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What makes a killer summer vacation?
Maybe your idea of a killer summer vacation is laying on a tropical beach for a week straight. Or maybe you’d rather be hiking the Appalachian trail. Or museum-hopping across Europe.
Whatever your personal preference for a killer summer vacation, you really only need 4 things:
- Transportation
- Accommodations
- Food and Drinks
- Activities and Experiences
That’s it!
Your job is to figure out how much you’re willing and able to spend on each of those 4 things to create a happy and memorable summer vacation on a budget. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do today!
Start Planning Your Summer Vacation Right Now!
The first step in planning a killer summer vacation on a budget is to start planning early. There are a few good reasons to start planning asap:
- Everything is typically cheaper if you book early.
- There is more available if you book your summer vacation before everyone else (more seats on flights, more hotel rooms, etc).
- Planning early gives you a chance to figure out how much everything will cost so you have time to start saving properly. For goodness’ sake, don’t go into debt for your vacation! It’s so unnecessary.
And if you’re the type who plans a full day-by-day itinerary, you want to do that early as well. That way you can book excursions or activities before they fill up. And you can plan around inexpensive opportunities like festivals or free museum days!
Focus Your Spending on What Matters Most
If your priority is to experience another culture on your summer vacation, spend a little more on your plane ticket to go international. You can balance that expensive plane ticket by booking budget accommodations (since you’ll be out exploring the whole time and won’t be spending much time at your hotel anyway!).
On the other hand, if you want a resort-style vacation, your accommodations are going to play a big role! Make sure you have enough money to be able to book a fancy resort you’ll really enjoy day-after-day. It might mean you find a closer, more affordable destination than Fiji.
So what kind of trip do you want? What will be your focus: Transportation, Accommodations, Food and Drinks, or Activities and Experiences?
Find a Killer Summer Vacation Spot that Won’t Cost a Fortune
Unless you really have your heart set on a specific destination, you can save a fortune with some clever swaps.
- Instead of Hawaii, try Costa Rica. Or for an even bigger bang for your buck, try Punta Cana.
- If you’re craving the romance of France without the price tag, try Montreal or Quebéc City in Canada.
- Swap Western Europe for Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe has all the rich history, art, architecture, and food of Western Europe at a fraction of the cost.
- You don’t have to hike the Andes when you have the Rockies right here.
- None of those tickle your fancy? Marek over at Indie Traveller put together a great list of Amazingly Cheap Travel Destinations. Check ’em out!
Book Accommodations with Booking.com
Booking.com is my new-ish go-to for all accommodations bookings.
I used to start with Airbnb, but then Booking.com started listing private home rentals in addition to hotels. I even saw a houseboat the other day! You can usually reserve your booking on booking.com with free cancellation right up until the week or month of your stay. But here’s the real difference-maker: they don’t even charge your card until the end of the cancellation period! So you get to reserve your house, apartment, or hotel (or houseboat!) months in advance, have some time to save up the money, then pay for it closer to your reservation date.
For the last year or so, Booking.com has been my first and only stop for travel accommodations.
Take Advantage of Rewards
Credit card rewards programs are my favorite travel hack. By putting all daily expenses on my credit card (and paying the bill in full every month!), I’ve been averaging nearly $1,000 per year in free travel. Of course this takes some serious self-discipline to stick to your budget and avoid over-spending with your plastic. So it’s not for everyone.
If you’re not willing to risk credit card debt (and good for you for being honest with yourself!), you could benefit from becoming an airline rewards member. Some programs are simply membership programs. Like your grocery store rewards program. It’s free, and you get benefits just from signing up as a member. Some programs are actually more like a store credit card. You have to charge the cost of your flight to the airline credit card to get any rewards. As long as you pay that card in full immediately, and only use it to book flights, you’re fine. But if you’re worried about having access to another credit card, it’s probably best to skip those.
If you travel a lot, it might be worth becoming a member of a hotel chain for free nights. With so many non-hotel accommodation options, hotel membership programs aren’t the no-brainer they once were. But many people prefer the hotel experience to private residence rentals, and these programs are a great way to enjoy discounts and free nights at your favorite hotel chain.
Make Your Killer Vacation Budget
So you have an idea of what kind of summer vacation you want and how you want to prioritize your spending. Now it’s time to make your Killer Vacation Budget!
If you normally panic when you see the word “budget”, take a deep breath. Everything’s gonna be fine 🙂
A budget is really just a list of expenses. Most people don’t bother to sit down and list out the expenses for their vacations. But it’s soooo super helpful! It lets you know exactly how much the vacation will cost so you know how much to save.
