5 Tips To Save For Vacation in 2024
By Wilbert S
January 10, 2024 • Fact checked by Dumb Little Man
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As summer vacation is right around the corner, saving money is the number one priority for many people. Most of them even take drastic measures regarding vacation planning and budgeting their monthly savings to afford their dream vacation.
Before you even start, it is important to plan your destination. After you’ve planned that, you need to set your vacation savings plan and other money-saving strategies.
Even if it’s a simple holiday, travel costs can be pretty expensive. Once we go on vacation, we spend every extra cash we have. And, by the end of it, we don’t have enough money even to buy groceries till the next paycheck.
However, not many of us can afford a certified financial planner that will plan our vacation budget. And because of that, we’ve compiled a list of tips you can use to save money and have that extra income for your upcoming vacation.
5 Tips to Save for Vacation
#1. Get Serious about Budgeting your Non-Vacation Expenses
Your vacation budget is an informed guess based on the anticipated outlines of your trip: round-trip travel, housing, local transportation, meals, sightseeing, activities, shopping, and incidentals.
You’ll be able to immediately see how much you’ve set aside for previous travels if you have your budget set up using a savings account.
It is a well-known fact that spending less money will massively improve your financial situation. You can save thousands on your next vacation. You can also get a side job in your spare time and start saving your paycheck.
You can even save up for your international travel by holding a yard sale and selling everything you don’t need to own. Many people are in the search for all kinds of antiquities and can pay a rather hefty price for such items.
There are many ways to save money in your free time.
#2. Start Cutting back on Expenses – put them toward your vacation savings
If you want to save money and hit your monthly savings goals, you can start changing your small habits. For example, you can use public transportation instead of your car. That way, you won’t have to pay for gas.
You can also divert to home cooking instead of going out for restaurant meals. And you’ll see that you will have a bit more cash in a little while.
#3. Earn extra Money to Pay for Your Vacation
Even if you’re not a personal finance expert, you can always do some tricks to help you reach your summer savings goal. For example, if you want to move somewhere for a short period, you can always use your previous home as a place you can rent out to other people.
You can even get a part-time job that will bring extra money to the table. You won’t get rich working part-time or seasonally. Even if it saves you a few hundred dollars every month, it will help you save for your next vacation.
Another way to hit your monthly savings goal is to take more hours at your regular job. Ask your boss about picking up more hours if you’re paid by the hour and don’t mind working long hours.
Once you’ve worked 40 hours in a week, you’re entitled to 1.5 times your usual salary in overtime. Ensure that your boss is on board — many reduced businesses have strong hardly policies. Everything that brings you extra cash can help immensely for your next trip.
You may have at least one hobby that you like than continuously circuiting your city. Maybe you’re a skilled graphic designer. Perhaps you’re a gifted writer. You could have a natural talent for explaining math or scientific ideas to children. You know more than I do.
These abilities, as well as a slew of others, are precious. You can find a few hours every month to dedicate to lucrative freelance tasks, no matter how busy you are.
#4. Utilize Cash Back Rewards on Credit Cards
Obtaining a cash-back credit card is a simple but effective strategy. Someone can use the card for most of their transactions throughout the year and get cashback if they pay the debt monthly. People may put that money into their vacation fund when summer vacation arrives.
Although your new credit card won’t cover your vacation expense completely, the sign-up bonus may help.
Some of the most popular travel rewards cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, include sign-up incentives of hundreds of dollars that you may use on trip expenditures.
Each transaction you make with your card earns you points or miles that you may use to offset future travel costs.
Travel-related transactions, such as airline and hotel stays, may earn at more excellent rates depending on the card.
#5. Budget for your Vacation Early
Start calculating how much it will cost after knowing where you’re going. Estimate how much you’ll spend if you don’t know where you’ll end up. Open a new checking account and designate it as your vacation fund once you’ve decided on a figure.
Make a monthly automatic deposit from your primary checking account to your vacation fund account on the day following payday. Set your automatic contribution at $167 each month, for example, if your trip is six months away and you need to save $1,000.
You should get an additional set of toiletries for your trip, especially if the goods are on sale in the weeks of your departure. You’ll have the sort you want and won’t have to spend money on last-minute shopping in unknown areas while on the trip.
