sglw

When you set aside an amount of money for a trip, do you factor in the money you will not spend at home while on your trip. Shellio brought that point and I thought it was interesting.
Here is her quote: "For example, if you drive in your daily life you would be buying gasoline; if you use public transport you would be paying for that. Food costs may be less at home, but they exist nonetheless. So when you say you have $4000 for 14 days, is that over and above what would be your normal expenses for those items in 2 weeks at home?
How do you do it?

J62

For me those misc items pale in comparison to the added costs of travel. Transportation (air/rental car/parking), lodging, and meals out.

If I were to try to include deferred home costs in any calculations I'd consider myself:

a) seriously overthinking the budget. Either I can afford a trip or I cannot.

b) seriously overestimating the degree of accuracy of my travel costs (esp meals, sights, goodies, etc).

c) excessively anal retentive

d) all of the above.

bob_brown

My car is 20 years old. My wife's car is 11 years old and we have no children under the age of 45.

One of the advantages of old age. No mortgage.

Travelnut

I don't see how what you will or will not pay for at home while you're traveling has anything to do with saving for a trip.

I save until I have enough for a trip. I put extra $ in a separate account - when we travel, I use a debit card to access this money. If I want or need to use a credit card, I send an online payment to my credit card co. from that account.

When I return home, my money resumes paying for the normal stuff of daily life.

Denise

While we are on holiday I still have to pay for my mortgage, taxes, heat and light costs so our travel money is on top of normal expenses. Food we would have to stock up on once we return and we normally leave the car with gasoline in it. So our travel expenses (though I'd rather call them bonuses) are over and above normal living costs - which remain fairly constant.

I set $400 per month aside for a trip (and my partner does the same) and once we decide where we want to go we can either afford it from our vacation account or add a few more dollars to it before we go or top it up after we get back. Then the expense is not too great.

Last trip we did Eastern Europe for 32 days and had money left over to add to our trip to Paris this September and possibly another holiday in between.

tcreath

My situation mirrors Travelnut's exactly. We have a separate vacation savings account. We choose our vacations based on what we can properly afford. We only use credit cards to make reservations; everything else is paid for with cash or our debit card.

I definitely spend more on vacation than I would have at home, as we really aren't big spenders and don't eat out too much.

Tracy

jay

We live modestly even though we could have a bigger house, fancier car etc. We also spend our travel money wisely (for us) and stay in 2* lodgings (4* if priceline) and eat picnics etc.

irishface

I am retired, but still substitute in local schools. That pay goes toward trip fund. I also pinch pennies every way I can at home. I don't factor in what I would spend at home when figuring trip costs; most of those expenses go on anyway.

balletgirl

I figured out my (USA) taxes so that at the end of the year I get a BIG REFUND! I use that for travel. I claim no exemptions and have my company take out at the higher single rate.

I know, I know... if I put it in a savings account and earned interest...but I'm just not that disciplined!

Then I figure out where I can go. I travel debt free unless something major happens on the trip!

Works for me.

nytraveler

It depends n your situation. We both have umpteen FF miles and use those for many vacations. And AmEx points for lots of hotels. We eat out or order in most nights at home - but it's neighborhood places. And we do more nice dinners on vacation. But - how much is food really?

Whenever we can get the time for a vacation we just go. Transfer money fro day to day savings to checking account and charge all we can. When we get home we just pay the CC bill (sometimes in 2 months versus 1 if we've splurged).

We have accounts set up for specific purposes (beach house, retirement, college tuition) and that money comes off the top. At the end of the month anything extra in either of our checking accounts goes into the joint day to day savings. When it reaches a certain amount - if we don;t have a trip coming up right away - it goes into the general investment fund. And we start to rebuild it again.

We have always had separate checking, from before we met. We each pay certain - approx equal - living expenses - what's left in the account we can each spend as we please. For major household expenses - renovation, new furniture, etc - we each put in half. (He pays college tuition/allowance for the girls - not because they're his with his ex - but because his income is significantly higher than mine.)

J_Correa

I get paid every other week, so those 2 months a year when I get a 3rd check, the entire check goes in the vacation account. I also put money in there monthly as well as my annual bonus.

