Saving money for vacation camping

[michigansandzil]

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?

[Boskie]

Wife starts after the first of the year selling some of her sewing on ebay. In the spring she goes through our shed, house and garage finding stuff we don't need or haven't used and does a garage-yard sale. Be surprised what people will buy..Works for us..

[tatest]

We worked out a budget that included needs and wants, matched that to income, made savings a "need" and carved that from the "wants" budget. You may find that you just have to say no to a lot of things you want.

That was fairly late in life, after about 20 years of putting wants first and getting consumer debt up to a year's income. So before we could start saving for special things like travel, that hunk of the budget for three years paid down debt.

Without a budget that includes savings, and the will to stick to it, savings usually don't accumulate.

[patperry2766]

AMEX

I set up a online savings account with AMEX. I have $20 drafted out of my checking account every week....it's a small enough amount that it's easy to budget for, and I can get the money transferred back into my checking account within a couple of days.

[pawatt]

Sell a bunch of stuff you don't need on eBay, Craig's List & have a big garage sale. Set it all aside for camping.

[noe-place]

Planning is everything. We started financial planning long ago so now we're in a position to travel whenever we wish. Unfortunately our daughter and son in law divorced a couple of years ago so now we have to stay home and pick up grandson after school during the year while DD works and the son in law moved out of town and does NOTHING toward supporting his son. We don't mind we take him with us everywhere we go and we've still seen the whole USA because we planned our finances well in advance. We just don't get to head out in the MH as often as we'd planned.

[TnCamperMama]

This may sound silly to some, but we have a large pickle jar on the entry table. We put change and small bills in. Im a SAHM, and on a very tight budget. It adds up, and we all 4 contribute to the "camping fund".
Right now we are a pay check to pay check family, as are most folks, we know it won't always be like that. We choose to take a vacation anyway, b/c we need the family time and want our kids to look back and say, "Yeah, we were kinda poor, but our parents always made sure we had some sort of family vac every year." We see it like this, you gotta buy groceries at home or not, so why not go to the campground? We don't have a lot of debt b/c we don't have "stuff" either. I drive a new car, but shop at Goodwill. 🙂 We do plan to drop some change on a nice used camper early next year, but that will be after the other veh is paid off.
That's why we choose camping b/c even if we decide to go to the beach or somewhere, you still have to rent a condo and cook and such. Why not be out in nature while enjoying things like that. I don't need some swanky hotel, give me a campfire, a comfy chair, my kids playing, and a burnt marshmallow any day.
We can't afford to invest in stocks and such right now, being home with my kids is more important than a 2nd income to us. We still go have some fun with our boys.

[matt7591]

Two words: Dave Ramsey. He has the best financial wisdom for everyone from people out of work and not enough money to pay bills to wealthy.

Start with the "Baby steps" on his web site. Highly recommend his book to reinforce the baby steps concept.

[Matt_Colie]

Well Sand,

You happen to be in the worst place at the worst time in history and the administration has said that they want it to be worse for you. (This is not an opinion - read what he said.)

Did you see the movie "Up"? Did you see how the money they were saving kept getting used for other things? She finally died and they had never been anywhere? Remember That...

Now, how to deal with it. Save money. (¡duh!) Don't invest it per se, buy stock (material, canned food & etc)for the trip and put it aside with tags. Don't let anybody get into it for any reason.

I don't know where you are in MI but I am near DTW. The Smokies isn't very far, but it can be a good trip. Start planning it NOW.

¿Are you AAA members? If you are go there and get the camping guide and guide books - free (actually, you have been paying for them for years).
Then, log onto the web site and start using the online triptick. Put in starts and destinations and go to level 6 and walk it along. It will come up with things to see and do along the way - With COST and a REVIEW of each. The site is a little cumbersome to use, just be sure you save often.

Next, get familiar with GasBuddy.com. This can save you a bunch of fuel money, but you have to plan.

We are now (finally) two old retired geezers that had out life savings erased by the abrogation of the bankruptcy laws (again - not an opinion - look it up) but we are still able to travel (much less than I had planned) because we do it carefully. Very Carefully. Not only do we often overnight (not tonight) at Walmart, Cabela's (the best) and others, but we shop there as well. Between the money we save on fuel and food, it does not cost all that much more to travel than it does to stay home. (It does cost more, but if we live the time at home in frugal manner, we can keep it up.

We are currently in the middle of a 2k mile +/- excursion and when we get home we will probably sign up for another ~600 mile to be a few weeks down the road.

Our kids are gone now, but we did as much when they were home. They still talk about it.

Matt

[michigansandzil]

dahkota wrote:
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.

While I think that everyone had some good suggestions, this really makes sense to me.
Typically, I pay my bills and withdraw what's left and set it aside for vacation. We have more expenses this year and this previous method probably won't work. But, if I take what I save at the grocery store, and set it aside weekly I will probably end up with the same amount. Smaller weekly self payments will be easier and less noticeable that a larger monthly self payment.

Easy and brilliant. Thanks for the idea.

[Supercharged]

To many people worry about the price of bread or the brand of tire, I go out and building the tire store rents, they give me my tires after that for free. Only one person heard what I said. I thank him and know he is me, just in Canada.

[lizzie]

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

[Dyngbld]

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. 🙂

[Bearhawk]

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.

[Skid_Row_Joe]

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!