My wife likes Disneyland.

She really likes Disneyland. She can spend almost an entire year planning a trip there for the family. All the details, plane tickets, hotel, what to do there, etc. It’s like an obsession after a certain amount of time. It gets to the point that the rest of the family just gets tired of being pestered about “what would you like to do on the third day, in the afternoon, after we do blah, blah,…”.

Admittedly, the trip turns out great, and all the hard work is well worth it. We enjoy ourselves immensely.

Except for me. I love going on the trips, but I get to be the bad guy and enforce the saving, spending limits, and financial aspects of our vacations throughout the year leading up to the great vacation. That means that I’m the one that has to dissuade the family from many of the ‘little’ vacations that eat up our discretionary spending throughout the year. I’ve seen where a pizza here, or movies there end up causing us to be $1000 or more under our savings goal by the time we have to pay for the vacation. Then I feel bad about having to either put that money on a CC or cancel the vacation that the family has planned on for an entire year.

Either way, it’s not a fun situation to be in. I know the wife doesn’t do this on purpose, and I’m just as guilty of it as everyone else on occasion, but I still get to be the bad guy. <Sigh>

Some things I have come across that helps the savings go along though

• Set a spending limit EARLY – Decide how much you want to pay for the vacation as the first thing out. That way, you have your working budget early.
• Decide how LONG you want to go for – This sounds like a no-brainer, but there are many packages out there that for just a little more, add an extra day or two to the package. If you can afford the money, but have to be back to work the next morning after returning on the red-eye flight, maybe it’s not worth it.
• Decide (as a family) a Theme for the vacation – If you aren’t going to a theme park (i.e. Disneyland) then organizing your trip along a consistent theme can make it more memorable to the family, especially the little ones. The Presidential Tour (seeing the monuments in Wash. DC) or The Tour of the South (car trip to Florida) can stick with someone a lot longer than Five Days With Little Brother Stuck In A Hot Car.
• Get everyone to do something – Have everyone pitch in on the planning, even if it’s just something small. That way they feel like they’re part of the trip.
• Save Automatically – Set up a direct deposit or automatic deposit to another account entirely. Divide the budget by the number of pay periods between start and vacation time, and PUT THAT MONEY AWAY BEFORE ANYONE SEES IT. If it’s gone, it’s gone and you can’t spend it on little things. This has been the only reason we are able to take a vacation.

and finally,

• Be prepared – Vacations should be a relaxing, no-thinking time. Maximize this as much as possible by planning for as much as possible. The best vacation is the one where no problems crop up (getting lost on the drive, hotel being booked up, tickets to shows/plays/events sold out, etc). Contingency plans don’t hurt too.

And since Americans Take Fewer Vacations nowadays, doing it right is all the more important.

Technorati : Disneyland, debt, finance, vacation