What is your vacation budget?

[Floriafi]

I'm thinking 3% a year so for me that's $970. What about you?

[NetSkyBlue]

We don't really have one. We don't take regular vacations. I get 2 weeks paid vacation from work, and one of these I just stay home and relax (though I usually still work my night job during this time). The second week I try to take at the same time as BF, who gets only one week off, no pay.

Last year, we did end up going on a road trip and stayed with his family in the South, but we just saved up for a couple of months beforehand. It's harder when you have to save up that week's normal income in addition to vacation expenses. This year, we have no plans.

[disneysteve]

It varies a bit year to year depending on where we go but usually about $4,500 for 2 weeks in Disney World and another thousand or two for other trips during the year.

[rennigade]

Going to FL and AK later this year..should be around $3k combined.

FL - Free housing, Free food
AK - Free flights and most hotel nights (points from cc's)

[Baby_nurse]

My budget this year is $1500 for a 10 day trip.

[Nika]

Whatever we can afford after our obligations and basic savings goals are met. Sometimes as high as 20% of annual income. People might feel this is crazy, but this is what we enjoy.

And considering that some years we spend 6-9 weeks on vacation, that is not an "out there" figure if you see the ratio of time to money.

This year we will have to do less than usual. I'm still struggling with it. I just came back from Miami and now have the itch to go again and bring baby and family. But I want to fix up some things in the apartment and we need to put some money into baby's educational savings account.

[TBH]

We have a big family and everybody is very scattered, so we almost never go on vacation except to visit people. This is nice in a way because our family obligingly lives in very nice places, and we only have to pay for gas and tolls or plane tickets, and a few incidentals like meals out or buying a round of groceries for our hosts. I think we probably spend $2000-3000 a year on these trips.

This year, for the first time in a million years, we are actually going on a one-week trip to a place where we know no one. I'm very excited.

[amarowsky]

Currently I save 1% of my net check plus the 2% rewards from my amex. I think the 1% is only 14 _ 20 every two weeks. So I think I'm going to bump it up to 3%. Only thing planned is two weekends camping and tubing the rifle river up north Michigan. And a week in New Orleans for new years. But I would like to throw in another long weekend somewhere or possibly a short cruise. Maybe a total of $2500 _ 3000 would be my needed amount.

[amarowsky]

I just had an Idea, relating to vacation budget.

In my emergency fund I have like $6k extra just sitting in cash that I was about to invest, likewise I have 2k extra in my bank account from selling and old car. Would it sound like a good idea to take the money and invest the minimum amount (probably 5k) into a cheaper income bearing fund, like http://www.calamos.com/FundInvestor/....aspx?name=CHI that provides monthly income , to use that as a method of supplementing my vacation savings. Also this fund could be sold should it be necessary for an emergency. This fund offeres 9% annual return paid monthly, I could use this to supplement instead of raising my percentage saved by 2%

any reason that using an income fund w/ extra cash and using the dividends paid NOT be a decent idea as long as I don't use the principal?

[breathemusic]

I don't actually budget for vacations, I just put all my spare money every so often into savings, and when I want to take a vacataion, I figure out what i can afford and how much I can spend.

Most of my vacations since college have been visiting various friends in other states though, so I often have a free place to stay. Or if I'm taking a vacation with no perks like that, I usually book flights and hotels WAY in advance to get cheap rates and shop around for cheap hotels. So no matter how much I spend on any particular vacation, I feel like I took it at a pretty good price.

[feh]

We don't have one. We're fortunate enough that we don't really need to save for vacations.

We never take more than one per year, and they tend to be five days in a city/area we want to explore. After airfare, hotel, etc, total bill for a family of 3 ranges from $3K-5K.

[coffee]

Probably about 8k a yr. I am taking care of an elderly parent and do not have a mortgage so I get out for 3 days 4x a yr

[sherylgray]

Financial Planning

First of all, make an estimate for the overall expenses of the year, and then plan for the vacation budget. In my view, it should not be more than 5% of the total expense for an year.

[thesimplemoneyblog]

It may be whatever you can afford so long as you are saving for your other goals (retirement, children's education, etc.) appropriately too. For some people, this may be 1% while for others (as mentioned by earlier posters) it could be 20%. Each person has their own unique set of expenses that are most meaningful to them, and if this is your priority, then maybe you would be willing to cut out other expenses (smaller home, eating out less, etc.) to make it work within your goals and objectives.

[Anton James]

Saving for a holiday used to be the norm in the good old days, now, with credit availble, many dont save any more.

My suggestion, save a little cash, then when you are ready look at privately renting.

If you contact property owners direct you can get great deals. If you need to fly, arrange your own flights, or drive. In this way, with a family to worry about, it is possible to arrange half price holidays where you are taking a break somewhere that you have personally researched and decided omn.

There are many cheap airlines these days and many sites online where you van get great deals direct.