How To Afford Family Vacation On $30,000 A Year

Do you need a family vacation? Who doesn’t? If you don’t take one soon will your insanity build until it topples in heaps? Were you thinking gosh I need a vacation as you were cleaning dishes for the 90th time today? You were wondering who dropped all these dishes off and when your dishwasher relief was coming in for the second shift?

You waited for them as the dishes piled up once more. You came to the conclusion you were first shift, second, shift, third shift, and the last shift. You are in fact an expert at dry food removal, so this skill and making hairballs should afford you a page in the Guinness Book of World Records but not a home on millionaire’s row.

Back to that family vacations. You know you can take one for pennies on the dollar. You most definitely deserve one no one does more for less than you. You think about it.

How to afford a Family vacation on 30,000 a year when you can barely afford the gas to the grocery store?

The first step to meeting a goal is making one. What can do this while living on 30,000 or less?

You need to focus on what you want and what you can afford. Are you more of a beach diva or a ski bum? Do you desire to do nothing or defying death? Do you want to go far or stay close? Do you have a preference on driving, flying, or taking to the seas?

Once you have a goal the next step is to pick an amount you can budget. You may not be able to take this vacation right now or six months from now, but it is something to work towards.

You can do this; you once got pen off leather. You can do anything! You make a list of things to consider when planning a trip:
1) Location
2) Travel costs to the location
3) Travel expenses while at the location
4) Accommodation cost
5) Meal costs
6) Activities while onsite
7) Best time of year to travel
8) Daily budget
9) Items you may have to buy for the trip (Clothes, equipment (camping gear or scuba), and possible maintenance to your personal car if you plan to drive
10) Incidentals

Now that you have that mock budget add 20% to it. That will be your planning goal. If you need to figure out ways to save money for this trip review our posts on living on 30,000 or less for great money saving life changing tips!

You have a couple of choices here on how to afford a family vacation on 30,000 a year you can beg, borrow, or steal. I do not suggest the begging part unless you want to count begging your kids to finish their dinner, so you aren’t wasting money.

How about borrowing? Make a list of everything you can borrow from the list above to bring your cost down. You can now acquire houses, clothing, and tools. I know you have been looking at that great tent your neighbor has to ask to borrow it. You can also swap houses with people and borrow their location through AirBnB.

Steal. I do not mean pull a Winona Ryder. I mean get a steal of a deal. You can do this in a couple of ways. One travel at an off time. I find that prices are lower during the week and during different times of a year. You can also look on a site like Groupon to get incredible savings by booking ahead. The best trick is to go to a website and put the trip you want to your cart after you have registered for emails. You will get alerts for sales on that very journey. Voila! It is like getting an email coupon.

Another great way to earn travel is to use a credit card that gives it to you. I have one, and I pay it off every Wednesday it affords us four days at a hotel a year. I also know that asking for hotel points and frequent flyer miles for gifts is a very good idea. You can have the vacation of your dreams it may just be four days instead of seven. It may be within driving distance instead of flying. It may be Tuesday- Friday instead of over the weekend. It may involve cooking in your room using a crockpot instead of fancy meals out. We all know you can’t have everything all the time, but you can have something fantastic and still live within your budget.

Now get out from under those dishes that is why they made children and plan your family vacation.

For more tips and tricks on living well on 30,000 or less read these posts:

How to Save Up Money: Tips for Living on $30000 or Less
Frugal Living Ideas: 5 Tips on Living on 30000 or Less

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Check out our other travel tips:

Quick Tips on Packing for Vacation with Kids
Florida’s Gulf County Vacation Tips
Spring Break Stay at Home Vacation Ideas for Kids
Family Vacations on a Budget