Poll

How much do you spend/budget for Vacations annually/average incl day/weekend trips?

< $1000
$1000 to $2000
$2000 to $3000
$3000 to $4000
$4000+

Author Topic: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids  (Read 10714 times)

tooqk4u22

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Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« on: February 04, 2013, 09:34:30 AM »
Just curious to see what the group says.  Respond in the context of average and not this year - i.e. if you plan a $10,000 vacation but only do it every three years then that would be $3000/year. 

Aside from camping and never going anywhere, but it just seems that everything adds up so quick if you want to get away - airfare, hotel, rental car, etc.

What are the families doing/planning?

twinge

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2013, 09:40:08 AM »
We keep it under 1K for our family of 4 by tent camping, bundling vacation travel with business travel (e.g., drive instead of fly to a location and add on a day or two) and staying with friends and family on travels.  We don't do "getaway" vacations that involve flying because honestly with young kids they aren't that much of a getaway to us to make it worth the cost.

clutchy

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2013, 12:53:14 PM »
The only "vacation" I've taken this year is to a cousins wedding weekend.  We were there for a total of 48 hours and spent close to $1000...

flights, hotels were "free" b/c of points but even still it does add up quick.


we go to europe or hawaii every couple of years and it's close to 3000-4000 everytime we go.  In europe we stay with family so it keeps the cost down but it's still pricey.

hawaii we could do better than we do but....

we have a 1.5 year old now so we're planning on taking more local national parks type trips in the future.

CNM

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2013, 02:14:11 PM »
This year is an expensive vacation year with a flight to California and New York.  Usually, we only do a maximum of 1 long-distance (involving flights) trip per year.

chatsc

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2013, 02:26:15 PM »
I hate to sound so un-mustachian, but we bought a low key, small 3 season cottage for this very reason (we use it 4 season but it is only technically 3 season).  we bought it at a very low price, and we rent it out to our friends to pay some of the bills, when we are not using it.  we have a 3 young kids and the idea of having to deal with driving long distances, booking campsites, flights, hotels, cottage rentals seems like way too much work, planning and money. we figured it was a real estate investment and a lifestyle choice.  we actually use it/enjoy it way more than i thought we would.  and we tend to save money when we go up for a week in the summer or over xmas.  simple meals, nothing to buy, no reason to go anywhere, lots of new neighbours/friends.  i hope this doesnt get me put on the wall of shame.  if our priorities change when the kids get older and it is easier/more tempting to travel, then we can sell it.

tooqk4u22

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2013, 04:25:27 PM »
It is challenging to do getaway trips with a family - family of five adds up real quick.

Part of the dilema for me is we want to do a beach rental in the summer for a week and the prices are expensive - $1500 to $2500 for the week for decent accomodations.  The plus for us it is not a long drive so no airfare, time suck or big gas costs.  Flying anywhere as a family of five is at minimum $1000 and probably more like $1500 and as others have said is downright unappealing. 

The thought of spending this amount kills me but then again we really haven't spent a whole lot on vacation/overnighter type things in the last several years so on average its not so bad.  But going forward I expect that we would like to do something annually. 





travelbug

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2013, 05:01:05 PM »
Travel is our luxury item and we love it. We also live in Australia so to get anywhere is quite a large cost. We also travel within our own country but love the thrill of experiencing a different culture.

We budget it in and are happy to travel now rather than wait until we are retired. It has not waived our journey to FI, but may have delayed it a little.

If I had to delay for an extended period I would not choose to go.

SunshineGirl

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2013, 06:11:11 PM »
I set aside $300/month for travel for our family of four, because I WANT us to travel and not worry about the money, and this allows me to do it - having it earmarked ahead of time is psychologically a win for me. So far, I have paid for weekend trips out of cash flow, to keep that account building. Sometime in the next couple years, we want to do an international trip, if not two, so the airfare will eat up some funds.

NumberJohnny5

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2013, 02:49:40 AM »
I'd probably cry if I added it all up.  Travel is our main priority though, so it's to be expected that it'll take up a significant portion of our spending.

tooqk4u22

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2013, 09:20:22 AM »
I set aside $300/month for travel for our family of four, because I WANT us to travel and not worry about the money, and this allows me to do it - having it earmarked ahead of time is psychologically a win for me. So far, I have paid for weekend trips out of cash flow, to keep that account building. Sometime in the next couple years, we want to do an international trip, if not two, so the airfare will eat up some funds.

I do this is as well - and because we haven't done much in the last several years there is quite a sum built up in the account.

WageSlave

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2013, 01:07:05 PM »
Is it just me/my browser, or has no one actually cast a vote?

