How do you roll?

[wwessing]

DH and I are having discussions regarding vacation funds. I'm wondering how you pay while on vacation.

We've both got our opinions regarding cash, charge and traveler's checks. I think a combination of all three might be the answer. Really, I would like to not have any charges to pay when we get home, but that might not be realistic.

If you don't mind sharing, how do you do it and why? I am particularly interested in those who have a budget in mind and how you stick to it. Does anyone really travel without a budget??

 

[the Dark Marauder]

I roll by curling into a ball and having someone push me down a hill.






In all seriousness, I keep my checkbook with me and I simply use my debit card, then deduct at the end of the day. I keep a mindset of how much I'm willing to spend during the trip, of course.

 

[ky07]

DH and I are having discussions regarding vacation funds. I'm wondering how you pay while on vacation.

We've both got our opinions regarding cash, charge and traveler's checks. I think a combination of all three might be the answer. Really, I would like to not have any charges to pay when we get home, but that might not be realistic.

If you don't mind sharing, how do you do it and why? I am particularly interested in those who have a budget in mind and how you stick to it. Does anyone really travel without a budget??

Don't know if alot of people do it like we do but our vactions usually are done on a small budget cause we pay for it all with our income tax refund.
After we pay for the hotel and plane tickets,park tickets and then we try to budget how much we can spend on food and after that i figure in extra for if we go over or if our DS's want something to remeber the trip.
Usually have the money put on a prepaid credit card and the only trouble we had last year was sometimes the card wouldn't let us get over $300.00 a day which I guess you can say was a good thing cause we came home with money instead of being broke the travel checks are a good idea but I just don't like to carry too much cash in case of things that could happen to you if someone sees you pull out a wad of cash.

 

[yankeepenny]

I never really carry a lot of cash, but we buy tix in advance and usually hotels charge for some or all up front.
i usually pick one or two souvies.
i budget in advance. just works for me. if you did not want to carry cash, use the debit card for food. i do that too.

 

[bubba's mom]

Like Lawrence, income tax refund

Actually I save all year for vacation so I DON'T have to live vacation on a budget. Use AP/AAA discounts wherever I can We go annually, so aside from the hotel and eating, we don't spend much else....i think we bought 2 souvys last year?

We always take cash, but don't carry with us. Charge everything to the room which gets put on our charge card. Pay the bill the next month...with the money I had saved

Hard question to answer....different strokes for different folks

 

[ky07]

Like Lawrence, income tax refund

Actually I save all year for vacation so I DON'T have to live vacation on a budget. Use AP/AAA discounts wherever I can We go annually, so aside from the hotel and eating, we don't spend much else....i think we bought 2 souvys last year?

We always take cash, but don't carry with us. Charge everything to the room which gets put on our charge card. Pay the bill the next month...with the money I had saved

Hard question to answer....different strokes for different folks

LOL I have a AAA card and totally forgot to mention that I am such a bone head Thanks Barb.

 

[CPanther95]

I'm similar to bubba's mom (must be a Berks County thing ).

I try to figure out how much it will take each day to live like a king and not have to worry about money. Then if it strains my budget, I'll look at the duration of the vacation, but I won't make any significant sacrifices for the time period that we're there.

 

[vacation dreamer]

DH and I are having discussions regarding vacation funds. I'm wondering how you pay while on vacation.

We've both got our opinions regarding cash, charge and traveler's checks. I think a combination of all three might be the answer. Really, I would like to not have any charges to pay when we get home, but that might not be realistic.

If you don't mind sharing, how do you do it and why? I am particularly interested in those who have a budget in mind and how you stick to it. Does anyone really travel without a budget??

We mostly take cash with us. Since we pay off our credit cards each month I will start sending extra money a few months before our trip. This way I charge the hotel bill to my credit card and have no bill to come home to!

 

[bubba's mom]

LOL I have a AAA card and totally forgot to mention that I am such a bone head Thanks Barb.

You're welcome........bonehead!

I'm similar to bubba's mom (must be a Berks County thing ).

I try to figure out how much it will take each day to live like a king and not have to worry about money. Then if it strains my budget, I'll look at the duration of the vacation, but I won't make any significant sacrifices for the time period that we're there.

Oh yeah...I sacrifice the entire year to spend freely on vacation....after all, why stress about money on vacation?? That's what the rest of the year is for

 

[AlexandNessa]

Budget? What budget?!

Ok, seriously ...

We have a vacation fund. It has its own interest-bearing savings account. We don't carry a lot of cash on vacation, and we don't pre-pay. IMO, paying ahead of time is silly. Instead, we let our $$ sit in an account earning interest. We charge everything to a card that earns points or cash back or whatever suits our current fancy. (If we're being totally honest, the only time I would pre-pay anything is if I didn't want hubby to see the bill all at once. Otherwise, unless there is some big incentive or I HAVE to pre-pay, I never do.). Then, when our vacation bill comes and we've earned our credit card points, we pay it off immediately out of our vacation fund.

