Saving money at the airport

09/08/2014 10:52

As my granddad used to say, your holiday begins as soon as you close the front door, and it doesn't end until you open your front door again. With that in mind, it's worth remembering that your airport experience is actually part of your overall holiday experience, so it's a good idea to try and make this a memorable one for all of the right reasons. One of the best ways to do that is to not treat it as the money pit that it actually can be. Here are some ways to stop you from wasting all of your spending money at the London Gatwick North Terminal.

The first thing you need to take on board to get you into the right mindset for saving money, is to remember that once you have checked your bags in and passed airport security, you are in effect trapped until your flight and therefore at the mercy of the over inflated prices of pretty much everything that is available to buy. Therefore in order to succeed you need to keep your airport purchases to a minimum. The airport knows that you have holiday spending money burning a hole in your pocket and it will try it's best to lure you in and part with it. And you used to think it was cool that there was a Porsche 911 Turbo being raffled for just £10 per ticket in the terminal building…

Due to recent airport regulations you have to be careful with the amount of liquid that you take with you onto an airplane. Therefore the likelihood is that you will have to buy something to drink at the airport. All drinks - including bottled water - will be expensive here, but remember that they will be twice as expensive still when you board the plane (not to mention about half of the size as well). So buy an overpriced bottle of water from WHSmiths as this is a bit of a necessity. With regards to food, there is no limit on what you can bring to the airport. Therefore make your sandwiches at home, or even buy them from your local supermarket if you prefer. Either way, it will be cheaper to do that than to buy anything from the airport. If you have to buy food at the airport, then avoid the trendy airport bars and clubs, and head to somewhere like McDonald's or Burger King where the prices are the same nationwide. Admittedly it's not the healthiest food available, but neither are the fish and chips that you would have bought from Yates'. Plus it's only once and after all - you are on holiday.

So after having something to eat and a drink for the plane, if you are really savvy with regards to not wasting money then you should not spend any more money at the airport. Magazines, refreshments, sweets and books should have been purchased elsewhere for half the price. If you did forget and you have to buy something like that, then remember how much it costs and you won't forget next time you go on holiday. If you only remember one thing from reading this, remember the following paragraph.

Never under any circumstances waste your money on luggage padlocks, insect repellent, travel adaptors or sun cream by purchasing it at an airport. All of these are available considerable cheaper pretty much anywhere else on the planet. Even though sun cream can be expensive on holiday if you buy the UK versions of it, it'll still be cheaper at your destination than it will in the airport. Everything else can be bought from pound shops before you go to the airport. If you get to the airport without a luggage padlock, then don't bother purchasing one as any of these can be easily opened for inspection anyway, and due to the advice given by airports about not letting your bags out of your sight until they are checked in, it's unlikely that any strangers are going to be rummaging through your bags.