By Lisa Nelsen-Woods | Leave A Comment
I consider a summer vacation my reward for surviving yet another gloomy winter and rainy spring. Constantly daydreaming about where we may go for summer fun is my incentive to skip the little extras and put that money in a special savings account we have set aside for our summer vacation.
Saving here and there for our vacation is a family affair. I put a photo of our destination on the refrigerator as a family reminder of why we do things like skip a delivery pizza and make our own at home, so we can put that bit of money in our summer vacation fund.
Four Money Saving Tips
1. Pack a lunch! Put the money you save by not eating out for lunch into a special saving account set aside for your vacation. If you need more incentive to pack your lunch, try printing a free Lunch It Punch It card. After packing 10 lunches and marking it on your card, you reward yourself with a lunch out.
2. Staycation one year splurge the next. Staycations don’t have to stink! A vacation fun is how you make it. Condo Blues has some great ideas on making staycations fun and memorable.
3. Use a credit card that accumulates “rewards” (points or cash rebates) and use those points for paying for your airfare, hotel, or gas. Make sure you pay the credit card off each month so you don’t accumulate extra interest and debit.
4. Consider a temporary job. I have a friend who uses a few of her vacation days to work at the Ohio State Fair ticket booth each. She uses that paycheck as her vacation fund and treats her husband and herself to a few days in Vegas during the off season.
How do you save money for your summer vacation?
ABOUT Lisa Nelsen-Woods
I use my thrifty ways to live big on a little budget. I put myself through college and the only debt{read more}
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All great ideas, but what works best for us is a savings account. We have $30 a week automatically deposited there specifically for summer vacations. A year’s worth of $30 is a big dent in a big vacation or completely pays for a smaller one, and we’re so used to the money coming out of our paycheck that we don’t even notice it anymore.
For years we didn’t have much of a vacation as our kids were growing up because we didn’t have the money. We had a saving account but never could bring ourselves to use it for things like vacations. We thought of that account as saving for a rainy day, an emergency, etc. We learned that even if you save, it is nice to have separate accounts for Christmas and travel with money deposited regularly for those specific purposes. Online banking is an excellent tool for this. It is fun to watch your special accounts growing.
Then we looked at what was getting us into debt. It turned out to be unexpected minor household repairs and car maintenance and repairs. This was when we set up specific accounts for those things. Within a short time we were paying ourselves instead of the credit card company. Budgeting your savings is as important as budgeting your expenditures. In some cases maybe even more so.
The key is consistency and saying no to yourself once in awhile, but not all the time. There has to be a balance. It took me 43 years of marriage to hone in on what works best for us. Now things run pretty smoothly and my husband and I are on the same page. This is good news since we both just retired and now can enjoy our time traveling if we wish. Not extravagantly, but with money already allocated for it, in the bank to cover the cost, it is not a financial burden or worry. We also recognized years ago that vacations are not frivolous, they are needed and a must for us.
Thanks for sharing our site with your readers! By packing my lunch daily, I’m able to sock away extra money to my kitchen renovation.
One great idea is to get 1 of those saving jars they sell in Asian stores that can’t be opened unless you break it. So all you have to do is place money, any amount, in it every day as a family vacation fund….get the whole family involved after picking a vacation spot so everyone know where they are contributing to. You’ll be surprised how much will be collected when you crack it open