Then, of course, we immediately replenish the fund for the next trip.

We use cash/travelers cheques for Sunray. Cash for the vending carts in the parks that don't take our room keys. We carry mainly $1s and $5s for tips. Otherwise, not much cash, unless we're going off property to Sea World or Disney or something. We budget about $100 - 150 a day between the 2 of us for spending on food and other fun.

Have fun!

 

[CPanther95]

I also would never pre-pay, however I've known plenty of households for which that is the only real way to enforce a budget. They're the ones who put cash in many small envelopes for each expense so it doesn't get tapped for other items.

It isn't the smartest financial use of money, but it is MENSA-smart compared with letting your finances/debt get out of control. If that's what it takes than the loss of interest is a small price to pay.

 

[AlexandNessa]

I also would never pre-pay, however I've known plenty of households for which that is the only real way to enforce a budget. They're the ones who put cash in many small envelopes for each expense so it doesn't get tapped for other items.

It isn't the smartest financial use of money, but it is MENSA-smart compared with letting your finances/debt get out of control. If that's what it takes than the loss of interest is a small price to pay.

I totally do not understand this philosophy at all and would almost like to recommend a basic financial planning & budgeting course for people who do this, but to each his own.

 

[CPanther95]

Generally, it isn't the person who does it that needs the course - it's their spouse.

 

[ky07]

I also would never pre-pay, however I've known plenty of households for which that is the only real way to enforce a budget. They're the ones who put cash in many small envelopes for each expense so it doesn't get tapped for other items.

It isn't the smartest financial use of money, but it is MENSA-smart compared with letting your finances/debt get out of control. If that's what it takes than the loss of interest is a small price to pay.

Can't see how prepaying for something being a bad thing or being on a budget cause you see there are people out here that love to take vacations or have nice things and the only way for them to have it is either save the money and prepay for it when they have it and thats why we prepay and budget cause we get one shot at it and only vacation we get to take for the year and when people try to give financial advise not knowing other peoples situations is pretty rude and sorry don't mean to vent on you but if its the only way you can afford to do things is to prepay then can't see that as a bad thing.

 

[CPanther95]

You either quoted the wrong post or didn't read it very carefully.

 

[vacation dreamer]

I'm confused on how prepaying it not a good thing? For myself I don't have to worry about a budget for vacation, but I don't like coming home to the bill. For a lot of people prepaying helps them take that needed vacation break and still be in a relaxing mood after the vacation ends.

 

[CPanther95]

Like I said, I don't knock anyone for whatever they need to do to keep to a budget. Sadly, budgets are rare things nowadays.

But bottom line is every day you prepay is a day of lost interest.

 

[vacation dreamer]

Like I said, I don't knock anyone for whatever they need to do to keep to a budget. Sadly, budgets are rare things nowadays.

But bottom line is every day you prepay is a day of lost interest.

if you have your money in a regular savings account it's not making much on interest. But if you are taking your money out of a high interest CD or Money Market then yes you could lose if you depend on the interest. This is why we all have our own choice in life.

Back to the OP, hope our suggestions help you!

 

[wwessing]

For this particular vacation, we have a large budget. We have been planning, and saving, for a fairly long time. We actually take 2 or 3 vacations each year, but they are on a smaller scale and closer to home. This is our big, blowout vacation we take every few years, but we still have prepared a budget. We have completed a ton of research, asked a million questions (which the good folks here can attest to) and read book after book. We are well prepared and believe we have all our bases covered. Having said that, we intend to stick to our budget knowing it allows for everything we, and our children, want and expect to do. I don't see us spending an inordinate amount of time worrying or obsessing over the budget, but we will be mindful of it. This is actually a hard lesson learned from a previous vacation where we took all 6 of our then living at home children on a 16 day marathon vacation from Orlando, to Daytona to a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Fortunately, we did learn a very valuable lesson from that obscenely expensive vacation and will not repeat the mistakes we made.

My intention with this question was to find out how others handled their vacation finances. We have a certain way we have always done things, but, in my opinion, being open to change and learning new things is always good. Hence, the question. I wanted to know the how's and the why's of regular, hard working average joe's like ourselves. I'm appreciative that folks have shared their opinions and management preferences with me. It helps take a look at what we are doing and why and gives us options to consider.

Mainly, we like to use traveler's checks. We try to keep charging to a rare minimum in everyday life and that just seems to carry over to vacation. The advantage, we come home and have no bills coming in a month later. The disadvantage, travelers checks are not the most convenient method and require the extra time in managing. Our bank employees are always thrown off when I go in and purchase thousands of dollars in travelers checks. They sometimes don't have what I require on hand, and sometimes I am forced to accept alot of smaller checks. Huge pain in the butt. . . .

So, we are considering alternatives that fit with our style of responsible financial management and again, appreciate the continued input.

 

[Tampa 2]

when we lived in IL, we had a portion of of paychecks transferred into a savings account. we then eventually realized we could have put a down payment on a house here with the money we had spent on those vacations, so we moved to Florida.