Today – 5 Tips to Help You Save Up for That Enviable Family Vacation
The average Briton puts in almost 35 hours of work every week, plus additional overtime hours.
While this rarely ever raises eyebrows, it’s undeniably exhausting and can begin to affect one’s health and productivity, which makes the idea of a vacation a rather appealing one.
But vacations can be expensive.
Have you been yearning for some downtime but can’t figure out how to pay for it? The following are some practical tips to save up for the vacation of your dreams.
5 Tips to Help You Save Up for That Enviable Family Vacation
1. Create a Budget
You need two budgets here, your income budget and your tentative vacation budget.
These two sets of figures will help you see how much you have, Vis a Vis how much you will need. The difference is the amount you will need to make up for in savings.
In addition to this, these figures will let you know how much vacation you can actually afford. You can then make adjustments to your vacation plans to be able to comfortably accommodate your finances.
2. Set up a Vacation Savings Account
Goal-oriented savings accounts are great at helping people reach specific financial goals.
Separating your vacation money will show you how much you have and how much more you need to put into the account.
Once you start paying and shopping for your vacation, this account will also discipline you by confining your spending to only the money in the holiday savings account.
Shop around for a high yield savings account or an account that will earn you some interest. It might not be significant, but it’s better than none.
3. Find Avenues to Save a Buck
Begin this process by looking at your spending and noting down the items you spend money on.
You will be surprised by how much little expenses, such as buying bottled water or coffee on your way to work, adds up to.
Take note also of where you shop. Many people restrict their shopping to high-end stores on the assumption that these have the best quality products. This is not always true.
Ask around for referrals to stores where you can find cheap beds, cheap clothing, cheap electronics, etc. You will be surprised to get high quality items at the fraction of the cost.
When you reduce your spending, you have more surplus to go towards a vacation.
4. Involve the Family
Saving works best as a team effort rather than a solo project.
If you have older kids that understand the concept of a vacation and money, bring them on board to help find avenues to make savings as a family.
Collectively, the UK throws away £13 billion of food every year. You could save money by only buying food you are sure will be consumed.
Cooking at home as opposed to eating out and ordering in is another avenue you can use to make savings. If you are particularly busy on weekdays, you can do batch cooking over the weekend and freeze ready to eat meals.
Other simple activities such as taking shorter showers, turning the HVAC System off when not in use, and car-pooling are other ways in which you can make savings as a family.
You can also evaluate some subscriptions and identify a few you can forego in lieu of a vacation.
5. Monetize a Skill or a Hobby
If you have some time, consider using it to monetize a skill or a hobby and put the extra income in the vacation savings account.
You can write, cook over the weekend, do people’s taxes or any other activities that will help you earn some more money for your holiday.
Discipline is Key
Depending on where you want to go on holiday and the activities you want to engage in, it might take months and, at times, years to reach your saving goal.
To do this, you will need to exercise high levels of discipline to ensure you strictly adhere to your savings plan.
In the end, an exciting vacation will be well worth the trouble.
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