We have a general savings account that it gets pulled from. We don't book anything we can't pay for right away. It's usually charged to a credit card that is paid off immediately.
We have a general savings account that it gets pulled from. We don't book anything we can't pay for right away. It's usually charged to a credit card that is paid off immediately.
This is not the MM way to do it, I suppose, but we just pay for them out of our regular checking account, or, if needed pull money out of savings.
We tend to keep a larger float in checking due to wacky expense account stuff for me (I front the cost of my work travel, submit claims, and get reimbursed... it's not uncommon for me to be filing expense reports in the $3-5k range...). So this generally works for us.
Airline miles and hotel points. Everything else, credit card and then we pay for the larger than normal credit card bills from our monthly cash flow. We've never really needed to save for a vacation and have no immediate plans for a vacation that would cost us enough to require dedicated savings.
We have $x deposited directly from every one of my checks into a savings account at a completely separate bank from our "real" money.
To buy tickets we use miles. Otherwise 5 tickets would make flying almost cost prohibitive. So we have to be a little more flexible and plan a little earlier. Next year we are flying out on a Sunday and flying back the following Monday because that's when miles tickets were available. We are also going to the Florida keys because there were decent miles tickets available. We had 4-5 destinations we were considering and it hinged in where we could go with miles. Florida keys it is!
Post by crashgizmo on Sept 22, 2014 9:56:08 GMT -5
We use points when applicable, and always charge them. Typical vacations we cash flow, since we have a decent monthly access that we either save or spend. Our wedding/honeymoon was the only one that exceeded our monthly cash, and we pulled it from regular savings.
We have a general savings account that it gets pulled from. We don't book anything we can't pay for right away. It's usually charged to a credit card that is paid off immediately.
Same
Same here. Well, the account is specifically for travel and money is automatically put in from my check. We use the CC points we accumulated through the year as spending money.
Post by dragonfly08 on Sept 22, 2014 10:13:26 GMT -5
Same as we pay for everything else...charge to the CC for points, when the bill comes, pay in full from our general checking. We will space out the expenses (book plane tix this month, pay hotel deposits next month, etc.) if necessary so we aren't hit with too large a CC bill in any one cycle.
Post by maddiepaddy on Sept 22, 2014 10:30:17 GMT -5
We have a separate CapitalOne savings account for travel that we contribute to monthly. We book all travel on the CC (points and better travel protections than debit) and pay off immediately from our travel account. Unless it was an emergency, I would not book a trip that I couldn't pay for right away.
We also utilize points (CC, hotel, Airline) as best we can and try to redeem at least something for each trip we take.
Post by maddiepaddy on Sept 22, 2014 10:31:21 GMT -5
We have a separate CapitalOne savings account for travel that we contribute to monthly. We book all travel on the CC (points and better travel protections than debit) and pay off immediately from our travel account. Unless it was an emergency, I would not book a trip that I couldn't pay for right away.
We also utilize points (CC, hotel, Airline) as best we can and try to redeem at least something for each trip we take.
Post by msmerymac on Sept 22, 2014 10:38:21 GMT -5
We have various savings accounts (Capital One 360). One is earmarked for vacation/travel. Set amount goes in monthly (though if we have to adjust the budget one month, that's the easiest one to ax, vs. the pet savings, car savings, house savings, or tax slush fund).
Post by BeagleMama on Sept 22, 2014 10:45:48 GMT -5
We put money each month into a travel savings account. All charges are put on a good cash back credit card and then paid off that month with money transferred from our travel "pool."
We have a general savings account for things like this. We book everything on our points CC and then we pull from savings to pay off the bill when it comes in.
We save for vacations (and other luxuries) in a separate account ( at a separate bank). Everything is cash on hand prior to putting it on a credit card (for the points) and then is immediately paid off in full from the account.
We have various savings accounts (Capital One 360). One is earmarked for vacation/travel. Set amount goes in monthly (though if we have to adjust the budget one month, that's the easiest one to ax, vs. the pet savings, car savings, house savings, or tax slush fund).
Same save-to-spend accounts designations almost exactly, and our paychecks are set up to direct deposit a certain amount into each. I also tend to pull from the vacation account first if something comes up. Though last winter I said eff-it and went to Hawaii, partially on our e-fund because the vacation account wasn't full enough for the trip we wanted. It was an emergency dammit; winter sucks. I could have pulled from one of the others (car, IRA, tax) and would have if a true emergency came up before we paid it back, but it ended up not being necessary and it's paid back now.
Same. All of those accounts comprise our total e-fund.
We put money each month into a travel savings account. All charges are put on a good cash back credit card and then paid off that month with money transferred from our travel "pool."
Post by bettyfinn on Sept 22, 2014 12:15:26 GMT -5
For smaller vacations, we just cash flow it. For large, overseas trips that we plan months in advance, we cash flow the costs that come up as we plan (e.g. airbnb bookings, airline taxes (we book flights using miles)) and then have a specific savings account for the remainder of costs we anticipate racking up during our trip (food, ground transportation, hotels, souvenirs). Everything goes on a no-foreign transaction fee credit card for the airline miles.
For our annual camping trip, we use our tax refund to pay that. Not the ideal way but it has been working for us for the past several years. For our additional vacations for the year, we have a savings account that we put in each month towards for it. Once we have enough saved up, we use our CC and then use that $$ from the savings to pay it off.