TIPS FOR A FRUGAL VACATION

CREATE A BUDGET

No matter the length of your trip, it is important to set up a budget. Even a day trip can cost you a lot more than you expected if you don’t set a budget. Of course, for a day trip, there is not that much to consider, but when you are going away for a few days to a week there is a lot most costs involved. If you don’t set a budget there is a good chance you will end up spending more than you think will. More than you think you will spend is often more than you have available to spend!

Spending money on vacation can end up causing stress during the trip if you aren’t clear on how much you have available to be spending on various things. You don’t want to be stressing out while trying to enjoy a nice vacation because you are concerned about the impact on your finances when you return.

CREATING A BUDGET FOR YOUR VACATION DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE BEING CHEAP

Unless you have an unlimited source of funds, setting up a budget for your trip will be a good idea. If you don’t have money saved up for your trip yet, it will help you decide how much to save. If you already have money saved up, it will help you see if you have enough saved up.  You might decide to save up some more, or maybe cut back on a few things. Remember that having a budget is just having a plan on how to spend your money. You can have an expensive vacation and still be frugal about it. Being frugal does not mean that you don’t spend money.  It means you prioritize how you spend your money. Your budget just helps you decide what you want to spend.  That can be low cost or higher cost.  It’s up to you.

CREATE YOUR BUDGET EARLY

Allowing yourself time to make adjustments to your budget will help you get a better plan together. As time goes by you will often think of some things that you did not think of at first that you would like to add to your budget. Having a longer period of time to work on your budget will help you get a really good budget together. If you are not going on your vacation for a particular attraction, like Disney for example, do some research on other area attractions. It’s good to know what attractions are in the area and what they cost in case you decide you might like to visit some of them. This also gives you time to look for some free attractions too if you want to save a little bit on your activities.

CONSIDER ALL OF THE COSTS

The first thing I like to do is make a general layout for each day. It’s not important that you follow this plan if you don’t want to.  The point is just to get down on paper what your vacation as a whole looks like. Think through each day from the time you leave until you return. Do you have pets that will need to be boarded before you leave? Will you need to budget for an extra day of boarding due to pick-up times the day you return?

Will you need to buy drinks and snacks for the road? How much gas will you use getting to your destination and once you are there? Are there tolls involved?  I know this isn’t the case in a lot of the country, but when we drove from NJ to Salem, MA we paid a lot in tolls along the way! Does the hotel you are staying at charge parking fees? How often will you be dining out?  What types of restaurants?  Will it be more sit-down dinners or quicker meals? Will you be purchasing food or drinks to keep at your hotel or wherever you are staying? Are there entry fees to be considered for theme parks, museums or any other activities?

MISC COSTS

I also always include some misc dollars to allow for things that may come up while on your trip. Maybe the kids want to get some fancy deserts while walking around town, or you see an exhibit that you were not planning on. It’s always good to have some misc dollars budgeted to cover these things. If adding these extra dollars throws you over budget as far as the total amount you wanted to spend on your trip, then see if you can lower some other costs like dining out, or maybe staying somewhere a little less expensive. If you don’t have at least some type of misc dollars budgeted, you will likely have something come up that isn’t covered in your budget.

DINING

Just like in everyday life, dining on vacation is usually one of the largest variable costs we have. We can keep the spending pretty low by buying food to cook ourselves or go to really high-end restaurants for fancy meals. Either way, you go, it’s a good idea to decide what your dining plans will generally be like for the trip. When you see the cost of doing a sit-down dinner each night, you might decide to do only half of those sit-down dinners and save that money for something else. I find it easiest to set a flat dollar amount for dining per day.  That way at the end of the day, you can see how you tracked to the budget. If you overspent, you can do some less expensive meals the next day to make up the difference.

Before going on vacation to an area that we might not be familiar with, I usually do some research using trip advisor on the local restaurants. You can read reviews and get ideas about prices so that you can have some places in mind before you start your trip. Sometimes I’ll search for “best cheap eats” in whatever location we are going to.  This can give you some good options for days when you might need to recoup from a day you might have exceeded your daily budget.

CONSIDER COOKING SOME MEALS

Consider a room with a kitchen if possible. Depending on the cost of dining out in the location you are staying this can end up saving you money – but also depends on the size of your family. You can still do things like frozen food so it’s quick and easy but can save a lot of money for quick lunches or an inexpensive dinner if you need to catch up on your budget. With grocery delivery being so convenient now you don’t even have to use vacation time to go to the grocery store.

USE A PACKING LIST

If you have a packing list it is much less likely that you will have to purchase something like a bathing suit or sunblock because you forgot to pack it. I keep my packing list saved in excel and I continuously update it over time. While we are on vacation if I realize there is something we should have packed I make a note of it. Then when we get home I update my list so that we don’t forget the same thing next time. I keep a list specific for each type of trip. For example, a camping trip will have different items needed than going away to stay in a hotel.

TRACK YOUR EXPENSES

As always, tracking your expenses is so important to stick to your budget. There is nothing worse than coming home from a great vacation than to find out you overspent your budget by a significant amount of money. While on your trip have some mechanism to track your expenses. You could use a notebook, a spreadsheet, an app whatever works for you. I use an app called “Budget” – I use the free version, so it only gives you 3 categories.  So, I set it up as meals, gas, and misc. I like using the app because my phone is always with me.  As soon as an expense occurs I record it in the app right away.

It’s so easy to make purchases on vacation and completely forget about them by the end of the day. By getting them in the app right away I can see where we are at with our spending at all times. By knowing where you are at with your budget as you go you can make decisions about other purchases you may or may not want to make while on your trip.

BE MINDFUL OF YOLOS

The equivalent of impulse purchases in regular life are those big expenses you can wrack up on vacation because “you only live once”. Yes, you do.  But, just like you wouldn’t spend wildly above your means in your daily life, it’s not a great idea to do this on vacation either. I have definitely had my share of “you only live once” expenses on vacation to come home to credit card bills that I could not pay off.

While at the time it seems fun to just take advantage of everything possible, it’s often not worth coming home and having to deal with the financial aftermath. If you have it in your budget to do these things, then of course go for it! Just be careful of making last-minute decisions to do these things when you really don’t have the budget for it and have nowhere to pull the money from!

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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