The idea of saving money for vacations comes easy for some people, but more challenging for others.  Depending on your income, expenses, number of children, and other factors, traveling may feel more or less out of reach.  My husband and I decided many years ago that we wanted to make opportunities for our family to travel and have new experiences, so we have found ways to make it work based on our various seasons of life.

Here are some of the strategies we have discovered that help us save money for our travels.

1. Create a separate account for travel

By creating a separate account for travel, you can take the money that you save throughout the year and put it in the account.  When you are saving money in some of the ways listed below, you can take the money that you would have spent on those expenses, and put it into your travel account.  The account can be a separate account at your bank or just an envelope, along the lines of Dave Ramsey’s system.  By having some type of separate account, you intentionally devote money toward a fun vacation, allowing your family to reconnect and unwind.  By having a specific travel account, when it comes time to travel, it also helps you stay on budget because you know the amount of money you have in your travel account.

2. Get Rid of Unnecessary Expenses in Your Life

One thing that we have done to help save money on travel is to get rid of cable TV and internet. (Gasp.)  Our family decided this was an unnecessary expense that we could live without. When we need internet, we use our phone as hotspots to assess the internet, and we have a TV antenna when we want to watch TV.  Do I sometimes miss just being able to turn on the computer and have internet access?  Absolutely.  Do I love watching the old westerns that play on our antenna based TV?  Not really.  However, Andy Griffith kind of grows on you after awhile.  By getting rid of these two things, my family saves about $1500 per year, which becomes a large portion of our travel budget.

3. Limit Going out to Eat

Going out to eat can be a major expense for families.  By the time you get drinks, appetizers, and meals for a large family, you can easily end up with a bill over $100.  My family loves to eat, but this is another big place we try to save money.  We limit meals out to once or twice per month.  We also typically opt not to get beverages or appetizers.  Instead, we opt for water (drinking soda and other beverages at home) and if there is an appetizer that sounds really good, we either go to the store and purchase an entire box of the appetizer or we find a recipe online that tells us how to make the appetizer at home.  At restaurants we primarily stick to meals. Also, one of our favorite restaurants offers two free kid’s meals with each adult entrée.  If we want to go out to eat, we plan our evening out on a night with free kids meals.  By doing this, it substantially cuts down on the cost of our bill.  That is not to say that sometimes we don’t splurge and get sodas, appetizers, and steaks.  It is just limiting the frequency of those occurrences and placing the saved money into our travel account.  Also, making unique meals at home can become a fun hobby.  We have made hotdogs with macaroni and cheese on them, hamburgers with eggs on top, and many other fun creations that can be found at restaurants. By limiting meals out, it has encouraged our family to spend time cooking together and exploring new recipes. 

4. The Newest-Coolest Technology

Technology can also be a major expense.  Having the newest-coolest phone, TV, game system, or ipad can be fun, but the reality is that they will be outdated within the next 2-3 years anyways.  Now, I do realize that some people’s “thing” is technology, and they would much rather have great technology than travel.  If that is you, then that’s perfectly fine.  However, if you are wanting to save money for travel, perhaps you can live with your 5 year old TV another year or two, and maybe the kids can take turns with the one Ipad they already have.

5. Thrift Stores and Sale Racks

Young children outgrow their clothes quickly.  Rather than buying new clothes for them every year, try to find the best thrift store in town…the one that has great clothes and reasonable prices.  The thrift store that I use sells name brand kids clothes for $1-$4 each, depending on the item.  I also shop sale racks at stores.  Children’s Place and Crazy 8 have amazing sales, and very cute clothes!  I also opt for sales racks myself.  My favorite store is somewhat expensive, and even though I browse the store to see what cute things they have, I typically only purchase items off the sales rack.  Finding stores that have good sales and reward programs are great options for a family trying to save money.

There are obviously other ways to save money for trips, such as picking up a part-time job on the side or working over-time at work.  Even older kids can make some extra cash for souvenirs on the trip by mowing grass or babysitting.  However, the above strategies are ways we have found to save money as we go through our “regular” life.  We don’t go out of our way to work 60 hour weeks to save money.  We just make sacrifices throughout the year, and by doing that, we easily save the $2000-$3000 that we budget for travel each year.