7 Ways to Make Your Vacation Pay for Itself

Keep Calm and Barter On

Back in April, I went to Costa Rica with my friend, who's also a freelance writer. We became friends with a local hostel owner, and one afternoon, he told us over Imperial Light cervezas that he wanted us to help him with all of his social media stuff—his website, his Instagram, everything. "As writers," he said, "You ladies could surely give me a hand. Are you up for it?" We told him yes—but with one condition: He had to hook us up with on-the-house surf lessons from Miguel, the hostel's super cute instructor. Sold!

My friend and I had just officially discovered the barter system, an amazing way to get what you want without exchanging physical dollars. To try out the tip yourself, just pinpoint your most marketable skill when you're traveling, and keep your eyes peeled for places you can use it to get what you want. If you're a photographer, for instance, see if your host family wants a portrait taken, or maybe your hotel needs updated pictures for its website. If you're good at makeup or hair, ask the front-desk people if you can give the guests makeovers in exchange for free meals (or whatever). The point is, don't be so quick to pay up when you're out and about. Look around, see if there are any holes you can fill, and fill them—you just may get filled up with a free meal in return.

Put Your Apartment on Airbnb, but Charge More Than Your Rent

Let's say you pay $1,200 per month in rent. Now, let's say you put your place on Airbnb for $1,500 a month, and someone agrees to pay that amount. Do the math: You not only earned back all of your rent money, which you can put toward your vacation, you also earned more [margarita] money than you would have in your pocket if you stayed put.

To be clear, this does not make you a thief, a swindler, or, worst of all, a Bad Person. It makes you normal, because listen: People do it. It's the unspoken status quo. And while this is usually not a reason to follow suit (bridge, jump, etc.), it is in this scenario for two reasons. First of all, Airbnb charges a 3 percent host service fee every time a guest pays you, meaning you need to charge a little more anyways or else you'll end up in the red. But second, Airbnb is practically built on the ability to crowdsource your way to a sweet deal. You'll know if your apartment is reasonably priced simply because guests will not rent it otherwise. As a result, your task is this: Start by listing your apartment for a couple hundred dollars more than your monthly rent, and work your way back. If someone sends you a request to book your apartment at that price, go with it. And if you throw out a big number and no one's biting? Take it down a notch until you find your sweet spot.

If you're still racked with Airbnb guilt, think of it this way: Right now, Airbnb has more than 500,000 unique listings available in more than 33,000 cities and 192 countries—and of all of those possibilities, your guest chose you. He wants your place. Not someone else's—yours. For the price you listed. He wouldn't have contacted you if he didn't think your place was worth it. So … it is. End of discussion.

Find a Free Place to Stay

You can start with house or cat sitting. In today's "this actually exists" news, there are a couple of websites—MindMyHouse and HouseCarers—that match up house sitters with homeowners around the globe for free. You sign up to be a sitter for a homeowner who is traveling for some time, and all you usually have to do is take care of their pets, water their plants, and do any other random maintenance tasks.

Along those same lines, I went to Costa Rica back in April and met an Argentinian traveler there who was staying at his hostel for zero charge. He was working at the hostel during the day, cleaning and doing various maintenance jobs and whatnot, in exchange for a room at night. So basically, he got to refresh his travel fund and chill out in Costa Rica in the process: a legit (and stealable) setup!

Try WWOOFing

It's pretty safe to assume you've heard of "voluntourism," or volunteer tourism, in which you forgo traditional vacation activities like beachside lounging and museum hopping and volunteer your time and services abroad and stateside, instead. Right now, there are countless ways to do it—and groups to do it through. You can teach English as a second language through organizations like International Volunteer HQ, build houses and schools in developing communities through groups like Madventurer, or even teach local youths how to surf through groups like Waves for Development, to name a few.

Our latest favorite, though, is WWOOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It's a large network of various nonprofit organizations around the world that connects you with local organic farms and growers. The idea is that you can sign up to stay as a volunteer with a host farm, where you'll usually do about four to six hours per day of manual labor—sowing seeds, making compost, gardening, etc.—in exchange for that day's room and board. While the length of your stay is to be negotiated between you and your host farm, most volunteers end up staying for one to two weeks.

If you want to try WWOOFing, your first task is to choose where you want to go, and then join the corresponding WWOOF organization (each country has a separate group). Right now, there are more than 50 countries that have their own WWOOF organizations—from Malawi to Nepal to Tanzania—so you definitely have options! Each organization has its own membership fee, but most are around $20 to $40 per year. And there are 45 countries that don't have official organizations, though they do have hosts; these countries are called WWOOF Independents. To get involved with them, just sign up to be a member of WWOOF Independents (it's about $25 per year), and then you'll have access to all of their info.

