I tend to be a tightwad — in fact, spending money can cause me pain! This means I can be a difficult person to vacation with. I see dollar signs if we consider doing certain activities on a trip or want treat ourselves to something as simple as ice cream sundaes. Thoughts about what we aren’t going to be able to do with our money come to mind.
However, budgeting has helped me enjoy vacationing so much more. I even get excited about doing activities that cost money. How does that work? Isn’t budgeting supposed to help you not spend money?
Budgeting is about making your money work for you and having it go where you tell it. I’m going to share how our vacation budget works for us and allows me to get away for a few days with my family while actually enjoying myself.
1. Have a plan.
The first thing to do is to sit down and decide where you are going to go and when.
Look at:
family schedule
deals for certain dates
when the crowds will be minimal
Then research activities in the area and come up with a list of what you want to do and where you are going stay. Sometimes, we plan our vacation so we can stay with family and other times we’ll check into a hotel or rent a condo.
2. Figure out potential costs.
Now that you have a plan, tally up what lodging, gas or plane tickets, activities, and food are going to cost. When we start looking at the numbers, we often adjust our plan to make it more reasonable. Sometimes we add an extra activity if we’re spending less than we thought.
3. Start saving.
Use the months leading up to your trip to start setting aside money. Maybe the standard vacation category in your budget will cover this. If you are like us, you might have to set aside other money that comes in. Portions of extra income from jobs, gifts, or selling things might go towards the goal.
4. Bring cash for everything except gas and lodging.
Lodging has most likely already been paid and we find it easier to pay at the pump rather than bringing cash inside the gas station.
For the rest of the funds, take it in cash. Having a vacation envelope helped me remember that the money was there and that its purpose was the vacation.
5. Splurge!
You’ve spent time saving and looking forward to the trip. Now is the time to enjoy yourself.
Enjoy the pirate themed miniature golf course, zip lining, touring a mansion, eating shakes. Don’t let spending that money stress you out — that’s what it’s there for!
Budgeting, a little planning, and using cash are the ways that I’ve found that enable me to relax and enjoy our days away as a family. I can relish the memories being made instead of fretting about the amount of money we spend.
Deanna, a wife and mother, attempts to balance frugality, (semi) natural living, lack of time and sleep while trying to follow what the Lord wants for her life. She enjoys dark chocolate, BBC mini series, good books, and spending weekends at home. She blogs at From this Kitchen Table.
Jesse and I spent time really discussing what my focuses should be for 2014 and we nailed down four areas that are my priorities for this year:
Marriage: to continue to invest time and energy to strengthen and nurture our marriage and make it one of the greatest priorities
Mothering: to continue to invest in our children with the goal of teaching them character, life skills, and raising them to be responsible adults
Myself: to make my health a priority and to invest in my personal growth as a Christian, business owner, writer, speaker, and leader
MoneySavingMom.com: to invest time into blogging — not just overseeing the business and my team, but making writing content pieces one of my top blogging priorities
Having these specific areas determined at the beginning of the year is really helping me to prioritize and giving me much clearer direction on when, where, and what to say no to this year.
Here’s my progress for my 12 goals for 2014:
Marriage Goals
1. Read 6 marriage books. (I’ve finished one marriage book so far.) 2. Write 50 love notes to Jesse. (I’ve written 8 love notes so far.)
Mothering Goals
3. Read 40 books aloud to the kids. (We’ve finished two books so far and are almost finished with another.) 4. Finish memorizing Romans 1 together. (We’ve been working on this!) 5. Go through a cooking course with the kids.
Personal Goals
6. Read through the Bible. (I’m on track with this.) 7. Memorize Romans 2. 8. Run a 5K race and go through P90X again. (I’m working through P90X.) 9. Read 150 books/ebooks. (I’ve read 21 books so far this year.)
Blogging Goals
10. Write 150 substantive content pieces for the blog. (I’ve written 34 substantive content pieces so far this year.) 11. Write 50 DIY/Recipe posts for the blog. (I’ve written eight DIY/Recipe post so far.) 12. Blog about/participate in the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge (I finished February’s challenge.)
Did you set goals for 2014 yet?
If you've posted an update on how you’re doing on your goals for 2014, I'd love for you to share your link in the comments. Or, if you don't have a blog, feel free to just leave a comment with an update on how you’re doing on your goals. Let's encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!
For those of you who want to follow a menu plan and struggle to come up with the time or ideas, eMeals might be a great fit. Here are some things I love about it:
::It's simple and easy to follow. You just log in each week, print your menu and grocery list and you're pretty well good to go.
::They offer healthful options. One of the reasons I used to not be a big fan of their meal plans was because they weren’t very healthful. But they’ve now added Paleo, Gluten Free, and Clean Eating meal plans to give many more healthful options!
::It's inexpensive. For as low as $1.25 per week, someone else will plan all your dinners and write up your grocery list for you. That's a pretty good return on your investment of money! {Psst! Use coupon code MEALS15 to get 15% off!}
::It's detailed. The plans are very thorough and detailed, including prices, nutrition facts and more.
::It can help streamline your life. If you currently feel like your life is a juggling act and if you add in menu-planning you're going to start dropping balls everywhere, then paying for eMeals might be exactly the ticket to your sanity!
Now, keep in mind that when you follow the eMeals menu plan, you don't have the flexibility to plan your menus based upon your stockpile. While it's helpful they are planning the meals around store sales, they can't predict that you were able to buy a lot of sour cream, carrots, and spinach marked down at your store last week.
However, there are many things I like about eMeals and know that it’s a perfect fit for certain people — especially those who find menu-planning very tedious and time-consuming. You can read more of my readers’ thoughts on Emeals here.
eMeals is offering five readers the opportunity to win a one-year complete menu plan (includes plans for all breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for a year). To enter to win, just click on the graphic below and type in your name and email address. Five winners will be chosen and posted early next week. This giveaway ends Sunday, March 2, at 11:59 pm, CST.
Are you joining us for the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge? If so, it’s Friday and guess what that means? It’s time for our weekly check-in to post our progress.
February’s Challenge:
We’re focusing on developing the habit of eating more fruits and veggies in February. I encourage you to set a simple and doable goal for eating more fruits and veggies and to stick with it.
My goal for February is to eat at least six big salads every week. I’m also hoping to keep up with January’s habit of doing P90X at least 4-5 times every week.
This Week’s Progress:
Once again, I hit my goal again this week of eating six big salads plus exercising 4 times — woot!
How Are YOU Doing?
Leave a comment telling us how you did on your exercise goals this past week. If you’re blogging about this challenge, leave the direct link to your blog post about the challenge below.
Are you on social media? You can also share your progress on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter by using hashtag #12MonthstoaHealthierYou.
