Our 4.5 mile morning hike along the beach...
Hello everyone! Last week my family and I went to North Carolina for a short vacation. My wife has family in Florida that has been planning this Nags Head trip for about a year. When they first started planning, we were asked if we wanted to make the commitment which would of meant a down payment for the luxurious cottage a block from the beach. As most of you know, last year at this time, my wife and I were in the final stages of paying off our debt, so we could not make the commitment that was needed.
The cottage, a block from the beach was absolutely beautiful! Three stories with open balconies on each story front and back. There was a pool and a hot tub in the back yard, and the downstairs even had a pool table, but even with all of the fancy amenities, I am pretty sure we would have declined. For this type of vacation, we couldn’t justify spending so much money for a place to stay.
So what did we do?
We decided to make an appearance. We didn’t commit to anything. We just drove down there with a $1,000 budget and we were determined to have a good time. This brings me to the very reason I decided to write this post.
We are not used to planning for a vacation. We budgeted $1,000, and thought it would be plenty, but it wasn’t.
Hotel cost:
- First two nights were $110.50 per night on the beach. Regular price for our rooms were $160. (priceline saved us $99)
- Third night was $150 at a discounted rate. (Our family asked us stay at the cottage)
- Nights four and five cost us $80 per night. Regular price for the rooms were $179. (priceline saved us $200)
Fuel cost:
- We spent about $100 on fuel.
Pet boarding:
- Boarding our dogs cost $129. (There were other costs too, but these were accounted for outside of our vacation budget.)
Meals (5 days):
- $150 (eating out 6 meals)
- $50 (eating in 4 meals)
- 8 meals FREE (breakfast at hotel & a few dinners at the cottage.)
We haven’t even had any fun yet and we are already down to just $40.
Here’s what I found out about myself while on vacation. I like having a budget, but need to get better at allocating enough to cover the vacation. I also realized that when I am on vacation I don’t want to be hardcore, penny-pinching Brad. Don’t get me wrong I do not want to waste money either, but when I am on vacation I like to do the things we want to do without worrying about if we have enough money. In other words, I want to have fun without feeling guilty about it. The reason is because we are hardcore most of the time, so I feel that when we are on vacation, I don’t want to be thinking about how much we could have put in our savings account.
We didn’t spend excessively at all. We saved money whenever we could by not staying at the cottage and finding hotels on Priceline. We definitely could have saved a little on our meals, so lesson learned. We weren’t spending tons of money on souvenirs either.
The point I am trying to make is that I was trying to pinch pennies when allocating money for our vacation which meant we did not have enough. We ended up spending about $1500 total. We did all the things we wanted to do and we had a great time. The only regret we had was not planning our meals better, and not allocating enough money in the first place. (transferring money is a cinch, but there was a two day wait which definitely caused us some problems.) Before we went on vacation I transferred $2,000 from our checking account into our emergency fund, but I have to admit there was a little inside me that knew we wouldn’t have enough. It was too nice seeing that 2K transfer to our savings. I guess I was a little too optimistic, eh?
I found out that eating in while on vacation is hard to do. It can be done, but it is hard. I hope to get better with each vacation we take from here on out.
Our Emergency Fund was up to $10,000.
That changed as I had to transfer money for multiple reasons. Vacation money ($500), car trouble ($200), and lawyer fees ($300). We didn’t find out about the lawyer fees until we came home, but while we were in Nags Head our car started to overheat. It was awfully hot, but the problem was the fan stopped working.
Now we have about $9,000, but the good news is that I hope to transfer another $1,000 this Friday. I also have another deal that is in the works that could give me another $1,000 so I am excited about that. A minor set back, but our goal of having $15,000 by the end of the year is still very much alive. The truth is we are still ahead of schedule.
We have every intention of reaching our $15,000 goal by January 1st 2011. We have added a vacation to the mix. We were talking and realized we have never been on a real full-fledged vacation. We have been married for six years and even our honeymoon was only 3 days in Charleston South Carolina. Any of our other “vacations” were in the states, and mostly no longer than 5 days at best.
I have NEVER been out of the country so we figured it was about time. We worked our butts off to become debt free. We have been working our butts off to fund our emergency fund. Now it’s time to spend some money and live a little.
So on top of reaching our $15,000 savings goal for 2010, we are going to start saving for a January cruise to the Caribbean as well. 😀
I’m hardcore most of the time with how we manage our money, so I am simply saying I want to loosen the belt a little in regard to our vacations. I don’t want to be wasteful with my vacations, I want to be smarter. The very last thing I want to be saying while on vacation is “We don’t have enough money to do this.” In order to do this I need to:
- Get better at planning my vacations from start to finish.
- Make sure I have enough money to cover the things we want to do while on vacation.
