Smart Vacation Planning in 2016

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer,Laurie Blank.  Laurie is a wife, mother to 4 and homesteader who blogs about personal finance, self-sufficiency and life in general over at The Frugal Farmer. Part witty, part introspective and part silly, her goal in blogging is to help others find their way to financial freedom and to a simpler, more peaceful life.

The New Year is here, and it’s tough to think about the coming year without having an itch to plan a vacation getaway. The great thing about vacations is that they allow you to escape from the day-to-day mundane things in life. Although most of us love routine to a certain extent, we all love a break from the norm occasionally.

We took our first big family vacation last summer. The drive from Minnesota to Seattle – with a stop at Yellowstone National Park – was crazy-busy-packed, but doing something fun and different was, as they say, priceless. We still talk on a weekly basis about how fun that first big family vacation was, and we eagerly dream of when we’ll take our next big getaway.

A great vacation, however, begins with a smart vacation plan. Here are some tips that will help you plan wisely for your 2016 getaway.

How to Take a Great Vacation in 2016

Pick Your Vacation Destination

Where is it that you dream of going on vacation this year? A trip cross-country to spend time with family and/or friends? A winter getaway to a warm and sunny destination? Consider your options and think about what type of vacation destination would best suit the entire family. Be sure to consider cost and location options as you choose a vacation destination. For instance, a month-long trip to Europe might not be a great idea if funds are tight and paid vacation time is limited.

Estimate Your Vacation Expenses

It’s a good idea to put together a realistic estimate of your potential vacation costs before you plan your getaway. Ask yourself the following questions as you work to put together a vacation expense estimate:

• Where will we stay and how much will it cost?
• How will we get there and what mode of transportation will we use once we arrive?
• What will our meal plan be? Will we get an AirBNB locale and cook in-house? Eat out? What will our estimated meal costs be?
• How much money do we plan to spend on “extras” such as theme parks, museums and souvenirs?

By putting together a realistic estimate of how much you’ll spend on your vacation, you can work to budget in the costs before you go on your trip.

Put Together a Payment Plan

Don’t allow yourself to be tempted to put your vacation expenses on credit unless you’ve got the cash to pay them off right away. Instead, put together a payment plan that will help ensure you’ve got the vacation paid for before you go. Here are some tips for creating a successful vacation payment plan:

1. Using the steps listed above, create a realistic estimate of your planned vacation costs.
2. Divide the estimated cost of the vacation by the number of paychecks you will receive until you go on vacation. For instance, if your vacation will cost an estimated $2,000, and you’ve got 14 paychecks until you go on vacation, you can allot $142.86 per paycheck to go into a vacation fund or other separate savings account toward vacation expenses.
3. If you use travel points, work to accrue points that will help you offset some of the costs of the vacation. Just be sure you don’t accumulate credit card debt in the process.
4. To bring in additional monies to help pay for your trip, consider selling items you no longer need on Craigslist or EBay, or consider getting a temporary second job or side hustle in order to bring more cash in to pay for vacation expenses.

Planning how you’re going to pay for your vacation ahead of time can help ensure you won’t be stuck with a vacation that costs twice as much as you’d estimated thanks to credit card interest payments.

By using the above tips to plan wisely for your upcoming vacation, you can maximize your fun and minimize the effort so that you can better enjoy your getaway destination. Happy vacationing!

***Photo courtesy of https://static.pexels.com/photos/6934/beach-vacation-water-summer.jpg