I'm not sure of a percentage, but we just save a little each week ($20-30) for our annual vacation and weekender trips. We are doing Disney this year so we have been putting a little more than normal in the vacation savings.

We always plan on part of our tax returns going toward our vacation, then we also have our savings $$. DH doesn't get paid for his time off, so we have to factor in loss of wages too.

We try to take one family vacation and a couple of smaller 'weekender' trips each year. DH always takes a week to go fishing with his family and I used to go on a scrapbooking weekend each year.

We just check our vacation savings and see how much we have. We figure on one weekender trip per month during the summer, plus one big trip and DH's fishing trip. Smaller overnights are according to $$ at the time.

I have charged short trips before, but only when I know we'll have the money to pay them off within a month or so. I've also charged when an unexpected trip came up (sick relative, etc).

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We have money transferred to a specific vacation account from our checking account every two weeks when our paychecks are deposited. It adds up over time.

Last year we went to Disney for a week. That was the BIGGEST family vaca we had taken.

This year thus far we spent three days at a waterpark. Total was around $600 with gas and food, hotel, etc. We are heading to AL to visit friends this spring, and will do a week of family vacation in August before school starts again. We will use most of what is currently in our vaca account for the AL trip so when it gets closer to summer we'll take a look at the balance in the account and figure out what to do.

We also do some day and two day trips in the summer to amusement parks, but we usually just pay for them with regular money, not vacation savings.

Our family vacations (not including visits to family, I do not consider those vacations) have consisted of long weekends when ds turned 4. The first year we went to Niagara Falls, the 2nd, Henry Ford Museum, and this year it is Hershey PA. We will be staying 3 nights.

Each week, I take $20 and put it in a "vacation can". I also put in there rebate checks, garage sale money (money we've made from garage sales), we also get quarterly just a little in stock dividends ($35) basically any 'found' money and change goes in there. This year I upped it to $40 a week because $20 a week until June was not going to cover three nights stay at the Hershey lodge, it is very expensive.

So by the time vacation time rolls around, I'll have at least $1500 to spend on our vacation, cash free and clear. I will not put a vacation on a credit card without having the money to pay it off fully in cash. I also figured I wanted to budget in there for meals so I don't have to cook, and of course activities and some inexpensive souvineers for ds. Typically I don't buy souvineers from places around us for me or dh, I just take lots of pictures and video. If I'm going out of the country I might buy souvineers for myself.

I have to add that after vacation, the 'vacation' can turns into a can for our son's activities. I will continue to put $40 a week into it, and it pays for his summer camp, summer enrichment classes at school, and other activities and fees he has. I do that until the end of the year, & roll it into a separate checking account. At the beginning of the new year I switch over to vacation savings again.

It works for us!! It's one thing I never deviate from. I personally will have a really frugal week with food for instance but that can ALWAYS gets it's $40 a week. I'm very religious about it because I feel we all deserve a break!

We are constantly saving, so either take our vacation out of savings, or use a windfall payment. We would NEVER go into debt to take a vacation. We save up for it.