My husband and I decided that a vacation this summer would be a priority. I have a very specific budget for this summer to cover my husband being able to work full-time on his dissertation for his Phd. A money plan for vacation was not part of that budget, unfortunately. There just wasn't any money there in my budget...or so I thought.
We were going to dip into our savings, just a bit, to go to the beach with my family. After a little planning, however, I have found some money in our very strict budget to take a vacation without spending our savings. Here are a few steps to finding money in your budget for an unplanned vacation:
1. Look at what expenses you will not incur while on vacation: groceries (we will have a set price for the entire vacation that will include groceries, gas, lodgings, and utilities). So, what I did was assign the grocery money we would spend while we are at home to vacation: that covers $75 of the cost. I looked in my refrigerator to see which leftovers, freezer staples, and canned goods could cover the week before we go on our trip. It turned out we have enough pantry staples to avoid the grocery store for the week before we leave. We put that $75 towards vacation.
2. Decide if there are any sections of your budget that are less important to you than vacation. For me, I happily sacrificed our measly $25 clothes budget and put it towards vacation. Eating out budget for the month of may? Yes, I will put that towards vacation as well.
3. Find an odd job to do. We know that my husband will have a day of work (not included in our normal income), and we know, roughly, how much money he will be paid. So, we allot that money to vacation as well.
With just a little investigation, I have found money for our vacation without going over our budget.
We will have some fun soaking in the sun...
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