#6. Automatically Transfer Funds to Your Account Each Week or Month
Saving is more likely to be an unpleasant afterthought in the real world. It’s easy to put off anything that sequesters those resources for months or years when so many things are fighting for scarce dollars.
Schedule automatic transfers to your account to eliminate the human factor from your vacation savings strategy. Choose whether to make weekly, bimonthly, or monthly deposits and how much you can afford to set aside at each interval.
You should use your primary checking account to make the money transfers, ideally the one where your paycheck is deposited. Secondary accounts are more prone to run dry, causing delays in transactions and the risk of overdraft or NSF costs.
Allowing your automated savings transfers to prevent you from personally depositing money into your travel fund when you are able is not a good idea.
Most of the suggestions I’ve provided need manual, varying transfers at unpredictable periods.
How to Plan a Vacation
#1. Plan the Vacation Early
Planning your vacation early can positively impact your vacation savings account. By doing so, you will have more time to plan your hotel stays, rental cars, etc. The best part is that you can even plan a trip with your whole family this way.
You do need to cut any unnecessary costs. For example, you can avoid staying in the most luxurious hotels and rent a small motel or even an Airbnb. You can find other low-cost stays at Bookings.com or Hostelworld.
It’s also good to call your hotel’s front desk before your vacation to see if they can offer you a lesser rate or upgrade your room for the same price. You can try bargaining directly with the owner if you’re using a service like VRBO or Airbnb. There’s no harm in asking as long as you’re kind.
Hotel stays aren’t the only thing you can cut on. Transportation can e quite expensive if you decide to buy expensive plane tickets. An excellent alternative for this is taking a bus ride. Many tourist agencies organize bus trips without breaking your bank account.
#2. Use a Travel Agent
Many travel agencies offer discounts when it comes to traveling. For example, you will be likely to spend money a bit less if the airlines or hotels directly provide the agent service.
Plus, you won’t spend a lot of time on vacation planning as the travel agency has the whole vacation planned for you.
You can also find many Chase credit cards that offer a sign-up bonus. The Chase Ultimate Rewards are great ways to save as they can offer up to 50% off hotels and flights.
Many other financial institutions offer such bonuses. Travel rewards credit cards are available from American Express, Capital One, Bank of America, and many other banks and financial organizations.
You can also search for other coupons. Before your trip, you may typically discover discounts on holiday activities like parasailing if you shop around.
#3. Go on a Vacation – but not during the peak season like Summer
You don’t have to go on vacation during the summer. Off-season vacations can help you save money in the long run. Going on a vacation is having fun, not going into credit card debt.
Going on a trip in the fall can reduce your cost and fit your budget even more. That makes sense, right? In a few years, you will be thankful when you will have the extra money in your pocket.
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Conclusion: Tips to Save for Vacation
Even if the sacrifices are modest indulgences like restaurant meals and subscription boxes, it’s practically unavoidable that you’ll have to make some compromises during your pre-vacation savings campaign.
If you’re considering significant trade-offs, such as preceding a long-planned return to school for a career-critical degree, you might want to reconsider your schedule or timing.
Why make drastic lifestyle changes to finance that once-in-a-lifetime tropical trip when a few minor changes may put a long weekend at the beach within reach?
By implementing these strategies, you will be saving money for almost any trip, no matter how big or small. Little habits go a long way!
Tips to Save for Vacation FAQs
What is the best way to save for a vacation?
You can do several things to help you reach your savings and travel fund for your vacation time. You can open a vacation savings account, stop shopping online, take care of your general savings, cancel your gym membership, buy inexpensive equipment you can use at home, and many other things.
How much money should you save before vacation?
Vacations are pretty crucial to certain people. That is excellent. However, 7% of your take-home pay is a fair starting point. So, if you earn $4,000 each month, your yearly vacation budget is roughly $3,300.
Wilbert S
Wilbert is an avid researcher and is deeply passionate about finance and health. When he's not working, he writes research and review articles by doing a thorough analysis on the products based on personal experience, user reviews and feedbacks from forums, quora, reddit, trustpilot amongst others.