Don’t Blow All Your Savings While On Vacation

According to Nora at the Wisebread blog, you can stick to a budget on vacation and still have fun. She recently wrote about a bunch of vacationers she ate with at a Hawaiian restaurant’s “Taco Tuesday” night and noticed how each of them had a different budget - but the ones who didn’t spend so much were still having just as much fun on their vacation as those who were maxing out their credit cards.

Some of Nora’s useful advice for not blowing all your savings on vacation - but still having fun - include:

• Focus on the people you’re spending your vacation with. You can enjoy time with them without having to spend a lot of money - you can even skip a fancy restaurant meal by buying wine, cheese and crackers and have a relaxing picnic in a local park or near the beach.
• Don’t spend heaps of money on souvenirs and gifts for friends back home. If you see something that you think a friend would really love, by all means buy it, but don’t try to get something for everyone out of some feeling of obligation.
• You don’t have to go to expensive restaurants for special meals to make it a special vacation.
• Don’t justify doing all the extra trappings (a helicopter ride, for example) “just because you’re on vacation” - there are always other ways to enjoy the trip and some sightseeing and sometimes they’ll be much more enjoyable than the pricier activities.