One Way to Save Money for Vacation

Our family vacation begins in a few weeks. I cannot wait! As long-time readers know, our vacation is our one splurge for the year. We give up a lot, no fancy meals out or cable television or expensive cars, so we tend to spend a little on vacation. The entire family looks forward to it and the day we return home, the question from our children will inevitably be, “When are we going back?”

So, we start that day planning and by “planning” I mean SAVING.

Please pardon me if I step on any toes but I have witnessed way too many people CHARGE-ing their way into Disney or to the shoreline. Dave Ramsey says,

A vacation is a luxury, not a necessity. Most people get into debt because they’ve been living life like a vacation way too long. Then they fall into this cycle of thinking that they deserve something. That type of entitled thinking is what gets people into debt in the first place.

I just do not think you cannot live a frugal life with bad credit card habits. For me personally, I cannot live a frugal life with a credit card at all. Way to much temptation for me so we do not have one. Instead, we have a sock. Yup. A SOCK.

We started SOCKpiling our vacation savings the year Bill and I traveled to Chicago for a Pampered Chef convention. You have not lived until you have seen your husband screaming with glee over pots and pans, caught up in the momentum of an auditorium full of excited women. Anyway, we knew that trip would not happen without preparation. So, I found an old mismatched sock and decorated it. That, became our Chicago fund.

Now, we have socks for vacation and Christmas and whatever. It works for us and we never go into debt for our vacation. There is no dread over going to the mail box because we have been reasonable and smart. Plus, it is just more fun to spend cash.

How do you save for vacation?