S/O Vacations - budget/frequency

[bk1]

How do you pay for your vacations? Do you budget monthly, use bonus money, charge it, etc?

How frequently do you vacation? Short trips/long trips?





We never have prioritized vacations so we don't budget for them. The few trips we have taken were because we were invited along and it was paid for or we just had extra money from tax refund and used it. 

[HoneySpider]

For the purposes of this discussion I am going to lump "trips to visit family" in with vacations since we probably do more of those than anything (womp womp)

We do a lot more short trips/weekends away than anything, but usually have one longer trip a year (to Chicago). We allocate money in advance, typically out of a lump sum like our tax refund. My general system is to move any surplus money each month into savings and earmark for various things, including trips.

The last big vacation we took was to Italy, and we paid for that with money we got from selling our house.

We don't typically do spur of the moment trips, so I have enough time to plan and save for when we do go.

[wineandcheese]

Our travel agent lets us do payments so we just pay as we can. We don't charge them at all. We budget an amount out of our paycheck to make payments as long as bills are paid.

We try to do 2 long trips a year. Plus a few weekend trips.

We try to do a cruise once a year since we can completely disconnect. Plus at least 1 visit to his family in Florida. Our weekend trips are usually wine related.

[amaranth]

Before his grad school payments kicked in it was a monthly budget item which allowed us to presave a bunch that we still have a bit left of. Then at tax/bonus time we put a few more thousand in that account for 2017 trips.

We also have a credit card that gives higher point's for travel purchases and we can book through them at a discount. Our points have bought all our airfare the past few years!

Once grad school is paid off we will go back to putting money aside monthly but until then, when we run out, no more vacations (so I'm trying to book carefully).

[pooh8402]

Cash flow, but we only take a major vacation once every 2 years or so.

[estrellita]

We take some money from savings if needed. And/or put stuff on the credit card and pay it off immediately (and save the rewards for another vacation!). We're not good at budgets so we just go with what seems reasonable. I try to find hotels that are cheap, but also not crappy. I look on my work's deals site as well as other sites to find the best deals.

[estrellita]

Oh and as for frequency, we try to take one bigger road trip a year. We also occasionally go somewhere with my parents (which they mostly pay for). In the past we went camping with ILs over a weekend which doesn't cost us much and we haven't done that since E was born but we're planning on it this year!

[Blue Moon]

We only go on vacations we can pay for right away. We usually put on our Amex and pay off immediately. The last real vacation we took was to Mexico in June 2013 as a "last hurrah" before kids. I actually found out I was pregnant on that trip, but it didn't wind up sticking.

Last summer, we were invited along on a trip to the beach and mountains with our families but that was a very different type of vacation and I hesitate to even call it that. If I have to get up and make my bed, do laundry, grocery shop and cook and clean then it's not a vacation in my eyes. It can still be fun of course, but it's not the same as the all-inclusives we're used to.

I know the next few years will not contain any vacations most likely. Two kids in daycare is going to be a huge part of our budget, but that's obviously a sacrifice we're willing to make. When we drop to one daycare payment in two years, then we'll see.

[estrellita]

Has anyone tried Groupon getaways? I get the emails (can't remember why, lol) and it's making me want to go to all the places! We wanted to do a 5 year anniversary trip next year (though maybe not close to our anniversary). I know I have to read all the terms carefully but the prices seem good!

[awick14]

Our vacations are mostly camping trips and we don't really budget for them. But all it really costs us is the gas to get there. (As we bring our own food etc)

I want to plan a trip for our 10 year anniversary, but we need to talk about it still. (We have 4 years so I'm not in a huge rush)

I also need to look into getting a credit card with travel points but the only one that I know of that's great is for an airline that I can't stand flying with. (Air Canada) Do I need to look into other options still. If I find one that works we will charge everything and then pay it off right away.

[grover]

We cash flow them.

But we also don't take them often due to student loans and house projects.

We honeymooned in 2010. Family Vacation with in-laws in 2011. Then our all inclusive in Mexico in 2016.

H mentioned doing Disney when A is 6 or 7, but I'm thinking when she's 4 or 5 just so we don't have to pull me and her both out of school to go.

Our ten year is in 2020 and I'd like to do a short Vaca then, but it'll depend on how many kids we have then and the car loan situation (my student loan forgiveness should have been applied to most of my loans at that point).

[melsamoony]

Similar to some other posters we cash flow them but usually first put them on our credit card for points and to be paid off immediately.

Our points have paid for our flights on some of our big vacays. In the last 3 years we have taken 4 vacations and have 2 planed for this year. Out of all of those only 2 have involved airfare. The other 4 have been family vacays so total costs have been only between 500-600$ since it was split many ways.

We have a last minute SF trip coming up in June that we are cashflowing.