I’ve mentioned previously that I have a ton of vacation time. Basically, I rock European vacation time and the longer I work at my job the more vacation time I accumulate. Every year if I have time left over it rolls over to the next year.
Pretty sweet.
This is very unusual for an American business. For the industry that I’m in this is actually the standard practice. Last year I went to: England (3 weeks) My Grandma’s place (1 week), and FinCon13 (a little under a week) for a total of about 5 weeks of vacation..not including holidays such as: Memorial Day, July 4th, etc.
So why do I mention this? I was recently approved to take a 4 week vacation and I wanted to share some tips on how to go on a long vacation without going broke.
The Details:
- The dates: December 26-January 24, 2015. This includes 3 days off for the holidays-Christmas/Day after Christmas/and Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Where-Shhh, it’s a secret. Will tell you later!
- This is 10 years in the making. Yep, I’ve postponed it that long 🙂 My friends who live in this place that I’m visiting have visited me a number of times. I’m feeling guilty and would like to go there before my personal situation changes substantially.
- That’s a total of 18 work days or 144 hours of time
Here are some ideas on how to prepare financially for a long trip
- If you have friends who live in the destination that you’re going to see if they will let you stay with them 🙂 Luckily for me my friends who live in the place that I’m visiting had offered to let me stay with them if I was able to visit. So, I only have to pay for 1 week of hotel/hostel in a different city that I will be going to for the final week of my trip.
- Leverage your vacation time and days off for the holidays. This is huge. You may want to go on a trip but might not have enough vacation time. This is a great way to add more time to your trip.
- Hoard your vacation time so that you can have a longer trip. Luckily I really don’t have to do this anymore because I’m accumulating so much time. But, I used to do this a few years ago. It’s great going on a trip and not having your cash flow disrupted.
- Researching the location-If you’re going to a new place then research, research, research!! Research is your best friend. I spend a lot of time researching new places. I like to know: government structures, grocery stores, all about the money, what to do for fun (for free), and anything else that I’m wondering about. Once I’ve done the research I begin putting my budget together.
- Think about what I enjoy doing-I love: riding bikes, going for coffee, hanging out with people, exploring the city, walking around, happy hour, going out to a nice dinner, going to a nice lounge and having a drink. You get the picture.
- Think about what I’d LIKE to do-there are activities in this location that don’t exist where I live. So, I’m researching activities that I’ve always imagined doing if I visited this location. My goal is to go back sometime so I don’t want to do everything that I’ve thought about doing. I would like to have a list of the things that I would love to do during this specific trip. These things may be affected by: weather, my friend’s schedule, etc.
- Set A Budget-After doing research, thinking about what I enjoy doing, thinking about the length of time I will be away, I then set my budget. This is an all cash trip so even if I charge something I will be paying the card off when I return home. Setting a budget is an art form because you don’t want to save too little. When I went to Barcelona I in my 20’s I ended up pawning an 18 karat  gold bracelet my mom gave me because France was shut down due to protests and I ended up in Spain much longer than I ever intended. I STILL regret that!
- Begin buying “Thank You” gifts now. Since I’m staying with friends for almost 3 weeks I plan on buying groceries and a “Thank You” gift card. I will know what gift card when I hang out with them and find out what they like as a couple
- Cut down on spending-This one is huge. I have basically shut down most of my unnecessary spending. That’s money that can be used for the trip. I will pay cash for this trip so I have to remind myself every time I want to spend money on something dumb.
- Become Hyper Focused-everything goes back to the trip. When I prepare for a big trip I become a little obsessed. Some things I do include: buying a candle from Bed Bath and Beyond with the location on it, including the name of the location in logins, checking out travel guides about the location, watching shows about the location, making food from the location. You get the picture. I eat, drink, and breath the upcoming trip.
I love travel but I’m no longer interested in taking trips that will endanger my long-term financial goals. I am super excited about this trip and am really looking forward to reconnecting with my friends and I think that having this major goal will also help me with other savings goals that I’ve set for myself this year.
Let’s see how it goes.
 Do you follow a similar process when preparing for a long trip?Â
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Looking forward to hear where you are going. Being a freelancer is a double edged sword because i’m free to take as much time as I like, but at the same time I don’t get paid, so two weeks is about the max I can stretch it before it becomes a work/personal vacation, and I’m not too into that. 🙂 I do the same thing though where I do a lot of visualizing and research beforehand. It gets me excited. I’m going to take a stab and say you are going to South America?
LOL! I actually will be well into my freelancing side hustle so I will be working everyday…but, I think it will keep me out of trouble 🙂 The visualizing and research is so much fun. I hate going somewhere and not knowing about the place that I’m calling “home” for however long I will be there. Also, I want to show that Americans are good travelers too! I’ll let you guys know the “where” later on this year. HEHE.
Oh. My. Gosh. I am so jealous! This is going to be such an amazing trip! Having places to stay helps the budget so, so much!
A big tip for keeping traveling costs down is not moving a lot, or having very logical plans for where you are going, because it’s the transportation that really kills you. That’s especially true if you have a place to stay and access to a kitchen, for free!
I’m really excited about the trip and am trying to really focus on some financial goals that I would like to achieve between now and November. I will be sticking pretty close to home for the next 6 months and focusing on growing my freelancing business. I’m a slow traveler-I like to go to a place and just settle in. I had rushing around and trying to do everything. It’s so stressful. So, I will be in that city of 3 weeks and then the other city for 1 week because of a special event. I’ll cook at their place (and I love any reason to cook for people) so it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’ll also walk around and ride a bike.
I really want to go for a vacation also but I can’t! I hope you will have a good vacation Michelle! I called my Aunt last year when we had our last vacation, we stayed in their house and it really saved us a lot, instead of staying in a hotel.
It will be quite shocking to see how much money I will save by staying at my friend’s apartment. I’m really excited and am enjoying the initial planning process. Will let you guys know where I’m going probably at the end of November! I hope you can go on vacation soon.
Woohoo! That sounds AWESOME. I’ve never taken anything more than 2 weeks off in a row (not counting the 6 month leave obviously).
Actually, I typically take 3 week vacations. There are some things I’m very European about-LOL! The issue is by the time I get to an overseas place, I need to rest and then I don’t want to run around trying to see things. I’m really excited about this trip and have begun the planning process in earnest.