Saving money for vacation camping

I worked 11 months a year so that we would have a full month (June)every summer. I had a designated saving account with a payroll withdrawal to my credit union for vacations. From the time the kids were in "middle childhood" (aged 8 and up) I did not hire household or yard help. This was their idea! We planned those trips together all year and everybody gave input. I ordered information via snail mail (all we had) and everybody got their own road atlas from State Farm. We could not afford many paid attractions but everybody got to choose one. One year the older boys wanted to go to the air show in Abbotsford BC. Thirty-five years later we are still talking about it. Give up what you must, but don't give up a chance to travel with your kids. lizzie

We try to save up any overtime I get and set it aside for trips and fun. Overtime is money not already budgeted someplace else. Saving up for a trip and paying cash is so much better then loading up credit cards and so much more fun not worrying about how am I going to pay for this.

My mom used to keep a jar in laundry room and put all the money she found in the wash in it, I think I funded a world cruse. :)

relaxin wrote:
good 'ol cash, back in the day I could always make a few bucks here and there, and still could, but have enough work I already do 10+ hour days and work as much as 8 days a week when its busy
cutting grass for someone who can't can net you an extra 20 to 40 dollars a week, have a rototiller?? do a couple gardens in the spring,theres a couple hundred bucks,,,, got a snow blower, do a couple driveways and put the money in a jar. do some hobby stuff,,, if its good enough, sell it online.
up here car detailing can cost up to $75 bucks ,,, not bad for a saterday afternoon

I do taxes on the side in the springtime, that pays for my toys. Unfortunately, the side business keeps growing - good problem but cuts into camping time.

Many I know do side jobs or cash work to make a little extra. Most folks will have a skill someone will pay you for.

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!

The only way we took vacations when we had all 6 kids living at home was for me to go to work. First Part-time job and then I went Full-time.

We only took a big trip every other year. Just trying to find a 10-14 day stretch in summer we could both take off was the hardest part. We did West Coast Beach vacations, East Coast History (Gettysburg, Williamsburg), Disney World, Universal and packed a lot into those 10 days.

Packed bag lunches, homemade Pizza instead of Little Caesar's on Friday nights and the best advice mentioned already was $XXX cash for food each week. DH got his allowance out of it and all groceries, toiletries and kids allowances for their school activities. If I didn't use the full amount, it carried over into the Cash Vacation envelope.

Now it's just the two of us, we full-time and use Rewards CC's to help fund our extras.

Final piece of advice, we didn't send any of our kids to college, they found their own way to pay for it...

I don't know how old your kids are but getting them into the game adds to the fun and teaches about savings. Even if you have a penny jar going.

Don't invest your money in market as it is really rigged against the little guy, and crashes every once in awhile to get rid of the riffraff and make the rich richer.

Only use paper bills/money for purchases. At the end of the day, put all change in a jar.
If you use an atm/check card at the grocery, get $20 cash (or however much you saved buying stuff on sale). Put that in a drawer/box and don't touch it.
If you work, make lunch at home and put the $5-10 you would have spent in the drawer/box. Same goes for coffee in the mornings.

Just from the change jar, we save up over $400 per year.
From the grocery store, about $1500 per year.
From making lunch at home, $1000 per year.
If you save in small increments (pay yourself) it can add up quickly.

I like my trips as "free" as possible or at least it feels like free.
-save bonus bucks or points on gas purchases and get a couple free tanks of fuel
- buy extra non perishable foods each grocery trip, cans and dry goods pop water, save them for the trip,,,, so a couple bucks extra each week, not noticeable.
- I use to empty my pocket of change into jars and use that for vacations, roll it and take to the bank, would be enough to pay for the camp site.
- if your financial situation does not allow you to easily pay for camping, use a skill you may have and do some od jobs on the weekends you are home,,, good 'ol cash, back in the day I could always make a few bucks here and there, and still could, but have enough work I already do 10+ hour days and work as much as 8 days a week when its busy
cutting grass for someone who can't can net you an extra 20 to 40 dollars a week, have a rototiller?? do a couple gardens in the spring,theres a couple hundred bucks,,,, got a snow blower, do a couple driveways and put the money in a jar. do some hobby stuff,,, if its good enough, sell it online.
up here car detailing can cost up to $75 bucks ,,, not bad for a saterday afternoon

theres always a way to bring in a little extra, its just a matter of finding it, it may be more or less than you make working but even if its less its still something more than you had without it. I know of an adult who has a paper route on top of his full time job, he looks at it as he goes for a walk every day which is a healthy thing to do, and he gets paid, not much but better than not having it.

Supercharged wrote:
I started on this in 1962 when I first started workout west. I invested well as I made more money I invested more, and more, and then came along inflation, so I used it to reinvest and reinvest until I had two incomes and then three and to five and then ten. So when we want to go on a vacation I just open up the vault and take out a bushel at a time and spend it.

You did it right, I hope your children watched and listened.

The sad thing, today for young families and older ones having to start over, filling that bushel and getting a good price for the corn is a lot harder. Job losses, unstable economies etc has made it a struggle to save for anything.
Also, we have become a "want it now so we'll have it now" society. A lot of people have gotten caught up in the easy credit given out and then through no fault of their own lost a job and are struggling.
Our vault is an envelope. It gets a weekly deposit.

I started on this in 1962 when I first started workout west. I invested well as I made more money I invested more, and more, and then came along inflation, so I used it to reinvest and reinvest until I had two incomes and then three and to five and then ten. So when we want to go on a vacation I just open up the vault and take out a bushel at a time and spend it.