Please welcome Fiona and Joe from Budget Breakaway! Contact me if you would like to guest post on RFI.
The worst time to plan your holiday is when you NEED a holiday!
When you NEED a holiday your searching patterns are like budget parasites, eating away at your hard earned savings. You rush to the travel agents rather than grabbing your backpackers’ tent and compass. Creativity and adventure goes amiss while you search for the hottest island with the biggest pool. A common symptom of this is you’ll find yourself saying:
- “Honey I know this hotel is an extra £200 BUT it has a lift that goes down to the beach!”
- “We’ll go all-inclusive because… we deserve it!”
We were in this situation back in June when we rushed off to Tenerife; we had just finished our final exams and needed to get away. We had the most amazing time, ate the most amazing food and even got to have dinner above the clouds at the Parador de Canadas hotel on mount Teide! But after all the excitement was over and we touched down in England it took a good couple of months to rebuild our finances again.
This time we are raring to go on an adventure but are looking to extend our vacation for much longer and do it for even cheaper! We are planning to travel across Europe for a couple of weeks on a budget! Here are our top tips for saving money to make that holiday last longer!
Set Two Budgets
- Set one budget for ‘Travel and Accommodation’; this includes flights, hotels, trains or hostels. Often you will book these in advance so set a budget before you get drawn into something on a holiday site that is way out of your budget!
- Your other budget should be for ‘Holiday Spending’; this will include food, drinks excursions and don’t forget gifts for the family! If you give yourself a set amount to spend each day you might surprise yourself; you could find yourself cycling around an island rather than spending all of your money on lobster!
Start Saving Early
If you plan plenty of time before your holiday you can pull together a real accurate idea of how much your trip will cost. It will also give you an incentive to save whilst you are working. If you give yourself lots of planning time you will likely find lots more activities to do and places to see. A good rule of thumb whilst you are on holiday is to think about the time value of your money; if that cocktail would cost you two hours of work at home, is it worth it?
Ration Your Eating Out
The most frequent budget biter on holidays is eating out; it’s commonplace to eat out every night when you’re on holiday. So how do we stop the spending but still enjoy the holiday? Get creative! Browse a local supermarket and have a picnic by a beautiful view. If you give yourself a ration of how many times you are allowed to eat out on your break, you’ll certainly find some interesting food and pick up some great stories along the way. If you’re staying in a hotel check the cost of half board or all-inclusive deals; occasionally it’s worth the extra cash if you’ll be staying there a while.
Thanks for reading our post! It’d be great if you could stop by Budget Breakaway sometime. Follow us on Twitter too @BudgetBreakaway
This post was featured on the Aspiring Blogger, Canadian Budget Binder, thank you!
I just learnt it the hard way… “Planning” a weekend while being tired & stressed ended up in 300€ for a day at a spa 🙁
And it wasn’t even very good…
I totally agree with the eating-out rationing (and also a max amount per eating-out)
One thing to add on budgeting, is to have comparison of cost per day.
For example when complaining about the waste of money for this weekend, I told my wife that instead of this day at spa, we could have spent New Year with her family for the same price… It was easier to compare what would be more enjoyable.
It’s far too easy to make rash decisions when you’re tired! Sorry to hear about the disappointing spa 🙁
The cost per day is a great idea and it makes you twice as disciplined as a long term budget!
We’re looking to plan something exciting for our New Year but we’re having to keep to a rather strict budget!
We often tend to switch to a two-meals-a-day eating pattern instead of three when we are on vacation. We tend to just get up later and eat a later breakfast, skip lunch, and then eat an earlier dinner usually. That way we only have to pay for two meals, and since meals at restaurants usually contain more calories than what you would cook at home, we do not usually feel deprived or hungry. Finding a local grocery store is also a great option, we’ve done that too in order to save money.
Great idea, and whilst you’re on your holiday break you may as well skip breakfast and spend more time in bed!
Good point about the calories, I can barely think of a time that I’m ever hungry when I’m on holiday!
These are great tips, and I think that the high cost of eating out while on vacation is what drives people to justify all-inclusive resorts. I went to one for my honeymoon and I was practically never hungry because there was always *free* food available (and drinks!). I like the idea of setting two budgets instead of one and will have to give it a try next time.
All inclusive is often a hard decision to justify but sometimes it really pays off! I suppose it also depends on the expected quality of food at your accomodation 🙂
It definitely pays to start planning ahead of time. The more time you have the more opportunity you have to explore different options, get advice, and find those random cost-saving opportunities. I think this is true of most purchases, including travel.
As the saying goes: ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’! You can always avoid paying for things you don’t need if you have plenty of time to think about them!
I like to always pack my breakfast or go to the grocery store for breakfast supplies as soon as I arrive at my destination. That way I’m not spending that extra $5-10 on coffee, fruit, and muffins each morning. I also think making lunch the big meal of the day can be more cost effective, though sometimes hard to plan when you’re rushing around sightseeing.
That’s a great plan, especially if you go abroad as they often have some very different foods in their grocery stores!
Great tips, especially on the eating out! Nearly every time we go on a vacation, we cut down to a two meal a day plan. Not only are we usually busy doing something new or fun, but you also have the cost and calorie aspect. If we need a snack then we just go somewhere local to pick up some fruit or something like that to carry us throughout the day.
I think I’m warming to the two meal a day idea; the eating out is always the biggest cost after (and sometimes before) travel!
I prefer traveling and staying in places where I have kitchen access so I can cook my own meals. Of course the occasional dinner out is a requirement so you get the full cultural experience but nothing is more culturally exploratory than shopping in a grocery store in a foreign country. I LOVE doing that.
Having kitchen access on holiday is a great fun! We stayed in a holiday apartment for a week last Christmas and cooked almost every meal at home 🙂
I love a good vacation and I find that even though the biggest upfront costs are planes and hotels, the eating out cost sure adds up! Agree with all of your points.
We’re on a vacation budget this year. We’re finding that it’s leading to more fun, as we’re actively anticipating our vacation for longer. The planning is half the fun! When you impulse buy a vacation, it’s still fun, but not quite the same level.
The build up is always great! I find that even a month before hand I’m counting the days down to a break!
I always plan 6 months in advance for any vacation that I want to make and usually pay 3 months before I take the vacation. This allows me to save additional funds leading up to the vacation.
Paying for the vacation early is always a good idea!
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