Last week I pumped you up about going to Disney World, which I realize for some of you was probably not ideal since your budget screamed you would be staying at home this year. I get it. That’s okay – we aren’t going on an extravagant vacation this year either because of some family responsibilities. But in the spirit of making sure you are able to make the most of whatever your vacation plans are, I wanted to spend some time today offering some tips on how to save for a great vacation.
Getting Started
Let’s set the groundwork first. To make sure you set goals that are within your limits, let me remind you of what a true and complete goal must be S.M.A.R.T.:
- Specific
- Measureable
- Attainable
- Reasonable
- Timebound
In other words, if you’re setting the goal to go to Hawaii for a three-month getaway by saving $100 from each paycheck, that just won’t work (unless you already happen to live in Hawaii). Make sure you’re not going overboard on what is a good way to save for vacation.
Do the Math…and Make the Math Work!
It amazes me what most people I counsel who have gone way into debt for a big vacation tell me. They almost always say, “I needed/deserved it.” My response – “do you also deserve the stress and difficulty you’ve put yourself in now by bringing home all these bills?” If you can only save $100 per month toward vacation, go on the absolute best vacation that budget will afford you. Remember, we’re trying to relax, see a new place and build memories. Vacation shouldn’t be a contest to see how much money you can spend.
Shop for Deals
There are tons of websites dedicated to getting the best deal on vacations. Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Hotels.com, Kayak.com, Priceline, etc., etc. I don’t endorse any of these sites specifically, but I do generally check them all before I book tickets for travel. I’ve used a couple of them and if nothing else, they get you looking at options for cheaper hotels, airfare, etc. Don’t just assume one place has the best deal – check around.
Go with Friends/Family
If you can’t get along with your family, skip this idea. Totally not worth it. But if you like hanging out with your family or have some close friends who are up for it, why not travel together? If driving, you can split the gas money. At dinner, share (or if possible, cook it yourself as an adventure). We’ve traveled with family and friends many times and it is always a fun way to build the relationships and save some money.
Go Off-Season
If you have kids in school, this can be tough. Otherwise, think about this: hotel rooms in touristy places are usually 30% or more higher during peak times than in off-season. As you read this, I’ve just returned from Las Vegas on a business trip where rooms were advertised at “as little as $59 per night” at my hotel but the absolute lowest rate while I was there was $159 because it is Spring Break and Trade Show season for Vegas. If you can avoid peak times, do so. It will be less crowded (making better use of your time) and much cheaper.
Let Your Kids Help
My home is a dictatorship. Mommy and Daddy are in charge. When Annie gets to choose an activity, it is a BIG deal for her. I love the look in her eyes when I tell her she can pick what we do on our daddy-daughter dates. She loves it. So let your kids dream. Give your kids an amount of money for the family vacation and let them help plan it. Other than making them giddy with excitement, it will do two things: 1) give them a dose of reality on how much things cost and, 2) help build problem solving and critical thinking skills as they try to figure out something fun to do on a budget.
Hi, Barry. Thanks for all of your informative posts on financial matters. I do love to read about these topics, but I have to admit that I don’t always put them into practice. One of these days, I’ll get it all organized!
P.S. – we are going to Disney World! My husband is on a business trip in Orlando, and he will have a few days off between conferences, so we (8-year-old daughter and I) are flying out to join him on Wednesday (yes, THIS Wednesday). Any suggestions on how to plan our day(s) if we only have a day or two at Disney World? We are lucky to have the funds to do this, but not having a plan for what to see is worrying me. My father was a big planner and he used to say, “You need to have a plan, even if you don’t follow it.” 🙂
Plans rock…Stacy’s quote. 🙂
You two are the best! Love Stacy and enjoy the heck out of your advice column 🙂 Barry. Nothing the two of you suggest is every oppressive or so ridiculously “creative” that anyone should run away. You suggest what pretty much what I do whenever we travel, which in our situation is focused on “reasonable” and yet just going is a super indulgence, so I make sure we plan it as “cleverly” as possible, that way we don’t have to constantly think about “saving” and “being careful” while indulging! We only have one meal a day in a restaurant but I try to find a way to make one of the other meals a part of the “tone” of the trip. We try to use public transportation and make it a part of the adventure. Everyone has a budget for purchases and we work together to have fun with that too! Truth is, I always kick in a small “gift” near the end of the trip of something they wanted but couldn’t afford as an added thrill (planned in my budget as well.) In fact….I’m pretty sure my children have more fun tales to tell than a lot of other kids! Planned and frugal trips are JUST AS MUCH FUN if you organize and then relax!
