How do you decide HOW MUCH money to spend on your family vacation?

Question

I assume this varies from famility to family, but is there a good rule of thumb on how much is a "right" ammount related with your income?

Is a month's worth of your salary too much, too little, just right?

how do you do it?

LM

Answer 1

My rule of thumb for *any* entertainment is this: don't spend more than you can earn in the same period of time. For example, if I earn $20/hr, then I'd better not spend more than $40 at a movie theater for a two-hour movie, and yes, this even means not spending more than $20 for an hour-long dinner at a restaurant. Similarly, I wouldn't want to spend more than $800 for a week-long vacation ($20/hr * 40 hrs/week.) The reason is simple... I don't want to have to *work longer* in order to *play less*.

For vacations, we love to go tent camping... and that's great, because it's one of the cheapest family vacations available. As a result, our family tradition is four years of camping vacations followed by one splurge year... and in this case, we'd prefer the splurge to stay within the rule of thumb above, but we're flexible this time, since it only happens once every five years.

As for this year, we're going to go tent camping to Glacier Nat'l Park (we live in the Northwest.)

Have a great vacation this summer!

Answer 2

Depends on the size of the family. But, I figure Hotel, Food, Fuel for the amount of days. Then figure spending money for everyone, this be snacks, drinks and a few souvenirs, maybe a Helicopter ride! We try not to go hog wild with souvenirs but try to find 1-2 things that cool.
Total it up. For example we say it $1,200. Then I save $100 a month or $50 whatever and we good to go when we have the money, be it 1 or 2 years to save.
The main thing I look at!!!! I would rather have too much money, than not enough. Say I go with the $1,200. If, I make it home with $100 left over great! But, I sure not want to run out half way through the fun.

Answer 3

Most people would budget what money they have. If you have savings be sure you leave yourself enough money to cover all of your bills for an extra month or more. After that if you fancy a great holiday it depends what you want to spend. It all depends on your personal finances. I know a lot of people also pay in advance so they book a holiday a year ahead and pay it off throughout the year so they don't have to have the money ahead of time, just paying as you go along.

I would think that £2000-£5000 is more than enough for a great holiday *s* Obviously depending on how far from home you want to go and considering the money conversion of where you're going to.

Answer 4

We put aside "x" amount of money per month into a vacation fund. When we can pay for our vacation out of that fund, then we go. That way we don't have to worry about spending too much out of our budget. Also, we have cash back credit cards that we don't turn in until it's time for the vacation, that way we have extra fun money and can splurge on something frivolous that we wouldn't normally have done.

Answer 5

I'm going through that too for August vacation. I'm not using a rule of thumb just whatever it costs for where we want to stay. We are taking a car trip and staying at a variety of places. It's our 2 weeks to splurge and that's it!

Answer 6

Just decide what we can afford. Usually we use my husbands bonus cheques, he gets one every four months. So we save 2 of the bonus cheques and use that for money,each cheque equals about a month's worth of salary.

Answer 7

it is not your duty to pay human beings's charges, you're no longer their own financer. Your brother and SIL have the terrific to take a trip, that's their earned money. in case you have been clever, you are able to take your own trip and get faraway from this headache which you're enduring.

Answer 8

i am cheap so i just spend a weeks pay, but in Texas that can go pretty far!