Even though we have a bigger family I never want to sacrifice vacations. Growing up we traveled all the time. I come from a bigger family so our trips were nothing extravagant but they were greatly appreciated. As an adult you don’t remember the fancy dinners you had rather all the s’mores you had around the campfire.
This year we are doing DISNEY, can you believe it! I have been planning and saving for this vacation since before we knew twins were coming and now we will be spending their first birthday there. We are by no means going all out and we have spent time weighing cost vs. experience vs. practicality to make sure we are making the best decisions.
Here is my vacation forecaster and an example of how this tool can be used to get a gage of the cost of future vacations. I know there are those who like to take more spontaneous trips so just adjust the spreadsheet accordingly. You don’t need to have every trip planned out but you can set a general guideline of when you will take vacations and a ballpark of the costs.
Warning!!! The final monthly savings number will seem a little outrageous. It really isn’t meant to be super literal rather a good gage of what would be needed to achieve your goals. Everyone saves in different ways so just use this as a guideline.
EXAMPLE SPREADSHET
| Vacation #1 | |
| Location | Staycation |
| Budget | 500 |
| Months Away | 10 |
| 50.00 | |
| Vacation #2 | |
| Location | Adirondacks |
| Budget | 1000 |
| Months Away | 18 |
| 55.56 | |
| Vacation #3 | |
| Location | Beach Vacation |
| Budget | 2500 |
| Months Away | 24 |
| 104.17 | |
| Vacation #4 | |
| Location | Disney |
| Budget | 6000 |
| Months Away | 48 |
| 125.00 | |
| CURRENT AMOUNT IN VACATION SAVINGS | 1000 |
| TOTAL MONTHLY SAVINGS | 324.72 |
SAVINGS TIPS-
You don’t need that Starbucks at Target (well your kinda do but a vacation is more fun). Every time you fight the urge take $5 and put it in your vacation account.
Take a small percentage of your tax return (if you get one) and put it in your vacation fund.
If you separate your money put your vacation fund in a low interest money market account.
Sign up for Acorns to automatically save little bits of cash here and there.
Collect cans and loose change and stick this in an envelope and bring it with you on vacation. We have paid for lots of vacation dinners, ice cream cones and souvenirs this way.
Research, research, research the best time to travel and ways to save on your particular trip.
DRIVE – I know this isn’t a popular idea but we drive all the time. Once we drove from NY to TX with three kids four and under and it honestly was kind of fun!
HAPPY PLANNING!