21 Aug How to Make a Vacation Budget You Can Stick To

Vacation on a Budget, Vacation on YOUR Budget

It’s no secret that planning a vacation can be expensive, especially when you’re planning a full family getaway with a lot of people to consider. However, budgeting for a vacation can seem just as daunting. Trying to figure out how much you want to spend on flights, activities, and accommodations, as well as how much various activities and meals out will cost you.

Luckily, we have some tips on how to make a vacation budget that works best for you.

How to Make a Vacation Budget

The key in budgeting is planning ahead. When you take the time to plan, you’ll be able to relax much easier while on vacation knowing what money you’re spending and how you’ll be spending it.

Plan Ahead on Transportation

This may sound like common sense, but many people don’t consider past the plane or car ride to your vacation destination. If you’re visiting a place where you’ll be renting a car, be sure to take into account how much driving you will do and how many times you’ll need to fill up. If you’re traveling to a bigger city, consider the prices of taxis, ubers, and subway transportation. While uber and taxi fares vary by day and time, getting a general idea of what you will spend on these rides will help to budget your vacation.

Additionally, if you’re booking flights, start your research early. You can often times figure out the best time to book flights to particular destinations, resulting in some significant savings.

Choose Accommodations Wisely

While you may not spend tons of time in your vacation accommodations, they are a huge part of your trip. You want to pick a place that fits your travel group comfortably, offers the amenities you want and need, and provides a location close to major attractions you are hoping to visit.

Between motels, hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals, it can be hard to determine which makes the most sense both financially and spatially. We can help you narrow it down by offering our inventory of rental deals that are located at top-name resorts providing luxurious accommodations and amenities.

These rentals are multi-bedroom suites with homey amenities like kitchens, washers and dryers, and living rooms. They also exist at resorts with family-friendly amenities like swimming pools, restaurants, activity programs, spas, and more. Not to mention, these rentals are available at unbeatable prices, making them fit into pretty much any budget. Talk about making vacation on a budget easy as pie!

Determine Expenses Both Big and Small

Once you’ve settled on how you’ll get there and where you’ll stay, you’ll want to determine a light itinerary to help you budget your vacation. While it can be fun to do things on a whim, you’ll want to plan a good chunk of your trip if you’re keeping within a budget.

Big expenses refer to activities like excursions, theme parks, tours, and more. Small expenses refer to things like money for shopping, food, and souvenirs.

Plan your big expenses accordingly, saving some major trips and excursions for certain days. Then, spend the majority of other days doing free activities and tours. Research beforehand what it will cost to enter certain parks and attractions while also being sure to find things you can do for free—each city and destination has plenty! Not to mention you always have the chance to spend the day at the resort enjoying the wealth of amenities and services.

Small expenses are harder to plan for as you may not know what you’ll want to buy out shopping or what you’ll spend on dinner. If you are staying at accommodations that offer cooking facilities, like our aforementioned resort deals, you can cut down on food expenses by shopping at the local grocery store and preparing meals en-suite.

Other Ways to Save

When you’re trying to vacation on a budget, there is so much to consider. Here are some last tips to utilize when planning your trip. Good luck!

• Make a vacation savings account separate from your usual savings account and set a percentage of your paycheck aside each month
• Use a credit card that earns points or cash back to book all travel expenses
• Take out cash to bring with you to your vacation destination, so that you have money ready for any unexpected expenses that may happen to come up
• Shop for coupons or discounted tickets online to any attractions you want to visit before you leave
• Download a budgeting app on your phone to check daily and stay on track
• Consider all-inclusive vacations if you want to simply pay one price upfront and not have to think about further spending