times than not.) Instead, find trips that are 75% to 98% less than you were expecting to pay and adjust your vacation schedule to take advantage of them.

3. Be flexible on when & where you’re willing to go. (Sometimes, this can be as simple as going from Thursday to Thursday instead of Saturday to Saturday.)

(Extra credit): Throw your old point-earning card in a drawer, get a new credit card that will give you bonus miles worth $1000 to $4000 just for spending 20 minutes switching to their card, and save your newfound miles for a rainy day. You never know when those miles will come in handy, but there will come a day that you really need them, and you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t have them. (You know what they say about planting a tree…)

HEY, I’M JOEL…

I was already a pretty savvy “budget” traveler 12 years ago (well, I THOUGHT I was.) Now, more than a decade later, after lots of practice and trial-and-error, I've added luxury travel on points into the mix, and the days of budget vacations are long behind me.

My wife and I not only travel 2- 3 times as often for the same budget as what I used to spend, but we do so in 4 & 5-star resorts. When we fly internationally, we fly in business or first-class.

The JGOOT Way of Travel has helped thousands of clients improve how they travel, and many will never go back to "the traditional way" again... Ready to learn how to do it yourself? Get the JGOOT book!

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