- Better plan our meals while on vacation. (eating out can be the death of a vacation budget)
What is your approach to vacation spending? Do you plan your vacations with the most frugal mindset, or do you give yourself a little breathing room?
Please share your thoughts on the matter. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or tips you might have.
Perfect timing….we leave on a 6 day vacation tomorrow and I already know we didn’t plan enough money. We’ve got the car rental, hotels, and gas covered, but just like you I don’t think we planned enough for food. We plan to take our own snacks and drinks and be reasonable with our meals, but darn it – I want to have fun and relax! I want to order a darn drink at the restaurant instead of water!!!
OK – rant over – back to being frugal, getting out of debt, then really bumping up the vacation budget:)
Haha! I feel your pain Den! Oh an no worries about the rant, that’s what this discussion board is all about. I think vacation planning is something that takes time to master. The good news is that we will have to continue taking vacations to get better. Lovely incentive eh? LOL
I feel the same way about vacation spending. If you earn it, do good all year, it’s time to live it up.
We make a point to over calculate by a small percentage on our vacation budget so that we can spend without feeling guilty as we have that money set aside. Most years, we underspend and have some money left over in that vacation account, so we roll it over to next years and continue to pad that account. If we ever need that money, it’s there. But if we want to spend more on vacation, it’s there for that too.
(and what Lawyer fees were you talking about?)
Right on Jesse! Not on vacation: plan and save. On vacation: have a GREAT time!!
We are selling our house and needed to pay the lawyer. I knew it was almost time to pay him but it seemed like it just snuck up on us. haha A little procrastination and lack of detail on my part. haha!
I plan based on what I will need. I keep a budget in mind, but I don’t deprive myself while on vacation.
A trick I learned from another blog for saving money on eating out while on vacation: Of coure, you stay at the mid-priced hotels that offer breakfast, but…eat out for one meal a day and make that meal LUNCH. This way, you get to eat well and try whatever you want, but you get the discounted lunch prices.
Another person from a blog said her and the husband usually buy food from a local grocer and either cook dinner or eat deli sandwiches.
Just a few thoughts….
Great tips young Mogul! I will be sure to make good use of them on my next vacation. I think our biggest problem this time was that we waited too long to plan for a last minute decision. We left not knowing when we were coming back. lol that can never be good for a vacation plan as far as spending is concerned. 😀
Earlier this summer we went on a similar family vacation. We rented a house with other family members in St George Island Florida. We spent more money on accommodations, but we ate most meals in since we had a full kitchen. We stayed in a pretty secluded area, so we didn’t spend a lot of money on tourist activities. We had been saving for the majority of the year, but it definitely took away from paying extra on debt. This was our last vacation for a while, because we are starting Financial Peace University next month. Nice post and website.
Awesome Eric! Rock the Financial Peace University classes!! Be motivated and inspired to take your debt elimination to the next level! Good luck!
I think I tend to do a bit of both. I start out by making two budgets – a luxery budget and what I think a realistic budget would be. I always find my luxery budget way too high and my realistic budget sort of low, but at least it gives me something to work with. We save for the luxery price.
Then I start my research. In today’s era of internet, you can get pretty exact costs for a lot of things. I research local grocery stores so I can buy some staples while we are there without paying gas station prices. I research admission costs. I research hotels/lodging. When I book items, I can adjust the budget to reflect an actual cost.
If your vacation days are flexible, check lodging prices for different times to see if they are the same. Many places have “off season” pricing. One vacation we were able to save $50 a night on our hotel by going a week later than we originally planned.
While on vacation, we let loose, but keep our research in mind. Each night I tally up the expenses just to make sure there are no “huge” surprises when we get home. If we are really starting to go over budget, we can tighten the reigns a bit. If we are really under budget, we might pick up that extra souvenier.
Once we’ve started budgeting at home, its been hard to justify certain things even on vacation. No individual meal is worth $100 per person. Food is still food and I’ll still be hungry again at another time. A silly $20 hat that is sooo cute on vacation, but will sit on a shelf back home isn’t worth it. Its a bit of a mind set that doesn’t go away even when you do.
Great advice Penny! I can tell you that my wife and I tend to think just like you according to your last paragraph. Even on vacation, $100 a person meal, is extremely too painful to do. Our example was the $250 a night it would have cost us to stay at the cottage. Instead we decided that a hotel discounted on priceline was a better fit for us…and it was. I just can’t imagine spending $250 a night for a trip to stinking Nags Head. You can take a cruise for cheaper than that! LOL
Again thanks for sharing your thoughts! I like the way you do things!
Great post Brad – reading all these comments have allowed me to re-evaluate how I do vacations. Our indulgence is vacations as a reward and a getaway from our hectic day to day lives. As I embark on a Phd this fall and head back – we must be way more careful with our money even on vacation – will def take the tip to calculate expenses every night.