I myself haven't voted because I don't have enough history to accurately say.  Only last year did we start tracking our expenses precisely.  Also, first child is two years old, and second is due in a few months: not planning on any vacations this year, probably just a bunch of long weekend "staycations".

With the exception of a big splurge vacation last year, generally we don't spend too much.  We regularly vacation with my in-laws in their small lake house in a neighbor state: those vacation costs amount to gas and food.  Our other regular thing is to visit friends a couple states over.  We stay with them, so no lodging cost, but we do spend some anti-Mustachian "going out" money while we're there.

My wife did a lot of "spendy" vacations when she was growing up: Disney, cruises, all the major national parks, etc.  She wants the same for our children.  She doesn't expect to do something that big every year, but they will certainly drive up the average cost of our vacations.  I expect at least $3k/year average.  (I've never been do Disney, nor do I want to go, but apparently that makes me a freak.  Everyone who has been their tells me it's expensive.  Sounds like I basically have to postpone ER a full year to pay for it.)

Self-employed-swami

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2013, 01:54:25 PM »
I transfer $100/week to our travel account.  In the past year we've gone done one fly-away long weekend, and one drive long weekend. I went to San Fran with some girlfriends for my birthday, and we went to Hawaii for 10 days, and rented a condo to share with my mother-in-law (paid for those flights with airmiles, so they only cost $350).  We also raided the travel account to pay for Christmas this year.

We haven't got anything in the works for the rest of 2013, but we are likely to do a few long weekend trips, and hopefully a few family long weekend camping trips. In 2014, we will most likely be off to Europe again to visit the nieces and nephew.

If I don't put money away for travel, the guilt over spending the $$$ really bothers me.

Edit:  We don't have kids though, only kitties, who don't travel with us.

happy

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2013, 04:19:38 AM »
I budget for 3k a year, but some years its not used up and some years we could be over. I did a lot of travelling when I was younger, and I have to travel 2-3x a year for work, so travel is not a priority for me personally, the novelty and my wanderlust is long worn off. There are a few destinations on my bucket list, but they are mostly prohibitively expensive and I couldn't afford to take 3 of us. With kids, family are costs are high, but when they are teenagers and you start to pay adult rates for everything its even worse. As a single mum its a hell of a lot of work/energy to organise and round everyone up, only to spend half the holiday with " I don't like x, y or z.... I don't want to do x,y,z", or find you are paying a fortune to stay in a touristy dive.

I live in a nice part of the world, so sometimes I have declared "holiday at home week", where we act like we are on holiday at home. All routine home jobs and responsibilities are banned/ignored, we spend time enjoying and exploring the good recreation our area has to offer, and enjoy meals out in cafe's etc guilt free, as part of the cost of the "holiday", since we normally don't do this and by staying at home there are no actual travelling costs..

kolorado

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #13 on: February 06, 2013, 07:44:42 AM »
Up until this year we'd always spent around $2000. That's because we lived near a lot of family and the Jersey Shore so we mostly vacationed in our "backyard". Trips to the mountains to visit our in-laws were only 3 hours on the road and free lodging(and huge hot tub on their deck!). We also went to NC every year to stay with my brother's family for free although the trip cost around $600 in gas/tolls/food. The most decadent trip we'd take as a family was to stay in a cabin in Shenandoah National Park in a big family group weekend. Our kids have "issues" and were not able to tolerate sleeping in a tent.
Now we are 1800 miles away from "home", living in CO. We are shopping for a very small pop-up camper(average loss of 1mpg)so that we can go home twice a year, two weeks each time. We will stay with family or friends in NJ in our pop-up so no lodging costs except on the road.
With the cost of those trips, maintenance and ownership of a pop-up,and any other long weekend excursions we take around here(and I have quite a long list of places to visit from CO!)I've budgeted $3600 for vacation this year.

LadyM

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Re: Vacation Budget Annually for Families w/Kids
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2013, 10:16:29 AM »
It's so funny, but I saw this post and it got me thinking.  Frankly, we haven't spent much more than a few hundred bucks a year on various daytrips for the past few years, and no real vacation to speak of because we simply couldn't afford it. 

Thanks to our Mustachian ways, we can now AFFORD A REAL VACATION!!  Granted, it's only a 4-night vacation, but a vacation nonetheless!  We're going to Kill Devil Hills, NC and renting a condo on the beach for 4 nights.  We're taking groceries and planning to make our food, with the exception of maybe one dinner out at our favorite restaurant down there.  With gas and a bit of spendy $$ (not much, for mini-golf or something), we'll be able to have a nice family vacation for $1600 (mostly condo rent, approaching peak season).

From here on out, we'll probably plan on budgeting around $2000/year for family vacations, mostly in the summer.