12 Ways to Save Up for a Family Vacation This Summer

12 Ways to Save Up for a Family Vacation This Summer

 Although the official start of summer is days away, it’s never too late to start saving for that family vacation. The most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor¹ Statistics say that the average American family spends $1,415 on a family vacation. Those numbers include transportation, lodging², food and beverage³, entertainment, and gifts. Of course, your costs may be more or less depending on the size of your family, how far away you choose to go, how you choose to get there, where you choose to stay, and how much you spend on entertainment when you’re there.

Wherever you choose to go, you’ll have to have at least a few dollars on hand. Not sure where to get the cash from? Here are a few ideas to save some money:

1. WONDER OUT LOUD

Talk to your family about what they’d like to do this summer and what your family can do to make it happen. Once everyone is on the same page about saving, it will be easier and more fun to reach your savings⁴ goal—together. It might even help to create a dreamboard as a family or hang some visual representation of where you’d like to go or how far along you are towards your savings goal.

2. PARTY HARD

It’s warm, the kids are out of school, and you’re getting lots of invitations to events. It sounds fun until you realize that the gas money to get there and back, plus the cost of the actual event, tax, and food is all dollars that could be going into your vacation fund. Instead, why not invite friends over to hang out? Everyone can bring a dish, which saves on food costs, while socializing and helping⁵ you reach your vacation goal.

3. FIND THE BURIED TREASURE

Have you ever gotten home, taken your keys out of your pocket, and found tons of change in your pocket? DesignItGirl blogger Nicole Torres has. She uses water bottles to store her change, “I have one of those large empty Water Bottles and every week I put $20- $40 dollars in coins. Since we don’t see coins as we do the actual dollar we tend to ignore its there.” Families can save about $50 per month from keeping their spare change. That’s $600 a year with no real effort. Not bad. If you’re concerned about rolling all that change, don’t worry. There are several different ways to turn that jingle⁶ into paper that folds. One of my favorites are the Coinstar machines available in most grocery stores. You just drop in your change, the machine takes a percentage, and you get a receipt with the amount of cash you brought in, and the checkout⁷ cashier gives you the cash.

4. SPARE MONEY

Want to have access to more money without giving up anything you’ll miss? Cancel memberships that you’re not actively⁸ using. Take a look at those credit union statements. Are you signed up for the gym, but you never go? Do you have a video service charging your card every month, but you never order videos? Have you signed up for monthly credit monitoring that you didn’t want and forgot to cancel to get your free credit report? Canceling things that cost you money and you see no value from are great ways to put a few more dollars towards your vacation fund.

5. BRAWN⁹ AND BRAIN

Have you ever called a repair person to your home at $85 an hour only to have the person take 10 minutes (but charge you the full $85 fee, of course) to change your air filter in the air conditioning unit or tighten¹⁰ the dryer¹¹ tube or something else that you realized you could have done yourself for free? The next time something breaks save a few dollars by trying to repair it yourself. There are lots on do-it-yourself websites, blogs, and videos to help you with the process. Of course, there are some jobs that are better left to professionals, but I’d be willing to wager¹² that you can fix tons of things on your own. If it’s something you don’t think you can tackle, ask a handy neighbor. Offer to do something you’re good at in exchange.

6. USE YOUR RESOURCES

Find free resources in your community to keep you entertained while saving a few dollars. Libraries are a great example of a free, community resource that provides free book rental¹³, free movie rental, free Internet usage, and many other things. Check around to see what paid services can be replaced with no-cost or low-cost services.

7. ELIMINATE WASTE

How much money do you spend buying cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine and sugar? You’ll save money by not purchasing those items and you’ll save a few dollars on your health insurance and life insurance. Think of how much money you’ll save if you stop buying coffee in the drive-through, drinks at happy hour, and donuts on the way to meetings.

8. HAGGLE¹⁴

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Before paying for products and services, be sure to search for the best deal possible. Use Google searches or phone apps to compare prices in your area and online. Then, before paying ask the seller if this is the best deal you can get. You might be surprised at how much money you can save if you just ask.

