Sarah Metlova
Planning A Family Vacation On A Budget – It has always been important for our family to take vacations. We try to take vacations a few times a year, if only for the weekend. However, in recent years, I have been able to take a long family vacation of two weeks (within my budget). People keep asking how to make things happen, but the truth is, anyone can do it. Here’s an overview of how to make this happen for your family.
*This post contains affiliate links through which I can earn a commission. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Planning A Family Vacation On A Budget
The first advice I can give if travel is important to you is to lower your cost of living and prioritize travel.
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Ultimately, this means finding ways to spend less money each month so you can save more money for travel.
For our family, this meant a major lifestyle change as we downsized our home and lost over 2,000 square feet. (Less cleaning time!)
Downsizing was a pretty big undertaking, but there are many things you can do to reduce the amount you spend each month.
Too many people see this idea as depriving themselves of a small luxury, and they quickly grow weary of it. My point is, set your priorities. Decide what you want to spend the most money on.
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If you’re on a tight budget and want to bring the whole family on a trip, it’s a good idea to start looking for affordable places.
Of course, you can always spend time on vacations like Disneyland, but that’s probably not the money you can spend each year.
Of course, the rest of the steps still apply, even if you want a more expensive vacation. But for those who want to do it every year, my best advice is to find something affordable in your price range that will last forever. USA on the 10th. A destination no one talks about.
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Once you have decided on a location, plan ahead. Planning ahead means getting an idea of how much your flight, gas, and rental car will cost. So you’re calculating hotel and Airbnb rates. (Airbnb saves $40.)
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If you buy groceries or eat out, be sure to include it in your expenses.
Not sure how much food costs? Let’s take a look at your current monthly food budget. How much do you spend on average when eating out?
Given current trends, you can definitely estimate how much money you’ll spend on a vacation in the same area.
When I start planning a vacation, I like to write everything down in front of me. That’s why I included a vacation planner in my fun-sized budget pack. This print is completely free to download. Please click here.
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One of the best things you can do before planning a big family vacation is to decide what you want to spend and what you want to spend it on.
For example, eating out may not be that important to you. Airbnb allows you to prepare most meals yourself. Perhaps you wouldn’t even consider sharing an Airbnb with other family members to save money?
Again, privacy is very important to you and you may want to be able to purchase nice accommodations with full pools so you can save on sights and excursions. .
Deciding in advance where your vacation expenses will be prioritized will give you more peace of mind when planning your spending.
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Pay attention to the benefits of off-season travel! Tom and I could travel to Nashville for under $1000 if she traveled in February. The weather was still nice so we were able to avoid most of the crowds!
I’ve also done this in more tropical locations. Our wedding anniversary is in June, so we saved a lot on trips to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, etc. We pushed each other a few times, which I didn’t like.
So when deciding when and where to go, try to find the best and most affordable time to travel to a particular destination.
After adding transportation, food, hotels, and excursions, add up the total. So many people omit spending or don’t take the time to carefully plan their vacation expenses that they have to use their credit cards to budget.
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To cover your efforts, be sure to go over your budget and set realistic savings goals so you can secure his two weeks off without stress or debt.
For those looking to track and record their savings, there’s also a vacation savings tracker included in the fun-sized budget package.
Once you have determined your savings amount, set up automatic savings. This is done through his CapitalOne360 savings account online.
To find out how much you need to save per paycheck, start with your calculated savings target. Then divide that amount by the number of payslips you received before your scheduled travel date.
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For example, if the vacation is exactly one year away and he gets paid twice a month, he will get paid about 24 times between now and Friday.
Divide the total budget (for example, $3,000) by the number of salaries (24). 3000 / 24 = 125. That means you’ll automatically need to save $125 per paycheck to hit your $3000 goal by the deadline. Get started with CapitalOne360.
Keep that in mind if you are planning a long vacation. You can definitely include part of your budget in your vacation spending plan, as you would for two weeks or more.
If you’re not currently using monthly budgets, we highly recommend using the Fun Size Budget Pack. A free guide is included so you can get started with easy budget planning right away.
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For example, we typically spend about $150 a week on groceries. If you’re out on vacation for two weeks, instead of budgeting the full $300, take some time off and budget $200 for vacation instead.
I do this because it’s a good idea to completely empty your fridge and pantry before going on a long vacation. This means that when you get home, you will have less food to work with than you normally would.
So be sure to leave a small shopping bag when you go home. Get the Budget Pack first.
I’m slowly entering the world of travel hacking. It’s very exciting, but I feel you have to love spreadsheets to be successful. However, this is not entirely true.
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I just signed up for a Delta SkyMiles credit card with a $200 discount. Use my link for signup bonus. Then I made sure I charged (and paid) the amount I needed to earn the bonus points. By doing just that, I was able to travel to Washington DC completely free and get a free hotel room.
If you want to learn more about travel hacking terminology, check out our travel hacking guide for beginners.
We’ve talked about budgeting for food and lodging, but what about fun things like shopping, souvenirs, and drinking here and there?
I personally love to do a little organizing before I go on a trip and set aside a little money for the trip. Kids tend to make a mess around the house all the time, but letting them know they can make some fun money while traveling can make it easier.
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List your products on Facebook Marketplace and Mercari, or sell used books and DVDs at your local used bookstore.
It may not be a lot of money, but an extra $100 won’t hurt anyone, right?
To stay on budget and easily track your spending, we recommend getting a Cash App account or using a PayPal debit card.
The Money app works similarly to PayPal and Venmo in that you can send and receive money from people. But with a Cash App debit card, you can easily send money and track your balance with an app on your phone.
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This makes it very easy to stick to your holiday budget. Instead of calculating and tracking every purchase, simply log into the app to see how much is left in your budget.
BONUS – Also offers a cash card through the Cash app
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