And if you’re thinking, “ugh, I don’t even want to know how much this is going to cost,” well, I get that! It can put a tiny damper on the trip when you know how much it’s costing you. But you know what’s a way worse damper? Paying interest for the next year because you ignored the expenses and put the trip on your credit card.
The way I see it, budgets give you permission to spend money guilt-free! You see the total expense, you figure out how you’ll pay for it, and you don’t have to suffer any anxiety about your finances while you enjoying every moment of your vacation!
So, how much is your trip going to cost you? Just list your 4 expense categories and the amounts.
Here’s an example, courtesy of my upcoming vacation IRL (my family is visiting Germany for the first time since I moved here last year, and I’m so excited to take them on a Bavarian Road Trip! Like, can’t even focus on anything else, I’m so excited!):
Now, how do you calculate your numbers? Transportation and accommodation will be easy because you’ll have already done your research and decided how you’re gonna get there and where you’ll stay when you do.
Food and activities are a little trickier. You might have to just estimate.
Check Yelp for some restaurants in your destination to see how much food typically costs. I just figured €10/meal, knowing I can get a coffee and croissant cheap, inexpensive lunches, and even dinners in Bavarian restaurants are usually only between €10 and €15.
Then get an idea of the activities and events you’ll be spending money on while you’re there. It’s so easy since everyone posts their prices online!
And that’s all there is to it! Budget created.
Make Your Killer Vacation Savings Plan
Ok, you have your budget. Now, how are you going to make sure you have enough money to cover everything? You just make a simple savings plan.
I follow the same basic formula for every savings plan I make, from vacations to holidays to down payments on homes. And it’s so easy!
Step 1: Calculate the total cost
Done! We just covered that in our budget. Your budget should have the total cost of the trip
Step 2: Figure out how many paychecks you’ll get between now and when you need to pay your costs
For your summer vacation on a budget, most of your costs won’t be due until your actual vacation starts. As long as you used Booking.com or a similar service to reserve your rooms without paying for them upfront, that is.
So you might just have airfare due upfront. If you’ve already paid it in full, cool! Cross it off your budget because you no longer have to worry about it. It’s paid!
If you put it on a credit card, try to pay the cost in full when you get your credit card bill if possible. Even if that means you won’t have any extra to save for the trip for the next couple paychecks. Again, we really don’t want to go into debt or pay interest on our vacation.
So, keeping with my example, I don’t have any upfront costs, and I have 4 paychecks between now and the trip.
How about you?
Step 3: Divide your budget by the number of paychecks to see how much you need to save out of each check.
Ok, I need €300 4 paychecks from now. So I need to save €75 out of each paycheck to save enough money for the trip (300 / 4 = 75).
How much do you need to save out of each paycheck?
Step 4: Have a separate bank account for your summer vacation fund.
This might sound like overkill, but you really need to keep these savings separate from your other accounts. If your vacation savings is mixed in with your checking account money, it’s way too easy to actually spend it.
I like to keep a separate bank account open for my Dream Fund, which is basically whatever dream I’m funding at the moment (but, yes, it’s almost always travel of some kind!). So I just have a basic, no-fee, high-yield savings account online. And that’s where I stick my dream savings until I need them.
Step 5: Set up Auto-Transfers
This is where the magic happens.
Instead of trying to remember to transfer money to your savings each paycheck (and hoping you haven’t accidentally spent your whole check by then!), set up automatic transfers.
You simply create an auto-transfer that will move $x from your checking to your savings account right after each payday. Yes, the $x in this case is the amount you calculated in Step 3.
Now your savings are on autopilot, so you’re fool-proofing your finances! The day after I get my paycheck, €75 will be automatically moved from checking to my dream savings. I don’t even have to think about it!
PS: This is also a brilliant trick to force yourself to save for retirement or build an emergency savings fund!
That’s it! Now you can rest assured that you’ll be able to afford that killer summer vacation on a budget!
But wait…there might be a big problem…
What if I Can’t Afford to Save that Much out of Every Paycheck?
Ok, if you can’t afford to save as much as you need before your vacation, you have a couple options:
1. Cut some of your vacation expenses (find a cheaper destination, hotel, or activities)
2. Spend less money between now and your vacation and save that money instead
3. Make some money on the side between now and your vacation. We have some pretty brilliant side hustle ideas for you if you need to make more money:
- 20+ Weird Ways to Make Money In Your Spare Time
- Side Hustle Your Way to an Extra $500/Month
- 25 Ways to Make $100 this Weekend
- Top 10 Passive Income Ideas for Girls on the Go
- High-Paying Ways to Make Extra Cash
Ok, now you can rest assured that you’ll be able to afford that killer summer vacation on a budget!
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