Saving for a trip
Whether you are planning a trip to Disney, New York, France or a road trip, you need to prepare yourself financially. Here are some things to take into consideration:
- Gas, car rental, highway tolls (if traveling to France for e.g.)
- Food (restaurants, grocery store)
- Plane tickets (if flying)
- Lodging (hotel, bed and breakfast, rentals like vrbo or Airbnb)
Here are the steps that I follow. Estimate the cost/amount for each category. Depending on the overall cost of your trip, you may want to start saving 6 months, a year or even two years before your trip. For our family of 6, I typically start saving for a trip abroad 12 to 24 months before our trip.
An important step is to dedicate a saving account to vacation savings. Now how do you fill that savings account? Here are some ways that I have saved for our family vacations:
- Choose a realistic fixed amount that you will be automatically be transferred from your checking to your vacation account every week. You might be only able to do $10 a week or maybe you can transfer $50 a week depending on your finances.
- Declutter and have a yard sale or sale unwanted items on ebay or Facebook Marketplace.
- Put a portion of your tax refund aside for vacations
- Redeem credit card points for a visa giftcard
- Redeem points for flights or hotel rooms
- Have a lean week (shop your pantry or challenge yourself to spend less on groceries) and put the difference in your vacation account
- Add your extra/loose change to a savings jar
Encourage yourself with a fun chart that tracks your savings progress, you can do this!
Each square can mean $5, $10, whatever helps you feel hopeful and on track!
A bientot!
