VACATION

Save $193 per person
Redeem between February and April
While many airlines tout last-minute fares, the simplest ways to get the best price are to book far ahead; travel during “shoulder” seasons (just before and after peak travel times); and reserve your hotel, flight, and car all at the same time. Only 5 to 10 percent of an airline’s seats are reserved for fre-quent fliers, so if you want to get restricted frequent-flier tickets — the ones that eat the fewest miles — you’d better book about 11 months before your trip, as that’s when the airlines load seats into their computers, says Tim Winship, founder of www.travelocity.com, a site that provides information on mileage award programs. If you are paying for your seats and are willing to risk bad weather, it’s much cheaper to travel to popular destinations during shoulder seasons and to book hotel and flights as a package. Kari Swartz, a travel expert at the travel site Expedia, says that customers who book a hotel-and-flight package to one of its top 50 domestic and international destinations save an average of $193 on what they would have paid had they booked these separately. Shoulder trips — February in Europe, April in the Caribbean and ski country — can save up to $400 per person for a one-week vacation. Check sites like Travelocity (www.travelocity.com), www.expedia.com, and www.offpeaktraveler.com for deals. You may also be able to get discounted tickets through your company’s corporate-travel program or through SideStep (www.sidestep.com), which compares prices on different travel and airline sites.

HOLIDAY ITEMS

Save $32
Redeem seasonally
The average American household spends about $64 on holiday cards and gift wrap each year, according to the market-research firm Business Trend Analysts, in Commack, New York, and the most obvious seasonal sale on those items comes on December 26, when prices drop by 50 percent. On that day, suggests Deana Ricks, coauthor of Cheap Talk With the Frugal Friends: Over 500 Tips, Tricks and Creative Ideas for Saving Money (Starburst Publishers, $10), buy plain, one-color wrapping paper that you can use for any occasion, as well as items like Christmas-colored Hershey’s Kisses and M&M’s that you can freeze and use for other holidays — red for Valentine’s Day, for example, and green for Saint Patrick’s Day.