Planned and frugal. That’s our language!
We love to get away, and we budget for it. But our budget is small. So we do the best we can w what we have! We homeschool, so our vacations are always off season. A bigger bonus than the price….waaaay less people. We dislike crowds. With 2 wild kiddos, we do not like staying in hotels….too much worrying about the kids pinging off the walls, and nowhere for the pinging to go! We found that alot of koa kampgrounds have little cabins! (and a night in a 2 bedroom cabin is less than two rooms in a hotel!). Ahhhh, the kids can explore outside, and most have playgrounds and trails! Wonderful! And, no one is on the other side of the wall, so them being noisy just annoys us, not the neighbors! Another bonus to the cabins, many have kitchenettes! I like to cook extra with our meals and freeze it for another day….and so we bring these frozen meals w us, and I can thaw them and warm them on the stove, pop them into a crockpot we brought with, or cook them over an open fire! (bring marshmallows and/or smores makings, too!). We save $ by eating at least bfast and dinner at the cabin. We have also packed lunches and snacks to take with us, but often, we do like to eat local foods at least once a day, and lunch is usually cheaper than dinner.
We’ve also rented small vacation homes (or larger, when sharing w friends or family). Again, they have a kitchen, so we cook. If traveling w family, we each get a meal or two we are in charge of cooking. And everyone gets a day to clean the kitchen. That way, the same people aren’t always cooking and/or cleaning, and it feels more relaxing! Several of the vacation homes we’ve rented have had pools, which is great for exhausting the children who like to ping, thus allowing them a great night’s sleep!
We do like to see cities, historical sites, museums, parks, etc. Some are more expensive than others. We plan those according to our budget. If there is little $ left after our cabin and gas $, we do more free stuff. Some vacations, we pay only gas, and travel and stay w several friends (or family), so we have more $ for sight seeing.
Without planning it, we usually get A TON of school done, as the kids get to learn soooo much from where we are visiting! We stayed at the beach a few yrs back, the week AFTER labor day. We ended up seeing soooo many cool things in and around the water, then we spent an hr+ ea day, researching what we’d seen! And we took flashlights to the beach one night, just to see the crabs scurrying about. I think that was my favorite time! Another time, we rode in an Amish buggy, then because it was not too busy (ahem, off season), the driver sat with us, and answered our million and one questions about the amish and growing up and family and community and faith….that was my fave part of that trip.
Anyway, we do our best to keep expenses down while having a really enjoyable time! And we set aside $x each paycheck, in order to enjoy paying cash for everything!
I look forward to when our kids are old enough to travel for the purpose of school. You’ve been very creative so thanks for sharing these great ideas!
When I clicked on this, I was ready to say “Where were you a few weeks ago,” but I already followed everything you wrote.
I’d like to add this: For larger families and groups, renting a house or a condo can be a great money saver. We just got home Thursday from South Padre Island, traveling with 15 people. We were able to rent a house for all of us for $190 a night plus a $125 cleaning fee. There’s a little more work involved when you leave, & you may have to buy a few extra things, but you can cook many of your own meals & save on eating out.
By contrast, we had to get lodging for 1 night in Santa Fe, & spent $125 for 2 rooms for the 6 of us traveling back that way.
VRBO.com and Homeaway.com have the most rental homes to choose from, but most areas have a few local sites, as well. We started out by Googling “South Padre Island vacation rental”, & “explored” from there!
Good info. Thanks!
Something that we did with our kids when they were young helped greatly. We would allocate a certain amount of money to buy something (such as a special toy from the theme park) at the beginning of the trip and they knew that was the limit. It made them really consider their purchases and cut out a lot of begging for toys, etc. For meals we also set a limit per person and if they wanted to go over it came out of their own spending money. This helped us to stick to the vacation budget.
That’s a great idea!