Frugal vacations - isn’t a term you hear very often. When most people think of vacations, penny-pinching is the furthest thing from their minds.
Hotels! Rental cars! Exotic destinations! None of that stuff comes cheap, and vacationers have long since stopped expecting it to be inexpensive.
"Lack of money is no obstacle.
Lack of an idea is an obstacle.”
- Ken Hakuta |
But guess what. There are plenty of vacations that can be enjoyed even by families on a tight budget.
Just because you’ve committed to saving money in order to gain financial security doesn’t mean you have to quit taking family vacations. It just means you have to do a little more planning and exercise a little more creativity – frugal vacations can be had.
First, consider the point of a family vacation. The reason we travel as families - instead of Mom and Dad taking a trip alone, or sending the kids off somewhere by themselves - is that we want to be together.
We want to create special memories that will last a lifetime. So the destination doesn’t really matter, does it? If you think about it, a lot of your happiest family memories from your own childhood probably have nothing to do with where you were at the time.
It’s the fact that you were together as a family that was key; this is what you remember.
With that in mind, you can start planning your frugal vacations. Instead of driving hundreds of miles and spending so much money on gas, food and lodging, consider something closer to home.
For example, a camping trip, or a visit to the beach, or a ski trip.
Look at what’s within a two-hour driving radius from your home and see what you can come up with for a day trip, or an overnight trip.
Many families love camping, and if your group does, you’ll save hundreds of dollars on motels alone.
Frugal vacations are not limited to just camping trips. Camping may be how you spend your nights, while you spend your days seeing city sights or enjoying other activities.
Food is a major expense on many family vacations. However, since you’re traveling, you can’t exactly cook your own meals. Or can you?
If you must stay in a hotel, find a room with kitchen facilities and prepare your meals there. If no hotels are involved, make meals beforehand and bring them with you. You can do quite a bit with picnic-style eating; you don’t have to always “rough it.”
The most important tip for frugal vacations is to plan everything in advance.
Know where your money is going to be spent, and how much of it. Then, just focus on having fun! Enjoy making those lasting memories together as a family.
"The greatest gifts you can give your children
are the roots of responsibility
and the wings of independence.”
- Denis Waitley |
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Debt is NOT your friend. It's not a wonderful "tool" for building wealth. That's a myth.