Hit Up Tinder

When you're traveling in a new place, it's tempting to sign up for one of those guided tours in your area so you can get in on the local knowledge. But there's a way to sidestep those pricey tour fees and get the info for free: Use Tinder. While you probably think the popular Facebook and GPS-based dating app is just a hookup app, it can help you save money, too, if you use it the right way.

Of course, before going any further, it's important to note that if you choose to use Tinder while traveling, you have to think about your safety first. After all, you're meeting up with people you don't know, which can be potentially unsafe wherever you are—but even more so if you're not familiar with the area. To be sure you're Tindering wisely, always meet in a public place first. You should not, under any circumstances, meet at someone's apartment without having already met him or her. Also, don't engage with people who ask for your personal info (like your credit card number or your home address). Finally, if you want to be extra cautious, you can set up a separate Facebook account specifically for your Tinder, and even create a new email address for the account. Put as little info on there as you can, so people won't be able to do any sort of stalking. You can even do a double date with your travel pal.

Once you've taken proper Tinder precautions, though, start swiping. When I was in Costa Rica, on that same freelance trip where I bartered my way to surf lessons, I went on Tinder and started chatting with a lot of locals. I quickly realized that, surprisingly, most of them actually weren't in it for the hookup: They were just eager to play tour guide. When we met up, we got to know each other first, and then they brought me to all of the local insider spots—the bars with the cheapest drinks, the beaches that don't overcharge you for coconut water—and also told me which tourist activities were actually worth the prices and which were total scams. And get this: I didn't hook up with any of them. When you use Tinder abroad, it's just as much a friendship app as a dating app. So in the end, I not only got a free tour, but I also discovered the non-touristy places to go. And, of course, I made a bunch of new travel friends. Win.

Find Random Jobs on Craigslist

Sadly, TaskRabbit, the online marketplace that allows users to outsource random tasks to other people, doesn't exist around the country (though they say they're currently working on making that happen). If it did, you could just be a "task rabbit" for people in your area to score some extra cash. The next best thing? Use Craigslist. Just find your country—Craigslist is available around the globe—and then go to the "Services" section. There, you'll find all sorts of random jobs you can do in the area that will not only help you earn money but could also be cool and different ways to explore the city you're in.

Case in point: I signed on to the Manchester, England, Craigslist page (just because I knew I speak the language!). Under "Services," there was a headline: "Anyone in Manchester looking to make up to 100 pounds today?" Clearly, this poster read my mind, so I clicked on his ad, and it turned out that he wanted to pay someone to stand in line for the new iPhone 6. That was all. "Looking for people to queue for the new iPhone 6—would pay up to 50 pounds (about $81) per phone. You do not have to pay for anything, all you have to do is queue," he wrote. So simple! And although I didn't stand in that line myself, the person who did probably also ended up meeting some really cool, interesting locals while standing in that line—locals who quite possibly clued him or her in on the coolest drum and bass club to hit up later that night. Just saying.

Of course, with Craigslist you also have to be careful. So follow the Tinder precautions mentioned earlier before dealing with strangers.

Make Your Credit Card Pay for Your Plane Ticket

It's a destination duh: The more money you put on your credit card, the more mileage points you'll earn. But what you may not know is that there are a couple of easy ways to hack the system so that as long as you pay your bill in full and on time, you don't necessarily have to buy more to score more miles. Consider this: When possible, always use your credit card to pay for things, rather than your debit card or cash, so you earn points on as much as you can. What's more, at group dinners, tell your friends that you'll put the entire meal on your credit card, and then collect cash from each of them. That way, you're indirectly using their sushi dinner to pay for your flight to Japan.

Another option is to buy a whole bunch of stuff online, and then sell it quickly on Amazon. You'll get the money right back—but you'll still have scored a bunch of points in the meantime. And, finally, you can sign up for multiple travel rewards cards, specifically ones with great sign-up bonuses (some of them offer up to 50,000 mileage points simply for signing up). You can even sign up for the same credit card more than once, and then cancel it when the annual fee comes along. Not only will you get a sweet sign-up bonus each time, you may even raise your score if you pay your bills on time, because you'll boost your credit history.

So now you know. It's not only totally doable to make your vacation pay for itself, you can also have a good time in the process. Get on it.

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