We like vacation rentals as even though it seems initially more expensive – the great meals we can make in a kitchen for breakfast and lunch allow us to indulge a little for dinner. We can also drink at the rental which saves a lot.
FYI the cruise industry really nickel and dime you, while the price includes food, drinks are marked up as well as shore excursions, do your research and you save a lot on shore excursions
With my family, we usually do go together to rent a house. Even if it is more $ than we would spend at a hotel, the food spending is WAAAAY lower. In fact, I normally can stay close to my normal food budget on vacation by planning ahead, packing some food, and buying the rest at a grocery store. We normally don’t eat out on vacation – maybe one meal? Plus if it is a beach cottage, the beach is right there – and that cuts down on activity spending. I know depending on region and season, the beach house could still be more money – but we try to find something just off the beach that is reasonable.
Now I see it was $250 a night for the cottage. Wow, that is just steep!
LOL, yeah the thought of paying that much makes me convulse. 😀
Vacations are meant to be able to ‘relax’. That’s physically and emotionally and not get hung up about what is costing what. As long as you budget and you stay within a normal realm you should be ok. Enjoy yourselves!
Perfectly stated! I agree totally!
This being the most important part of that statement: “As long as you budget and you stay within a normal realm”.
When we go on vacation, I try to prepay as much as possible. I take into account the things that we usually do (Chuck E Cheese, the zoos, the amusement park) and I buy gift cards or memberships for those things ahead of time.
I also put some money into an untouchable sinking fund. As for the gas, food, etc. I try to overestimate so that we don’t have to feel like we are on super pucker. I do prepay our cabin, too.
It’s hard to guestimate what everything is going to cost and we went over, too, but I guess that’s why Dave Ramsey says no vacations. But for us, we want to take that break. We are just going to plan to try to get as close to costs as we can.
Hope you had fun!
My parents live in wonderful places, like Amelia Island Florida and Martha’s Vineyard. As much as we would like to take a vacation with just me, my husband and our daughter, we cannot justify spending money on hotels when we have a free place to stay. So, for our annual relaxing getaways, we see and stay with family.
We are saving money each month for a big vacation in two years, where we might rent a villa in France or Italy for a month. Although it seems far away, I get so excited thinking about it and each time we reach a $ goal, we buy a book or spend time online looking at places to go. Getting pregnant with baby #2 changes my expectations of site seeing, but we are still going and diligently saving each month.
Going anywhere on vacation for a month would totally rock! I can think of a few places I would like to spend a whole month. 😀
We almost went to Italy in 2006 but my wife got pregnant and as the vacation came closer to happening we decided to stay in the states. Can’t wait to see some of the endless beauty in other countries! 😀
Unless our vacations are work-related in which case all expenses are paid, we tend to take a lot of cruises as this is the cheapest way to see a number of places because for around $50-$60 per person per night we get a room, transportation, entertainment, and literally all we can eat. When we want to vacation overseas we head for Southeast Asia where for $50 per person per night we can live like kings. If we do stay stateside or in expensive international cities, we always eat in Chinatown or head for the more run down sections of town where they cater to locals and not tourists and thus the costs for restaurant meals is pretty reasonable.
You nailed it! That’s exactly why we started looking into taking a cruise. My wife’s cousin convinced us that it was the best route to take. I can’t wait to take my first cruise ever!!
We take at least one big vacation a year ($2000-$2500) and a few smaller ones, so we put $250 a month into our vacation account and 25% of any extra money we bring in with hobby jobs (sports officiating and blogging). This is our balance. 🙂
I like your system. 😀
We actually decided to forgo an away from home vacation this year so we can put that money on our debt. We will do small day trips (beach, museum, aquarium). We discussed at length and both agreed to this. So far it has worked out fine and our debt continues to go down! It’s a win-win situation for us.
We didn’t take any vacations either while we were paying off our debt. I personally believe that is the smartest option when dealing with debt. Great job Beckey and Jeff! 🙂
What I do is book earlier, because the rates are usually lower if I booked several months (or even almost a year!) earlier. I also bring some food along, to prevent having to buy food along the way, and also because it is much cheaper to eat at least couple of meals in.
Pinching pennies while on vacation make the vacation too much like work… So, while I still keep a frugal eye on things, I send more than I normally would but still less than the majority of people.
Like you, I’ve been stingy on vacations too, until about 4 years ago. Last year was my most expensive vacationing year (I probably spend about $6,000 total), but that was mainly because we went to Disney with friends.
I say, enjoy vacation with your kids, you are forging memories and bonding with them!
Hope the vacation was GREAT!
All is well, just make sure the Vacation (debt) doesn’t follow you home.:)
At my house, debt is a bad word. There will never again be \”vacation debt\” to worry about, or any debt for that matter. Yes that includes not borrowing to own a home. I\’m a weirdo, and proudly accept the title. 😀