Woman’s ‘life changing’ hack shows how one backpack is all the luggage you need
A mum who shares travel hacks on social media has revealed how to pack a week’s worth of holiday gear into a single backpack.
Jenna Carr, 33, regularly travels with her husband and son to various European hotspots on a shoestring budget.
In a TikTok video, Carr, from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, explains that they are travelling to Tenerife with small rucksacks to keep the trip ‘super cheap’.
“I’ve got no idea what the weather’s going to be like so I’m packing a variety of things. I’ve got a woolly dress, I’ve got a little dress, I’ve got a playsuit, I’ve got a bikini and a swimsuit,” she says. “The trick is to roll everything into tiny little parcels and ram them in there.”
She then packs a zip back with liquids and another with make-up and closes up the bag. For footwear, she packs a small pair of sandals in her backpack and wears either a pair of trainers or bigger boots on the plane.
Carr adds that she also takes a supermarket carrier bag that she puts in all the things that she will need to take out at security, such as electronics, and claims she’s ‘never had an issue’ carrying that with her.
“Travelling like this as a family honestly saves so much money,” she adds. “Is it tight? Yes, but we get to go on more holidays.”
The video has been viewed nearly 17,000 times and has received dozens of comments praising Carr for the hack.
“This is exactly what I do. Loads more trips that way,” one person wrote, while another said: “It’s easily doable! Did a month in Thailand with a similar size rucksack! It’s life changing when you figure how to do it.”
Carr was going for a four-day trip, and one person asked if she would still pack this way if she were going for longer.
“We can pack like this for up to about 10 nights – then any longer we will pay for one carry-on case between us. Still a lot cheaper than check in,” she explained.
Carr often shares travel tips on her page, with some videos viewed over one million times. One of her more recent videos outlines a 28-day savings plan that she follows in order to save £406 for her next trip.
The hack involves saving just £1 on the first day, £2 on the second day, £3 on the third day and so on, which will leave you with an over £400 saving by the end of the four week period.
One user suggested doing the plan backwards, so you’re saving more money at the start and less at the end to make it feel more feasible.