You would love to travel, but it is just out of your budget, right? If you have credit cards in your wallet, you can earn free trips with a little bit of savvy. A free trip per year with accommodations is possible if you plan ahead and take advantage of the right deals.

This is how it works: find an airlines miles credit card that has a good sign up bonus. Spend the required minimum amount in the first 3 months. The best way to do this is to charge household expenses such as groceries, insurance payments, phone/internet bills, and other recurring monthly expenses. Read the payoff guidelines and be strategic about your payments to avoid interest charges. This varies by bank, so be careful.

Once you have met the minimum requirements for your airline miles card, find one that gives you points for hotels. Hilton, Starwood, and a variety of other hotel chains have cards that work the same way as the airline credit cards. Meet your minimum spending requirements by charging household expenses (and not carrying a balance), and get a nice points accumulation for free nights in a hotel.

Delta airlines has a recent partnership with AirBnB that works the same way. You can check out the new partnership here.

Once you have accumulated miles and hotel points, plan your trip. You want to plan in advance because you get more for your points when your trip is booked in advance. Off season travel also requires less miles than high season travel, so if you can squeeze time off in October or January, your points will take you further.

Note that I am not suggesting that anyone go into credit card debt or live beyond their means with credit cards. This is simply a strategy for earning a free trip.

Visit The Points Guy for the most current credit card offers.