Financial and Saving Strategies: Afford Your Dream Vacation

Most people think they can't afford a vacation. No matter how they budget, there's never enough. Not true. We make time and money for things that are important to us.

Just as you need to pay yourself first (with savings), you need to dedicate money for a vacation because it recharges your batteries.

You're looking at your budget, right in front of your eyes in black and white...mocking you! Daring you! You can't squeeze a penny more out to even pencil in a trip to the local rest stop three miles from your house to feed the birds and get a candy bar from the vending machine the numbers sneer. Vacation fund? Who are you kidding? Take control and show that pencil who is in charge.

In looking at that budget, you've inadvertently hit upon the problem. The problem most people have with budgeting is that they lie. They figure if they don't pencil in the dollar here or there, it doesn't really get spent.

Who are you fooling? Only yourself.

You will find more than enough money to take a vacation if you 1) document your spending and then 2) take a hard look at the things you spend money on that you try to hide while doing your annual budget. Seriously, who are you trying to fool by not listing that daily cup of coffee you get at the drive-thru window each day on your way into work? Anyone who has ever seen Dr. Phil at least once has heard the phrase: You can't change what you don't acknowledge.

Money slips through our fingers penny by penny, not in wads of dollars. It's the $1.50 cup of coffee at the drive-thru window, the $3.59 birthday card for someone we barely know, the $35 on a shirt we can't take back because we shoved the receipt in the bottom of our overstuffed purse and now the receipt is AWOL, along with the $35 we would have gotten back. Add those few things up, and you've paid for quite a few umbrella-embellished drinks.

Pay Yourself First. Forget the budget. Just as you have your employer put a few bucks away in your 401k (and you get used to living on the lesser amount), do the same for your vacation. Open up a passbook account dedicated to a vacation. If your company allows you to break up the direct deposit, set aside $20 that gets direct deposited to that separate account. If you can't do it, transfer it over to the account as soon as your direct deposit shows up. Write a check, if you have to, treating it like any other bill you have. The point is, don't make it an option. This is a bill that has to be paid on "x" day of the month or you incur late fees. If it helps you to stick with the plan, charge yourself a late fee and interest.

Use Money You Already Have. I'm a big fan of mind games when it comes to saving money, and this one involves grocery shopping. Take the time to clip coupons, even if you've never done it before. I hear you groaning, but bear with me. You'll thank me. You won't bring me back a souvenir from your trip, but you'll thank me. Even if you hate clipping coupons, clip just ONE. The little bit you save from the one clipped coupon is more than you had before.

If you have children, make it a family game. Ask them to cut out "x" type of coupons, then "y". Add a few mugs of hot chocolate and a snack tray as you're working, and you have family time as well as a concrete goal in progress. You may hear something you've missed hearing because you've been stressing out over things you think you don't have. You'll hear laughter because you're spending time together in a common goal, talking about the day, sharing jokes, sharing time.

Even if you hated cutting out coupons initially, my guess is, you'll start doing it. Why? Because NOW you have a goal---beaches, mountains, R&R. It's not an abstract concept anymore. Now, when you get the 50 cents off the can off coffee you buy each week anyway, that 50 cents brings you one step closer to your vacation destination---and you still end up with your coffee at the end of the week. Win/win. Always think win/win.

Don't go nuts with the coupons. We've all seen those ladies who seem to have a coupon for everything they buy. Odds are if you analyze their shopping carts, you'll find it full of stuff they don't need just because they have a coupon for it, and they feel compelled to use it. Never, never buy something simply because you have the coupon! If you have a coupon for something that's on sale (or never goes on sale) AND you need it (even for the future if it's something you use all the time), clip and use that coupon. Otherwise, stick to the items you are shopping for that day.

Then pay yourself for your efforts! Now, here's where the ka-ching part comes in!

When you get home from shopping, see what those few coupons saved you on the products you always use. Let's go back to the concept of that cup of coffee that you stopped to buy at the drive-thru window daily out of habit and laziness. It would have taken an extra 30 seconds out of your busy day to pour that last bit of morning coffee into one of those travel mugs to take with you, but you got engrained in a bad habit.

If you make clipping that coupon a habit, you'll end up with a great feeling because you made the effort for something that is important to you: a vacation. It's tangible. And all of a sudden, it's within your reach. As with anything, it starts out small, and you'll wonder why you bother at first, but six months from now, you'll see real money for your efforts. Your goal is taking shape.

Why are You Keeping That? The environment aside, the way people waste things should appall all of us. A former boss I had was going to throw away a bunch of toner meant for printers and copiers we no longer owned. I offered to take the toner, then sell it through eBay or Craigslist, but I wanted him and my coworkers to learn something. I put up a caveat that the money I earned would be used to pay for a nice dinner for the ladies in my office. If you learn nothing else by all of this, learn that you should make your savings quantifiable! Ultimately, those boxes of toner he wanted to toss sold for over $500! The gentleman who bought them needed them (again, win/win). The ladies and I had a great dinner, and we had enough money left over to have lunch catered on a dreary winter day which we shared with the entire staff. Good feelings all around. Win/win.

Look around your house for "stuff". Do you have boxes of children's clothes you've been unwilling to part with, thinking you'll save them for when your children have children. Let's get real. Those clothes will dry rot before your grandchildren get to wear them. Sell them. Take them to a local consignment shop, put them up on eBay or set up at a church flea market. All of the money earned goes to your vacation fund.

Now, let it's time to let your imagination take over. Can you trade a few days babysitting with a friend who will let you borrow a cute set of matching luggage for your trip? Think "no boundaries" as you work towards your goal. Can you bake batch of cookies so that you can borrow a special night-out dress or a cute pair of boots you've admired on your friend. You've just saved yourself a few buck on your vacation wardrobe.

Eventually, it will become habit, then almost like a game, particularly if you can involve the whole family. Along the way, pull out brochures with photos of your vacation goal. To make it really fun, cut out faces of your family members and paste them over the faces in the brochures. Make lists and plans on what you want to do and see. Make it real. Build it, and they will come, right? I know that's true because I saw the movie.

It won't take long for you to reach that goal. Then you'll have only one thing to say: Can someone pass me the suntan lotion!