BUDGETINGLIFESTYLE & TRAVEL

Adventure Awaits: Adding a Vacation to Your Budget

Are you unsure of how to afford a vacation? If so, check out our latest article for budget-friendly tips and start planning your next getaway.

Is taking a vacation something, you’ve always wanted to do, but didn’t know how to make it happen financially? Start by considering how to build a vacation into your budget. Whether you are a vacation veteran or a travel newbie, it’s easy to save on trips by planning early and keeping an eye on prices.

Review Your Budget

This is a great time to do a little check-in on your finances. Review your budget to see how much money you currently have left over per paycheck or per month that could be allocated toward a trip. Once that amount is determined, consider opening a sub-savings account to store future trip funds.

Research Your Destination

Whether white sandy beaches and palm trees are calling your name or you’re interested in exploring a big city, determining your travel destination is important. This will help you create a realistic budget with approximate costs for lodging, food, transportation and any bucket list items for the trip. Once you know the bottom line of your costs, you can start to look for ways to reduce expenses. Consider traveling during off-peak season and be sure to check out reputable budget-friendly websites to find deals on lodging and activities. You may be surprised at how quickly you can lower your travel costs by doing a little research!

Save, Save, Save

Now that you know where you want to travel and have determined your budget and expenses, it’s time to start saving! For example, if your vacation is going to cost $2,000 and you plan to travel to your destination a year from now, that gives you 11 months to pay for your trip, which means you will need to save at least $182 per month. Saving and planning will allow you to pay for your vacation directly and avoid debt.

Additional Tips

Book at the right time. If you’re going to fly, consider using tools like Google Flights or Hopper to watch airline prices or set travel alerts. Travel alerts notify you when prices have dropped — or are projected to drop — on the specific routes and dates you’re looking to book, helping you pinpoint the best time to book your trip. To set up alerts on Google Flights, search for your travel destination as if you were booking your flight right now. Toggle on the “track prices” option, and you will be prompted to enter your email and asked if you wanted to track specific dates or any dates. If you track “any dates,” Google will email you when the flight’s minimum price drops significantly over a month. If you know the exact dates you want to travel, Google Flights will also tell you the best dates to book your trip based on pricing projections. Hopper works in a similar fashion and also offers an app for flight tracking.

Skip overpriced tours.

Doing your research will help you find less touristy and more affordable things to do. As a result, you will enjoy your time, avoid the crowds and save some money.

Use reward points.

One of the easiest ways to plan travel and save money is to redeem travel rewards points. You could save money on airline tickets, hotels and even rental cars depending on where you have points.

Save extra if you can.

While we can plan for everything to work out as expected, it never hurts to have a little extra in case something unexpected comes up.

Consult a travel agent.

If you’re unsure about where to travel or how to travel within your budget, consider connecting with a travel agent. Their job is to help people plan trips to all kinds of destinations within any budget. A big misconception is that you pay extra to use a travel agent but in reality, many travel agents get paid by hotels and resorts when you book there, so you may not be required to pay the travel agent anything for their services!

Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive; it’s a common misconception that vacations require a large budget. By planning ahead, building a savings strategy into your budget, and prioritizing experiences over luxury non-necessities it’s possible to travel and enjoy time away with your friends or family affordably. Happy travels!