If you are like me and don’t have much in the way of savings, a holiday means a couple of months of scrimping and saving beforehand.
How much you will need to save depends on the destination and the type of holiday you are planning. Here are some top tips for saving up money for your next big adventure.
Set up savings goals
The technology of banking has hugely improved over the last few years, you can now manage all your accounts online. Online banking allows you to manage a number of accounts including current and savings accounts as well as safely transfering money between your own accounts and to other payees. It is updated live and you can also see any direct debits you have set up.
The best thing about these online banking platforms is that most allow you to get savings goals, attached to a chosen bank account. A ‘Savings Calculator’ will calculate how much money you need to save each week to meet your desired goal. You can set money to automatically come out of your current account for your savings goal and it will remind you if you are not saving enough. This is a great way to keep tabs on how much you are saving and how much you still need to save.
Photo by Tax Credits via Flickr
Reassess the little things
Do you really need that can of coke at lunch every day and could you walk home from the pub instead of getting a taxi? It’s the little things you do on a regular basis that can build up a lot of unexpected spendings. For instance, instead of going over your phone contract allowance to speak to you friends in Australia, why not try Skype and get a free call and save yourself a bit of money? If you can recognise and cut down on these things you will have enough money for a holiday in no time.
Don’t indulge (as much)
I don’t know about you, but I like to indulge a couple of times a month by going out for a really nice (and sometimes expensive) meal. You will save a lot of money if you can resist doing this as much. An alternative is to get something really nice from the butchers and cook it at home or get a takeaway instead of going out for an expensive meal. The same goes for if you treat yourself with a new item of clothing every month, instead of buying a brand new pair of trainers why not go bargain hunting in a charity shop or check out thrift stores instead.
Sell stuff
We’re not talking about selling your souls here! Everybody has something in their home that they don’t want to use any more. We have over 100 DVDs in the flat and most of them haven’t been watched in over a year. You can also save all your music on external hard-drives and computing ‘clouds’ so there isn’t really any need to have hundreds of CDs sitting on your shelves. You can sell all these things on websites such as MusicMagpie and get money really quickly. Even better, most websites like this offer free postage so you’re not loosing out on any money.
If you combine all these things you’ll be saving more money than you ever imagined. The most important thing is to be realistic about your goal, evaluate all your mandatory costs before you set yourself a goal and budget. You’ll be on that beach in the sun with a cocktail in no time!
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April 27, 2023
lifestyle