Saving money for vacation camping

michigansandzilla wrote:
Those of you with a family, have you come up with any interesting ways to save up for your vacations?
I am starting to try to think of creative ways to save for all of the gas money that we will need next summer. Typically, I put aside a sum each month and that accumulates throughout the year to pay for our vacations. That might not work out this winter for us. So,I have all of our things from when the kids were babies and I just started selling off some of those items. Figure that trading in the highchair and swing is a reasonable idea to finance a trip to the Smokies next spring.

Don't really want to "wait" for next year either b/c we want to do the Smokies, then New York, then Yellowstone, etc. Ideally, we'd like to go every year for a vacation and I don't really see how waiting longer is going to get us more money anyway. There's always some expense that comes up. Kids will only have more expenses as far as clothing and activities goes. Then they will be off to college and we will be too broke even to camp! Might as well do it now and make those memories.

What do you guys do?

Unless you do a monthly budget accounting for every dollar you bring home every month, you're shooting in the dark, relying on a hit or miss way of planning to pay for anything. Dave Ramsey's method of spending every dollare on paper first - before the month begins is the best way I've seen to deal with a family budget, or even any business's budget. Unless you know where the dollars are going on paper, and on purpose, you have no roadmap to guide you. Dave's on 562 +/- radio stations every day across the Country, so it's hard to get tuned in to what he's advising. The first and second months of planning on-paper-on-purpose with your Wife isn't easy, but it gives you an idea where your money is going, and after a couple months, you will find that it's like giving yourself a raise in income - because you're scrutinizing your spending needs AND habits, and cleaning them up if you will!