The decision to travel is exciting for your whole family, but it is also expensive. When you start to calculate all of the costs, you wonder if the trip is possible at all. Instead of disappointing everyone, including yourself, look into some options for financing the trip and enjoying yourself.
Savings Account
Depleting your savings account to travel is a bad idea; however, you are saving money for a reason. In fact, you could start a specific savings account just for vacations. Separating this money from your emergency money helps you to feel less guilty taking out of the account for a trip, and it also leaves you with back-up funds.
Garage Sale
During the summer, you may begin to notice how much clutter has amassed in your home over the past year. You would love to come home to a house that is entirely clean and organized, so consider hosting a garage sale. Depending upon the type of items that you have for sale, you could end up earning hundreds or thousands of dollars. The garage sale might pay for a fancy meal or for a couple of nights in the hotel.
Online Sales
If sitting out in the hot sun bargaining with your neighbors is not really your style, consider selling some of your items online instead. Many websites exist for doing so. If you choose this method of raising method, make sure that you follow some safety tips for online sales. You could choose to put items up for auction, sell them outright or look for Facebook pages where locals buy, sell and swap items.
Short-term Loans
While getting yourself into debt for a vacation is not the best idea, you likely already have the trip booked and need to figure out how you will afford it. Look into short-term loans, such as a car title loan. You can get the amount of money that you need for the trip. Just make sure that you have the money to pay it back by its due date; these loans generally do not give you a long time to pay. Also, make sure that you investigate the interest rates. You do not want to end up paying a great deal more than you took out.
Credit Cards
When you travel, using a credit card is a good idea because it helps to prevent you from carrying a great deal of cash on you. Tourists are often the targets of robberies because it is assumed that they have cash. Using your credit card can also help you to earn points. With those points, you can book other trips or cash out; use that cash to create a better financial situation for yourself. Before you go on the vacation, find out which facilities take credit cards. Some modes of transportation or tourist spots accept cash only, so you could be out of luck if you try to use a credit card at these locations.
Check Your Current Rewards
Even if you do not want to put the entire trip or part of the trip on your credit card, these pieces of plastic can still help you. Bring up your credit card accounts to find out what rewards are currently available to you. Many credit cards offer rewards in the form of plane tickets or gas discounts. Then, you can some or all of the transportation paid for. Your card company might also offer cash so you have extra money on you during the trip. Other card companies will provide a credit on your account, and you can use that extra space for the vacation.
Roll those Coins
In many homes across the country; people haphazardly throw their change into a drawer when they come home at the end of the day. Even if you have a dedicated coin jar, you probably have just let the money sit there for months or even years on end. Now is the time to bring those coins to the local bank or grocery store to get some usable cash from them. You might think that you couldn’t possibly have enough change to make the trip worth it, but you may find that you have enough money to pay for one of the meals.
Get a Second Job
If you are going on the vacation in a short period of time, you probably do not have the ability to take on a second job before then. However, many people book their trips in advance. When you fall into that category, start checking out different part-time job opportunities in the area, you may feel tempted to use the money to make some impulse buys or to get some things that you need around the house. Doing so is okay but only after you have saved up all of the funds that you need for the trip. Set up an automatic plan so that the money from this job automatically goes into your vacation savings account.
Find Your Gift Cards
Most people have at least a couple of gift cards in their houses or their cars that they never used. Go through your house to find yours. You may have some gift cards that you can use at restaurants when you’re on the trip or gift cards that can be used wherever certain credit cards are accepted. Even if you do not have enough money on the card to account for part of your trip, you can use it to buy supplies. Many people find themselves in need of a new bathing suit or beach towel before they embark on their summer expeditions, and a gift card can help you to keep more money around for the actual vacation itself.
Refinance with Cash out
If you have some time before your vacation, you should look into refinancing your mortgage with a cash out option. Through refinancing, you can lower your interest rate, which will help you to save more money on a monthly basis by itself. The next time you go on a trip, you may find that you do not need to scramble for funds. Cashing out is an option if you have equity in your house. Most lenders require you to have a certain amount of equity in order to qualify for the cash. Once you have the cash, you can use it how you please, so you may have thousands of extra dollars available for your vacation. When you start this process, make sure that you ask the lender how long it will take and to account for extra time; otherwise, you may find that you don’t have the money before the trip.
Financing your vacation might seem impossible right now, especially when your monetary situation is deleterious. Fortunately, you do not have to forgo that big family trip you’ve been waiting for all year; you can use some tips and methods to bring in cash.