Thursday, August 9, 2012

How to Save for That Family Holiday!

How to Save for That Family Holiday
When you don’t have a lot of money and your income is low, a family holiday may feel like it’s out of reach—but it doesn’t necessarily have to be if you learn how to budget and save up for it.  The type of holiday you plan also can have an impact on whether or not it’s possible; some plans are probably far too expensive for you right now, but there are plenty of ways to get out and have fun without breaking the bank.  

Here are some tips for saving up for your next vacation. 

How to Plan Cheaper
  • Choose somewhere interesting to visit, not somewhere pricey.  A lot of people immediately think of expensive destinations (urban or rural, it doesn’t matter) to visit on their family holidays.  The reason for this is probably that those destinations are the most famous and get the most advertisement.  There are plenty of options off the beaten track that can be just as interesting and just as fun to visit and which will cost you a lot less.
  • Don’t just come up with a destination to visit, also start planning your accommodations and transportation in advance.  Most of the money you spend while you’re on vacation is going to take the forms of transit costs and accommodations.  Start hunting down affordable alternatives now instead of waiting for the last minute—in fact, consider letting this aspect of your trip planning dictate where you go!  You don’t necessarily need to have the best to have a great time.  Forego the luxury suite at the four-star hotel and check into the little hostel down the street, and remember that more pricey doesn’t necessarily mean more welcoming or better service.
  • Figure out how long you can afford to travel for and plan to do that.  If you have a job that offers you paid vacation time, this makes going on your holiday a lot easier.  Your costs will only be the costs of your trip.  If however you have to take personal time to go on your trip, you’re going to have to offset the cost of the time off work in your budget somehow.  So you may want to plan a shorter getaway.  A weekend city or country break may be more viable than a whole week holiday.
Saving in Your Budget
All of the tips above help you to save simply by reducing the amount of money you’ll be spending when you actually go on your trip.  You’re still going to need to save up money now however to afford your family holiday.  Saving up is something you should be trying to do all the time, by looking for ways to spend less money on gasoline, reducing your grocery shopping expenditures, maybe eating out less often, and only buying what you need and not want you want.  See if there are any ways that you could spend money in your day to day life which you aren’t already doing.  If you eat out once or twice a week for example, could eating at home for several months help you save up enough money for your holiday?

You may want to go above and beyond when you’re saving for a holiday.  How can you manage that?  One tip would be to work overtime and collect more money if you’re allowed to do that at your workplace.  With some professions this isn’t possible, but with others there are opportunities to do so, especially retail jobs and the like.  If there’s a holiday coming up, you could work during the holiday and collect time and a half, which would then provide you with some savings to put toward your vacation. 
You can see how some of the suggestions above could perhaps make it easier for you to afford your holiday, though if you are already very frugal you may not have much room to save in your current budget.  The fact is, saving money in your day-to-day budget is definitely going to help you to afford your holiday, but how you plan and budget the trip itself is probably going to be where you save most of your money!


This guest post was written by John Szabo, a part time blogger, on behalf of Poundaccess. Poundaccess the number one source for instant payday loans online.

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