Let’s face it, finding the funds for a Vacation can be tough. Trust us, we understand. However, over the years we have perfected the skill of shall it call it creative funding for our vacations.

My parents always made sure that we went *somewhere*. It didn’t have to be somewhere fancy, or even very far, we just needed to be together! Some of my favorite memories of our family road trips involved the vacation ‘mishaps’.

I digress.

All of that sounds great right? But you have to be able to pay for it without having to sell a kidney. Here are some of the ways that we get creative in order to pay for our travels.

Start planning.

I realize that this is very self explanatory, but you need to have a plan before you can adequately start saving for your vacation. Are you planning on going to the Bahamas or Birmingham? This is a big factor to consider, and it will make a big difference in the amount of money that you will need to have on hand for your trip.

Start selling.

Chances are you have lots of things around your house that you no longer want, need, or use. Chances are that someone out there wants, needs or could use the items that you want to sell. True story, one year I paid for our whole beach condo by selling old baby clothes on Ebay and at local consignment sales. With a little bit of effort you could be pretty pleased with the results, both financially and in terms of getting rid of unwanted items.

Start Buying.

Say what? Did she just say start buying? That is correct. I start purchasing prepaid Gift Cards well in advance of the trip each time that I go to the grocery store. Well, let me clarify, not when I pop in for milk, but rather I make the gift card purchases along with my big weekly shopping trip. We have a trip to Disney coming up soon, so I will start buying Disney World gift cards, pre-paid Visa, and gas gift cards. When you spend just a little at a time saving up for a trip it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad.

Start Matching.

I have a friend who started matching her frivolous spending. By frivolous I mean things like the Starbucks run ($5 for a latte also means $5 in the jar for vacation). The key here is she didn’t keep track of what she was putting in the jar until a designated date. When my friend did this she accomplished 2 things. 1) She saved far more than she ever thought she would. 2) She realized that she was spending excessively and was able to trim spending from her budget that was unnecessary.

So tell us: What do you do to save up for an upcoming trip? Any of the methods that we suggested?

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