When you’re on vacation, the last thing you need is to worry about money. Going away is meant for relaxation and forgetting about reality, not stressing about what’s going on back home or if you can afford a souvenir.
Planning out your trip also includes saving. When you have your finances in order, it allows you to enjoy your vacation that much more.
Whether you’re planning your next trip right now or not for a few years, it’s never too early — or too late — to start saving. We have five strategies that will help you save up for your next getaway.
Have a Vacation Account
The money you’re saving needs to go somewhere, and bonus if it’s in an account that you cannot easily access. When you’re putting away money, look for high-yield savings accounts through the bank, or there are also apps that invest the money you put away. Either way, have a physical account that is separate from your everyday money.
Budget For the Trip
No matter where you look, if you’re talking about finances, you’ll likely come across the word budget. Budgets are one of the best ways to keep track of your finances and stay on par with your financial goals.
Create a budget that is meant for traveling. After you’ve covered all over your fixed and necessary expenses — think of your mortgage, utility bills, vehicle insurance — you can divide your money amongst your variable costs, such as entertainment, and clothing, and your vacation fund.
Remember, the point of this budget is to save for your trip. So, the more funds you can allocate to the vacation category, the more you’ll have to work with.
Make Cuts
If you’re going the budget route, you’ll likely come to terms with having to make some cuts. See how you can spend less on certain things like groceries, eating out, and buying random items.
Sell Stuff
Have you looked through your house lately to see what you can sell? Well, if you’re saving for a trip, then now is the time to do it. Take a look through every room and closet. Pull out items that you haven’t used or worn in a year or more. If you haven’t used it by now, you likely won’t ever use it. Put the items up for sale and deposit that money directly into your vacation fund.
Last Resort Small Loan
As the trip approaches and you’re short just a bit, there is the option of getting a small quick-turnaround loan. Now, this isn’t something to rely on or use all of the time. Instead, if you’re about to leave and shy a few dollars, you could take out this loan to cover the remaining expenses. Just make sure that you have the money to pay back the loan when you return; these types of lenders tend to have extremely high-interest rates that can hurt you in the long run.
Remember, regardless of your current financial situation, by employing a few smart planning strategies, you’ll have the ability to not only save for a vacation, but for anything else in life.
Photo Credit: Mario Mancuso
I’ve found that you can usually rent a condo cheaper from a owner than a regular hotel room. I know some people shun away from the condo rentals because of the deposits and cleaning fees, but even with all the fees added, I have always found a nice condo for less money. Plus almost all condos have washer and dryers, so no dirty laundry to do when you get home and its nice not to have to pack so much too.
We always carry a lot of our own food down in the cooler. I fix breakfast in the condo every morning that we are there with the only exception being the very last day, we are really too busy checking out and loading up the car. We just catch something on the road and head home. I carry down snacks, chips, bread and sandwich meats in case someone wants something else.
I start buying up the non-perishable items, like coffee, laundry detergent, extra roll of paper towels, paper plates and such about two months in advance, just an item or two every week at the grocery store. It just helps me from feeling like I just spent a fortune at the grocery store for breakfast and snacks. Plus you don’t have to fight the Saturday arrival crowds. Sometimes, we will run out and buy the eggs and bread when we get there, just because those items don’t travel well.
Most of the time, we had just a late breakfast, we don’t even eat a lunch, may just snack on something then we will go to dinner between 4-6 pm which is great because we can catch a lot of early bird specials.