we only take a vacation if we can afford to pay cash. we decide the year prior if we think we are going to take a large vacation for a week we have a year to save for it.. if we don't think we will be able to swing a week long bigger vacation we plan 2 weekend short trips that we can better afford.. i would say plan ahead so you give yourself ample time to save up.. we don't charge vacations because that honestly means we could not afford the vacation.

We never really have budgeted for a vacation. If we feel like taking a break and going somewhere, we see how much it is, and if we can go, we go, otherwise we hold off on it and do something else. In a few weeks, we're taking a Disney Cruise (it's way more than I would want to but we'll think twice about taking another vacation before summer). We normally can comfortably take around 4 good vacations per year.

I currently put 7% of take home pay into a travel budget. That is high for us, but with elderly parents in distant locations, we know there is a possibility of emergency travel needs. If we do take any fun trip, it would come out of this reserve and never be put on a credit card. And knowing the uncertainty of the future, any such trip would be small. If, God forbid, the emergency comes up and we are needed elswhere, I would use a credit card within reason.

Cathleen

The only times we have taken a real vacation always involved the wedding of a family member or friend. We used part of our tax return to pay the costs.

This year we are taking the family camping for a vacation which is not too expensive but we still need to budget it. We are setting aside money every week to cover it and if we have any left over we will use it to go on a day trip to the zoo or amusement park.

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We have put a vacation on credit card in the past. We just paid on it monthly after the trip. I don't worry too much about putting charges on the credit card, b/c we have the cash in savings to pay it off if needed. Our rate is very low, so we don't accrue much interest. I have started a vacation fund that I put money into when I have it. With my DH's job situation over the last 1 1/2 yrs we haven't been able to take a vacation. We are planning a family vacation for 2009. We haven't decided on a destination yet, but we should have more than enough cash to pay for it up front by then. We are planning on visiting alot of the local attractions that Memphis has to offer this spring and summer and we are going to try to fit a mini vacation to Chattanooga into our schedule for the fall.

we have a savings account that is dedicated solely to vacation, we try to put at least a certain small amount(like $10 or so) into it each week, but if something major were to happen we know that is an area we can sacrifice. But we try not too, so anyways when something comes up (like being invited to a concert with friends or something) we see how much we have in that account and decide if we want to spend it on that event or do without and keep saving for a later event. If we don't end up taking a vacation, we use it for the summer festivals, fairs and so on, (food, gas, parking expenses, etc) or may take one or 2 "day away" trips, we just always try to put money away and some years we deplete it on a big vacation and other years we have a nice amount roll over to do something fun the next year. If we don't have enough in that account we do without) works for us.

We do take vacations, but not as many as we'd like . We budget for them and do the biggest vacation we have for the money we have available. We also visit my family in the mid-west as often as we can, which hasn't been that often recently. We would not go into debt for vacation, however. The percentage that's right for each family depends on too many variables (other debt, emergency fund in place, retirement, other entertainment spending) to put a number on it.

I have charged trips before but we're not doing that anymore. Right now we've started budgeting a bit and we're attempting to add them in my with husband's work trips which helps a bit. Or at least with hotel and his flight. Sometimes even the rental car. We're going to L.A. this month which is around my husband's business trip and the L.A. Laker tickets that we bought came from an auction for the local school district.

I've also learned that we can save a lot by having a "bed picnic" in the hotel room. I know i couldn't do this with older children but my 4 year old thinks it is the coolest thing to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches on the bed at the hotel! It's not something that I want to do everynight but it does cut down costs!

We have not gone on too many big vacations but we did do Disney last summer, I put money aside for a long while,booked everything almost a year in advance and made payments throught AAA.

We plan one "family" vacation each summer (DH, the kids, & I). We start to plan it in December/January. We take a look at our finances and what we feel we can afford. That determines how far we go, how long we go, and what activities we do. Then we start to book and thereby start paying for it. For instance this year we chose as a family to go to Niagara Falls, cuz this is the last year before passports will be required for land travel. Thru our research we found that we can take our camper and camp at state parks for only $19/night vs $125/night in a hotel. And we love to camp! So the campgrounds are getting reserved this weekend which means that part is paid for etc.

We also camp around our area during the summer, short weekend trips which cost approx $200/weekend. We don't do much during the rest of the year because of school and such so summer is our time for outdoor fun! Fishing, camping, hiking, swimming! Oh I can't wait.

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"God determines who walks into your life…
it’s up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay and who you refuse to let go." - Anonymous