Have a dream vacation in mind but lacking the funds to make it a reality? Check out 7 ways to save up for your next vacation without feeling like you are depriving yourself:
- Set Up a Separate Travel Fund Account To ensure that you don’t start using the money that you want to be saving for your next vacation, set up a separate savings account specifically for your travels. Just make sure you are choosing an account that doesn’t hit you up with too many fees.
- Make Automatic Deposits Most banks offer the ability to easily transfer money from one account to another. So once your travel account has been set up, start having a certain amount automatically transferred from your checking account each pay day. That way, you don’t even have to remember to log in to transfer it.
- Download a Money Saving App Check out apps like Mint where you can consolidate your various accounts, set personal finance goals and alerts, and tag expenses by category. You can then pull reports in easy to understand charts and graphs and identify areas where you can slash excess spending.
- Reduce Your Energy Costs Your water heater is most likely set higher than it needs to be. Go ahead and turn it down a few notches. Replace your regular light bulbs with energy efficient ones. Not only will you be going green, but you’ll save some money doing it.
- Keep Your Eyes on the Prize At first saving money for your vacation will seem easy and maybe even fun. But after a few weeks, you might lose track of your goal. Try to keep it top of mind by leaving photos of your vacation destination around your house, office, or car. The more you can stay focused on your goal, the quicker your savings will add up.
- Use Cash On Fun Spending If you’re like me then using cash for every transaction seems pretty daunting and unnecessary in today’s world. And life without a few treats here and there seems rather dull. Instead of using cash for everything, try using it on things that are seen as wants rather than needs. Try taking out $50 of cash at the beginning of each week and only use it on things like coffee, tickets to the movies, etc. It will help you stop and think whether or not that purchase is really worth it. And if you have any money left at the end of the week, you can put it back into your bank account or roll it over to use in the next week.
- Use your Local Library First off, you are most likely already paying for the services of your local library through your taxes so why not use it? Secondly, you can save a good amount of money borrowing not only books but movies, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, and more, rather than purchasing from Amazon or other retailers.
Taking these small steps in saving can really add up over time and put you well on your way to booking your dream vacation.
Happy saving!
