(Feature Impact) Weekend getaways and cross-country trips are supposed to offer a break from daily routines and financial stress. Yet for many travelers, the return home comes with an uncomfortable reality: the trip cost far more than expected. From luxurious dinners and spontaneous excursions to airport snacks and daily coffees, vacation spending is becoming increasingly difficult to control in an era of rising prices and experience-driven travel.

According to a survey conducted by TopCashback, a cash back site serving more than 20 million members worldwide to help people save as much money as possible on everyday spending, overspending while traveling is now the norm rather than the exception. Nearly 94% of respondents said they have spent more on vacation than originally planned, with more than 65% reporting they typically overspend by at least $250.

“Vacations should create memories, not money stress,” said Elisabella Ricca, personal finance and consumer analyst at TopCashback. “Giving yourself a spending plan before you travel can make it easier to enjoy the experience in the moment and avoid feeling guilty about the cost afterward.”

These findings reflect a growing disconnect between travel budgets and actual spending as vacationers navigate higher costs and pressure to make their trips feel worthwhile.

Inflation’s Impact On Travel Behaviors

Airfare, hotel rates, dining and entertainment costs are all climbing, forcing many households to rethink how often they take trips and what those trips look like. In fact, nearly 78% of respondents said rising travel costs have changed the way they vacation. Meanwhile, nearly 83% said they’re traveling less often altogether due to rising costs.

Travelers are Turning to Financing

These changing behaviors may also explain why financing vacations is becoming more common. The survey found 67% of respondents have used credit cards, financing plans or “buy now, pay later” services to pay for a vacation. While these tools can help make trips more accessible in the short term, they may also extend the financial impact of a vacation long after travelers return home.

Financial Stress After the Fun

For some travelers, that long-term effect is already being felt. More than 58% of survey respondents said they feel guilty at least sometimes about how much they spend on vacation, a feeling that often emerges after returning home and assessing purchases that seemed easier to justify while away from normal routines.

Small Purchases are Adding Up to Big Overspending

Vacation overspending rarely happens through one large purchase alone. Instead, smaller expenses accumulate steadily throughout the trip. For example, 53% of respondents said they’re most likely to spend more on coffee or drinks while traveling than they would at home, and another 53% said snacks are the common overspending culprit. These purchases may seem insignificant individually, but multiple small transactions each day can quickly add up.

Experiences Outweigh Luxury When Justifying Expenses

Even as travelers look for ways to cut costs, most remain willing to spend on experiences they view as meaningful. The survey found the top vacation splurges respondents are most likely to justify are fancy dinners (56%) and excursions or tours (48%). This suggests travelers are placing greater value on memorable moments rather than luxury, such as high-end accommodations.

Careful planning isn’t enough for most travelers to stay within a budget, as 59% of respondents said they set a vacation budget beforehand, signaling that overspending is often less about a lack of preparation and more about the realities of modern travel costs.

Nearly 90% of survey respondents said earning cash back or rewards on travel purchases would influence their spending decisions at least slightly. As people look for a better way to manage expenses and offset costs, many are turning to programs such as TopCashback, which offers travel-related cash back on airfare and last-minute flights, vacation packages, hotels and lodging, transportation and parking, car rentals, travel insurance, cruises, resorts and more.

To learn how cash back programs could help you stay within your next vacation budget, visit topcashback.com.

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SOURCE:
TopCashback

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Summer is supposed to be the season of yes: yes to rooftop drinks, weekend flights, beach clubs, festivals, and finally trying that hobby you’ve been bookmarking since January. But according to a new Dating.com analysis, the “main character summer” lifestyle can come with a very real price tag—especially if you’re paying for everything on your own.

Dating.com’s latest report, Dating.com Reveals the Most Expensive Cities to Be Single in Summer 2026, looked at 50 popular destinations worldwide and ranked them by what it calls a Single Tax Score—a composite measure of the costs singles are likely to face during peak summer months.

Why being single can cost more than you think

The study builds on Dating.com’s earlier findings that 43% of singles focus on self-care—from gym memberships and skincare to solo dates and travel. At the same time, 41% of singles say they’d feel less lonely if they had more money, underscoring how financial flexibility can influence how often people can say yes to experiences that build connection.

Dating.com’s resident therapist, Jaime Bronstein, LCSW, notes that the assumption “single = cheaper” often doesn’t hold up. Couples can split rent, transportation, meals, and entertainment, while singles absorb the full cost alone—plus summer’s calendar tends to be packed with higher-priced social events and trips.

The 10 most expensive cities to be single in Summer 2026

Here are the top destinations where the summer “single tax” hits hardest, based on Dating.com’s ranking.

1) Miami (Single Tax Score: 75)

Miami takes the top spot thanks to steep nightlife and entertainment costs. Dating.com estimates:

• $110 for a solo date night
• $200/night for beach clubs and nightlife venues
• $280/night average summer hotel rates

2) New York (74)

New York lands at #2 with high costs across nearly every category:

• $115 average solo date night
• $380/night average summer hotel rates

Even without flight costs for locals, accommodation and social spending push NYC near the top.

