Top 10 Family Holiday Budgeting Tips
We love family holidays, we are lucky we’ve had so many Unforgettable Family Holidays, there is nothing like creating Special Memories at Family Holidays. I even see myself as Living as an Eternal Holiday.
The whole excitement starts from the moment we start looking for our perfect family holiday destination, while we are getting ready for our time away, to when we arrive at our final destination.
Holidays should be fun and enjoyable, but it doesn’t mean that you need to be out of pocket and sacrifice your whole year’s savings for a week or two of enjoyment. As much as we love travelling and spending quality time with our family, we also want to make sure we can stretch our hard-earned money as much as possible.
Carton FX challenged mums to share their Top 10 holiday budgeting tips, so here are my best tips, that have been tried and tested during our countless holidays:
- Plan ahead
No matter which type of holiday you are after, whether you are going to somewhere in the UK, or abroad, you need to plan ahead. As soon as we come back from our holiday, we start thinking about where we would like to go and plan our next holiday well in advance. It may sound a bit over the top, but there is no harm in being organised.
- Set your budget
Once you’ve decided where you would like your next family holiday to be, set budgets and decide how much you can afford. If you really want a very expensive, once in a lifetime holiday, you might have to miss out on a family holiday one year.
- Visit family members
Visiting family members are great and much cheaper than staying in a hotel. We have family members in Brazil, Cyprus and France, we usually stay with them when we are in those countries. We always have an amazing holiday, love spending time with our family abroad, and also save on accommodation and food while away.
- Look for all-inclusive holidays
Eating is one of our biggest expenses when we are away, we prefer to pay a little extra for all-inclusive holidays, or including a dining package with our stay. All those snacks and holiday food are less tempting when your belly is full of delicious food from all-inclusive holidays.
- Holiday clothes
We all love looking beautiful on holiday, but we might not wear those clothes again – let’s be honest, how long does summer last in the UK?! For those reasons, we think carefully before purchasing holiday clothes, and we buy most of it in advance, during end of season sales.
- Clever packing
Do you really need to take all your summer clothes for a week holiday? You can avoid playing excess luggage by minimizing the amount of clothes you take away. We usually end up bringing clean clothes back home, so I started packing essential holiday clothes that we can mix and match after our last holiday to Brazil (check how many bags we took with us!). Children usually need a different top for each day, plus a couple trousers and shorts.
- Long journey entertainment
We have been on long car journeys, our longest was to south of France. I would recommend starting your journey in the evening, when kids are likely to fall asleep, and also investing on a DVD player, a few DVDs, and story books. They kept little man happy all the way from London to Lyon. You can buy second hand items at auction sites or charity shops. The same apply for airplane journeys!
- Eating on holiday
Once you arrive at your holiday destination, look for a local supermarket to stock up on snacks and basic items, such as juice, fruit, crisps, chocolates and biscuits. Little man tends to get hungry every couple of hours when are on holiday, we can save loads by getting our snacks from a supermarket and keeping in a bag during the day.
- Entertainment on holiday
Speak to the receptionist in the hotel and locals about things you can see and do while you are there. Sightseeing can be done cheaply if you ask for a map in the hotel, then enquire about bus/ trains to get you to each place. During our last holiday to Paris, we visited the whole city on public transport, instead of using tour buses and guides.
10. Holiday money
You can spend so much money on currency fees by using your card abroad. Instead you can use a currency card to carry your travel money. Not only you will can budget your holiday by preloading your currency card with funds, you can also spend your holiday currency safely, instead of carrying large amount of cash.
We love holidays and can’t wait to our next adventure. By planning your holidays and budgeting properly, you can enjoy more and better holidays with the same budget. Those are our top family holiday budgeting tips. What are yours?