In yesterday’s post about our fabulous trip to the island of Great Exuma, Bahamas, I mentioned that today’s post would be about how Andrew and I save for our vacations.

1.  We don’t go on vacation every year.

We recognize that we need time away….from the laundry, the dishes, the craziness of life.  Often I’ll take time off of work and keep the routine of kids going to school, etc. but I like rest from the normal routine.  We also take weekends away from our home to get out of the ruts that can come.

Also, part of the reason we haven’t gone on vacation every year is that I’ve been pregnant or had a newborn almost the last three years {count in all the pregnancy time}.

The last trip we took was to NYC in July 2012.  Reynolds was born the following April – you can do the math :)

2.  Vacations take planning – money planning.

Sometime in the Fall of 2009 {I can remember where I was living at the time}, Real Simple magazine {one of my faves} had an article  {that I cannot find…} about a man who wanted to take his family on a really nice vacation the following summer.  All of their friends and neighborhood families were going on trips and he wanted to do something REALLY great the next Summer.  So he came up with a plan and though I can’t remember the exact details of what he specifically did, it was something like this, which is what we do – and how we paid for our honeymoon, a trip out west, NYC and this latest trip to Exuma:

• Open a savings account that you don’t have direct access to – as in, you can’t transfer money out of it willy-nilly or in “emergencies”.  Ours is out of the way, in town and I have to make a special effort to go there.  I also do not have a debit card for the account.
• Have a set amount of money direct deposited into it from your paycheck so that you’re constantly adding to it.
• This is the biggie and for sure the hardest:  Pay for things in cash.  If you get a $5 bill back, don’t spend it.  We call ours “The $5 fund” – genius, I know.  But $5 bills cannot be touched.  They go in a separate area of my wallet and once I’m home, the $5 bills are taken out of my wallet {or Andrew’s pocket} and put in a particular place in our home – not under the mattress!  Once we have $100 or so, it goes into the savings account.  It can build up really quickly….especially if you go to Chick-Fil-A and buy an eight-pack of nuggets with a $20 and get three $5 bills back….none of them can be used…they ALL go into the $5 fund.  It takes some will-power for sure, especially if that was your last $20…ha.  {Can you tell that this has happened to me before?!}
• When you’re ready to pay for your trip, wait as long as you can, then take the money out.  Put it in the account that you’re using to pay for the trip, PAY FOR THE TRIP before that money gets spent on something else, and then start building back up that fund ASAP!

3.  Take a fantastic trip, go all out {with your $5 fund savings!}.

We don’t have thousands of “extra” dollars just hanging around waiting to be spent on a great vacation, remember we now have 2 kiddos.  {I’m really excited for those of you that do!!}  And we like great vacations.  A true vacation, by definition is a specific trip or journey, usually for the purpose of recreation or tourism.

We’ve done both: tourism, recreation and then we’ve also rested.

In 2011 we took a trip out west with our friends, Dana and DJ.  It was crazy.  We started with a football game between USC & UGA in Athens, GA then boarded a plane the next day for Phoenix, AZ.  From there we went to Flagstaff and drove to the Grand Canyon and stayed for a couple of nights.  From the Grand Canyon, we pit-stopped at the Hoover Dam {we barely made it before it closed!} and then made our way to Las Vegas.  A few nights in Vegas and then we were off to Los Angeles {my fave!}.  We saw, we did, we ate, we were 90-miles an hour the entire time!  It was a crazy fun and expensive trip!

Our trip to NYC three years ago was jam-packed full of adventures as well.  We had most of each day planned out…we walked the city over – it was GO GO GO the entire time and it was amazing!!

This year’s trip to Exuma was more about rest and getting away from the daily grind.  The greatest thing about going thru Sandals, like we did this  year and for our honeymoon, is that you pay for the trip and {snap!} you’re done.  That’s it.  There’s no  additional cost, unless you get a massage {we did}, go golfing or take an excursion {there are some pretty amazing ones}.  If you just want to go and lay on the beach or float in the pool, you’re set.  Not a penny more needs to be spent, other than food you might need in an airport while you wait for your connecting flight.

It’s ok if you don’t go on vacation every year.  You don’t have to keep up with the Jones’ or the Smith’s or the whomever is taking trips every year.  Make yours special, and make a special effort to save for it.  No one needs to have a giant credit card bill hanging over their head because they took an elaborate trip that they couldn’t afford in the first place :)

Good luck and get to saving for that next trip!