Nothing is more exciting than planning a vacation getaway for your entire family! Unfortunately for many families around the country, planning a trip comes with a considerable amount of financial stress and anxiety, as taking a vacation can be quite expensive. Whether you work from home or make a living presenting employee safety training videos, there is no denying that money is tight right now for many households. Despite this, many people are hopeful about the possibility of taking a family vacation this winter. If you are one of the many people planning a family vacation for the upcoming year but feeling stressed about the financial toll that doing so can take on you and your family’s finances, here are a few helpful budgeting tips.
1. Set a Realistic Budget
While setting a budget for any trip is important, doing so is pointless if the budget does not actually reflect the amount of money you will need to save – or the amount you are realistically able to spend. Take a look back at the cost of previous family vacations to get an idea of how much this trip should realistically cost for your household, and set your budget accordingly. Try to budget in an extra few hundred dollars to account for any unforeseen expenses or emergency costs, in order to avoid stress at the last minute.
2. Open a Seperate Savings Account
Saving money for vacation on top of paying your typical monthly bills and putting a typical amount of money aside in savings can be overwhelming. Make things easier for yourself by opening up a separate savings account specifically for saving money for an upcoming vacation. This will keep money saved separately from your other finances to ensure that you absolutey do not touch this money until your vacation, and it will make it easy to see just how much you are saving for your trip over time.
3. Cut Important Costs
While a major part of budgeting and saving money includes cutting uncesecsseaey costs out of your monthly budget, doing so can be difficult if you are not realistic about what you are able to cut out. Take a look at your family’s finances from recent months and pick one or two things that you can realistically live without, such as dining out or buying drinks at bars, to avoid getting overwhelmed by the changes you are making and splurging anyway.