I don't include money we would have spent when we were home in the vacation budget, although if that money is available, we just don't have to take as much out of our vacation fund to finance the vacation. We don't go on trips that last more than a couple weeks or so, so the money we don't spend on day to day stuff while we are gone doesn't generally add up to more than a couple hundred dollars anyway.

suze

I am single and self-supporting, so do not have to account for my spending to anyone. I am a modest style traveler. I figure my airfare and hotel rates for a particular trip to see if I can afford it or not. I don't fret over daily expenses, either at home or while on a trip.

StCirq

I run my own business, and let's just say that I can to some extent regulate how much $$ I make (by, for example, DOING some of the actual work we provide instead of subcontracting it out), so I go on trips and spend what I need to spend (I'm neither lavish nor a scrimper). Then, when I get home, if I need more $$ to cover my expenses, I just do a few jobs on weekends or evenings until I've made up the difference.

(NOT a formula that would work for most people, I know....but it's how I designed my life and I'm happy with it. Believe me, the downsides of being a business owner make up for the ability to make extra money when you need to.)

sandypaws3

I figure out approximately how much a trip will cost, including hotel, airfare, as well as how much we'll spend daily. We allow about $200 a day. Anyway, we add all that up, and divide it into 24 paydays. Each payday we religiously put the amount we come up with into savings. Now, sometimes we have 3 paydays in a month, and if we can afford to, we put that in too.

Sandy

copper675

Well, I travel on the cheap, and I set money aside in a separate travel account. I'm in college, so that may mean no more than $50 per check, but I skip 'normal' college student things (like bars and going out all the time). BTW, sometimes it gets even harder b/c I also own two horses, and that is an expensive proposition on its own, so its all about prioritizing where my money goes. Oh, and I always plan for travel days to be more expensive that my days at home- I'm not going to Italy and skipping a museum or wonderful restaurant- I can't get that at home!

mcnyc

Like Suze, I look at the big expenses, airfare and hotel. If the 2 added together makes me sweat even one bead, or fosters a bubble of worry in my head, I don't think of traveling. To me, it means it's not the right time for me to travel. I don't factor in my daily miscellaneous travel expenditures (meals, transportation, et al). I don't spend that much to begin with, and it's not done with an eye towards penny-pinching.

I don't factor in my daily at-home expenses in my travel budget. When I travel, I still have utility bills at home to pay. Everything I factor into a travel budget is above and beyond my normal home expenditures. And it works for me.

Kellye

Whether I figure in the "at home" money depends on whether I'm travelling alone or with my entire family. If I'm on the road on my own--professional development trips, etc.--then that is money above the normal budget. If we are all travelling together, then I adjust for the fact that all 5 of us need to eat at home or on the road and therefore, the trip doesn't cost as much as it appears on the surface. When we travel as a family, we don't tend to go to very upscale restaurants anyway--I have three children age 13 and under and they are not exactly gourmet eaters! LOL The gasoline charges if it is a driving trip are generally more since I won't be driving as much at home as on the road; lodging is always extra since the mortgage payment has to be made regardless. Really, the only expense that could be reasonably evened out in my budget is the food I guess.

misty_in_stl

No, we do not factor in the money we would have to spend at home when going on vacation. We have a separate checking account with a debit card that gets an infusion of money each month. Any bonuses from work or tax refunds go into the account as well.

When the balance gets to a certain level, we start discussing destinations and tracking airfare. If it's too cost-prohibitive, we change the destination or time of year we'll travel until we find something we can afford. We only use credit cards to make reservations. Everything else is paid for with the debit card or cash.

crazyfortravel

We do factor in some of what we would spend in expenses at home for the time we're gone and consider that part of our travel budget. We save approximately 200.00 on groceries so it's fair to say that we can put that usual expense towards our trip.

Most items are fixed expenses such as Mortgage, insurance etc so there are only a few areas where we can apply the savings. It amounts to some extra pocket change for our trip to have an extra special meal one night...or a splurge on a nice keepsake. We always spend more than we think we will so every bit helps.

TPAYT

I agree with Bob Brown--
When our daugther graduated college, we got our passports and haven't stopped since. Paid off our small house,etc.

Travel On!