My tips for affording a yearly holiday/vacation

I’ll be honest, I am someone who needs time out. As a single woman with a demanding full time job, a home to upkeep and a daily commute, I’ve noticed that the years I adequately plan and spend on a yearly holiday are the years that I meet more of my financial goals, feel better about my life, am less stressed and save more!

Some of the ways I’ve afforded a holiday are by employing the following tactics/strategies:

1. I set aside a certain amount each month into a travel account – I need to see this money as separate so that I’m not thinking “should I really pull money out of savings?”

2. I plan a bigger holiday one year, followed by a smaller holiday the next year. For example, let’s say this year I was having a holiday in China, next year I would have a smaller UK based holiday like a week in Scotland. This allows me to roll some money from one year into the next year’s holiday account.

3. I piggy back a stay with friends into a holiday. I have a couple of friends who live in good tourist areas within the UK. So, I will try to stay 3 night with them (being a good guest of course!) before going off and spending 4 nights in a hotel or B&B, so that I feel I had some of the luxuries of being away – things like eating in restaurants, using a pool and gym on site etc.

4. I’m a good guest when staying with friends, this means you are invited back! I always make sure that I bring a nice thank you gift – usually something unique, doesn’t need to be expensive per se, but something they will appreciate. I also make sure I treat the friend to a meal out or evening at the cinema/theatre and always send a thank you card after I’ve returned home. For longer stays I will of course contribute to groceries etc. I learned this lesson as I’ve had a few friends come and stay with me for longer periods and it has cost me a fortune to feed them and entertain them, therefore I stay with friends and treat them how I would appreciate being treated! This means I am always invited back!

5. I go to a variety of sources to look at rates – I’ll do some hunting myself online with places like expedia, travel bag and a few others, I’ll leave my details with 2 high street travel agents, I will try 2 airlines direct and I will try an independent travel agent. I try to get 5 or 6 quotes for the same, or similar, holiday and then compare the differences. I am willing to pay an extra £10 or £20 for convenient flights or to an independent agent etc. I have saved £200 by going with an independent agent, they often have extra info about money saving measures as their agents are usually world travellers themselves. So, shop around!

6. Look at regional airports. A family member lives near a regional airport (about 2 miles from her house) that regularly does summer charters (April – October) at about £300 less return than the bigger airlines going from the main airports. Of course you have to add the cost of getting to the smaller airports, in my case it is (if I book a month in advance) about £30 return, obviously I factor this cost in.

7. See a yearly holiday as paying yourself for your hard work, not frivolous spending. Get in the right mind set that you need this time to enjoy life to give you the energy to keep going in the rat race we all live in!

8. Don’t forget you’ll want to spend when you are on your holiday. Let’s say you saved £75 (about $150) a month towards your holiday, totaling £900/$1800 a year. Let’s say you booked a holiday to Nice, France and your travel cost was £750 ($1500) on a half board basis for a week including two sight seeing trips. This leaves you £150 for all added costs like lunches, drinks, any last minute purchases needed like a new swim suit, holiday insurance etc. Well as you can see, the money is quite quickly gone! Of course for that week you won’t be spending on groceries, so you could factor in that money, but I’ve found having a holiday spending jar really helps! I choose 1 or 2 types of coin and every single time I get one of those coins it goes in the jar! I personally chose 20 pence and 1 pence pieces! You would be surprised how easily this add’s up. Usually giving another £50-£100 to put into the spending pot! Doing this allowed me to purchase a very nice french comforter on my last holiday in France as well as a couple of Christmas presents in advance!

9. Make use of free stop overs. I’ve found that several of my long haul flights I’ve been intitled to free stop overs and simply didn’t know. I now phone the airline direct before I book and find out if there are any free stop overs – the independent travel agents are good at figuring this out as well. For example on the holiday I hope to go on in 2009, I’ve found out there would be a free stop over in Germany. I’ve always wanted to go to Germany and was thinking I would have to wait a good few years. Instead, I hope to have a stop over arriving early morning, spending 2 nights, before leaving the following evening. This gives me 3 full days of which I will need to pay for 2 nights accomodation and no extra fee for the flight. Knowing so far in advance, I plan to use my money jar to pay for the accomodation and hope to find a hotel that includes breakfast!

10. Plan, plan, plan. Where have you always wanted to go? How are you going to get there? I set up a 5 year travel plan – and make it happen. If you want a big trip, let’s say you’ve always wanted to spend a couple of weeks in California and then head to Hawaii for a week, then look at how much you’ll need and come up with a plan. Don’t say “I won’t have any other holiday for 4 years” because in my experience, the burn out from life and work means you’ll spend. Instead look at cheaper options for the next couple of years so that you can roll your holiday money over. So, this year you might spend a week in a caravan with friends in Dorset, costing you £200 for the week. This would allow you to roll over £700. Next year you might take a cheap overnight train to Scotland, spending 1 night in Edinburgh then 5 nights at B&B’s along the Loch’s (usually these are very very reasonable and come with a hearty breakfast!) and spend a total of £350, allowing you to roll over £550. Before you know you have nearly £2000 saved for that big holiday, not including your change jar that has been building for 3 years. I would expect, with interest and change you could easily have nearly £2500 to spend on that large holiday you didn’t think you could afford!

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy another 10 tips for affording a yearly holiday/vacation!