3) Mykonos (72)

Europe’s most expensive destination for singles on the list, Mykonos is priced like a fantasy:

• $1,900 average summer flights from New York
• $280/night beach club and nightlife costs (highest in the study)
• $300/night average hotels

4) Las Vegas (70)

Vegas is built for entertainment—and the bill reflects it:

• $250 average festival/concert tickets (highest among the top ten)
• $180/night nightlife costs
• $145/night average hotels (relatively affordable, but spending adds up fast)

5) Boston (67)

Boston’s biggest driver is lodging:

• $390/night average summer hotel stays (highest of any city in the top ten)
• $108 average solo date night

6) Maldives (64)

A classic “romantic” destination that gets especially expensive solo:

• $480/night average hotels (highest in the top ten)
• $1,300 average summer flights from New York
• $124 average solo date night

7) San Francisco (62)

San Francisco remains costly for both travel and everyday experiences:

• $820 average flights from London
• $100 typical solo date
• $245/night average hotels

8) Los Angeles (61)

LA’s premium social scene pushes it into the top ten:

• $100 average solo date night
• $820 average flights from London
• $22 average rooftop cocktail

9) London (61)

London’s costs are driven by international travel and peak-season lodging:

• $1,900 average flights from New York
• $295/night average hotels
• $108 average solo date

10) Santorini (61)

Like Mykonos, Santorini’s popularity inflates nearly every summer expense:

• $1,900 average flights from New York
• $160/night beach club and nightlife costs
• $310/night average hotels

What to watch for (and how to plan smarter)

The takeaway isn’t “don’t travel” or “don’t go out.” It’s that destination choice can dramatically change the cost of a solo summer, and singles may want to budget differently than couples.

If you’re planning a solo trip (or just trying to make the most of where you live), consider:

• Swapping one premium hotspot for a value city (the ranking includes lower-cost options like Bangkok, Medellín, Mexico City, and Kuala Lumpur)
• Prioritizing experiences that don’t scale with group size (museums, walking tours, day trips, free festivals)
• Booking lodging early in high-demand cities where hotels are doing the most damage

As Bronstein emphasizes, being single isn’t a problem to solve—and solo experiences can be just as meaningful as romantic ones. The goal is to make sure your summer plans support your life, not stress your wallet.

Methodology (in plain English)

Dating.com reviewed 50 popular destinations and analyzed costs associated with being single in summer, including:

• Date night costs for one person
• Summer hotel rates
• Summer flight costs
• Rooftop cocktail prices
• Festival and concert ticket prices
• Beach club costs
• Pet-related surcharges
• Other seasonal leisure expenses

Each factor was normalized on a 0–1 scale (with 1 representing the highest cost), then combined into a final score to rank cities from most to least expensive for singles.

Source: Dating.com, via PRNewswire (June 25, 2026)

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(Tiffany Miller) For years, homeownership was pitched as the finish line. Save for the down payment, buy the house and build wealth over time. According to new research from Unlock, a company that helps homeowners access the equity in their home, 75% of U.S. homeowners say they have no plan to buy or sell a home this year. That sounds like stability. But as the research reveals, it is starting to feel more like stagnation.

Owning a home turns out to cost more than people thought it would, according to the survey of 2,003 homeowners in the United States, conducted in January 2026. The research found that 65% of U.S. homeowners say it is more expensive than what they expected before they bought. The math goes past the mortgage. Nationwide, property taxes climbed 41% between 2018 and 2025, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, with home insurance, maintenance and everyday costs piling on top.

Homeowners are cutting back in places that used to be off-limits. Twenty-two percent of respondents reported putting less into retirement to keep up with the cost of owning their home. Another 33% are putting off bigger purchases, like a car. These are not inconsequential cuts. They are cuts to the financial goals owning a home is supposed to make easier in the first place, like building a nest egg, growing an emergency fund or saving for the future.

The pressure shows up in the present, too. Nearly a third of homeowners have less than $1,000 in emergency fund savings. More than half say day-to-day expenses are causing significant stress in their lives.

It is not only about cutting back or feeling stressed about day-to-day expenses. The survey found 19% of U.S. homeowners say they would rather double their commute time to work than take on another monthly payment. For homeowners already paying a mortgage, insurance, taxes and maintenance, another bill ranks below an extra hour in traffic.

Costs are only half the story. Homeowners are also sitting on real wealth, though they cannot always say how much. The survey found almost half of U.S. homeowners are not sure how much equity they have built up in their home, including 28% who say they are not sure how to find out. The average mortgaged home in the U.S. holds about $299,000 in equity, according to Cotality, a data and analytics company.

Ask homeowners how they feel about having equity in their homes and the answers do not quite line up. Sixty percent say the option to leverage home equity provides an extra level of financial security. Yet 48% say they view home equity as long-term wealth and retirement security, and would only leverage it as a last resort. They want the option there. They just do not want to use it.

The result is a kind of holding pattern. Homeowners are paying more, staying put in homes they cannot easily afford to leave and sitting on wealth they would rather not disturb. The usual options come with a catch. Selling means moving. Refinancing means giving up a low locked-in mortgage rate. According to Realtor.com, 51.5% of outstanding U.S. mortgages still carry rates at or below 4%. Taking out a home equity line of credit or home equity loan adds another monthly payment. Each option asks for something homeowners are trying to avoid. The open question is whether the standard options are still the only options. What used to look like a financial finish line is starting to look more like a treadmill.

Methodology

Unlock commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 2,003 homeowners in the United States. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Fieldwork was conducted from Jan. 24-30, 2026. Atomik Research, part of 4media group, is a creative market research agency.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

SOURCE:
Unlock

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