9. SET UP AN AUTOMATIC DEPOSIT

Another great way to save is to set up an automatic deposit from your checking account to a special interest-bearing account like a money market account. Have your credit union or bank electronically send whatever amount you designate from your checking account weekly or bi-weekly to your interest-bearing account for free. Putting away even $50 per pay period will net you $1,200 over the year.

10. ONLY THE MINIMUM

Now that you’ve got some money, you need to make sure that it’s working for you. A checking account is a place to store money not to have it work for you. Make sure to put “spare” money in an account that’s going to give you as much interest as possible. A great place to seek out these kinds of accounts is Bankrate.com. You can check interest rates on savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and other ways to have your money work for you. Leave only the minimum amount of money that you need to run your household in your checking account.

11. AVOID FEES

Find out what fees your credit union or bank charge, and how they assess them, and then make plans to avoid paying them. It could be as easy as setting up electronic deposit of your paycheck to avoid a monthly fee, downloading an app to locate the closest credit union branch to avoid ATM fees, or linking your checking account to your savings account to avoid overdraft¹⁵ fees.

12. WIN IN THE MARGINS¹⁶

Another great way to find money for a summer vacation is to find ways to trim the money that you’re currently spending. Helen Troncoso suggests,”Making your own coffee and bringing your own lunch. I did that and was surprised at how much I saved. Plus making your own lunch is healthier,” Most websites say that making your own lunch can save you between $1 and $5 every day. Even going with the low estimate you’d save $20 a month and that comes to $240 a year.

That sounds pretty good, but $20 a month may not get you to your summer vacation. Rita Nisa says, “Stop eating out so much. I did that for a month and I saved money! You don’t have to cut it out completely, but instead of eating out every week, eat out once or twice a month.” According to online consumer-spending guide Bundle, the average American family spends $232 a month eating out.

Of course everyone’s situation is different, but with these suggestions you can get everyone together for some family fun this summer. What strategies do you use to save money?

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 lodging   

n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍

参考例句：

• The bill is inclusive of the food and lodging. 账单包括吃、住费用。
• Where can you find lodging for the night? 你今晚在哪里借宿?

3 beverage   

n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料

参考例句：

• The beverage is often colored with caramel.这种饮料常用焦糖染色。
• Beer is a beverage of the remotest time.啤酒是一种最古老的饮料。

4 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 jingle   

n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵

参考例句：

• The key fell on the ground with a jingle.钥匙叮当落地。
• The knives and forks set up their regular jingle.刀叉发出常有的叮当声。

7 checkout   

n.（超市等）收银台，付款处

参考例句：

• Could you pay at the checkout.你能在结帐处付款吗。
• A man was wheeling his shopping trolley to the checkout.一个男人正推着购物车向付款台走去。

8 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

9 brawn   

n.体力

参考例句：

• In this job you need both brains and brawn.做这份工作既劳神又费力。
• They relied on brains rather than brawn.他们靠的是脑力，而不是体力。

10 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

11 dryer   

n.干衣机，干燥剂

参考例句：

• He bought a dryer yesterday.他昨天买了一台干燥机。
• There is a washer and a dryer in the basement.地下室里有洗衣机和烘干机。

12 wager   

n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌

参考例句：

• They laid a wager on the result of the race.他们以竞赛的结果打赌。
• I made a wager that our team would win.我打赌我们的队会赢。

13 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

14 haggle   

vi.讨价还价，争论不休

参考例句：

• In many countries you have to haggle before you buy anything.在许多国家里买东西之前都得讨价还价。
• If you haggle over the price,they might give you discount.你讲讲价，他们可能会把价钱降低。

15 overdraft   

n.透支，透支额

参考例句：

• Her bank warned that unless she repaid the overdraft she could face legal action.银行警告她如果不偿还透支钱款，她将面临诉讼。
• An overdraft results when a note discounted at a bank is not met when due.银行贴现的支票到期而未能支付就成为透支。

16 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。