How to Save $500 for Your Summer Vacation

Summer vacations can be expensive, so it’s wise to start saving early unless you’re a multimillionaire. Even if you start saving in the winter, you can still accumulate enough for a luxurious trip. However, it’s not too late to roll up your sleeves and save a sufficient amount for a vacation, even with a modest salary. To save at least $500 (a minimum for a single person’s vacation under current conditions), you’ll need more than just general saving tips; you’ll also need to focus on specific details.

Stop Eating Out

Planning your home diet and its cost is the easiest way to save money. Every product, herb, and grain you buy is paid for out of your own pocket, and you likely know which favorite products are the most economical. Even if you don’t deny yourself expensive products, cooking them yourself is still cheaper than buying ready-made meals or eating in cafes (not to mention restaurants!). No cheap cafeterias can replace a good old homemade lunch, carefully packed in a plastic container or bento box. Your colleagues will only envy you.

Minimize meetings with friends at cafes. If you don’t want to do this and are ready to fight temptations, gather your willpower and talk about a draconian diet before the beach season and strict dietary prescriptions that you cannot violate. This will be a small and harmless lie for a good cause, but it will take considerable willpower not to succumb to the temptation to spend a couple of hundred dollars. Yes, this is a trifle compared to the amount you need to save, but it is such trifles and visits to public catering places that make up a significant part of our financial expenses.

Have a No-Spend Day

A no-spend day is a day in the week when you solemnly promise yourself that you will not spend a single penny. You can buy milk and bread the next morning; nothing terrible will happen in one day. Once you get used to it, increase the number of no-spend days to two a week.

It may seem that you will still have to buy everything you need the next day. But that’s the point! The key word is ‘necessary.’ Everything that is not urgently needed will pass by your consumer basket due to the effect of non-urgency.

Conduct a ‘Penny’ Revision

We all have expenses that seem too insignificant to be considered real expenses. A newspaper at a kiosk for a couple of dollars, emojis in your favorite social network, SMS messages asking ‘How are you?’, paid subscriptions… A lot of ‘penny’ expenses can accumulate, so the proverbial penny will stop saving not only the dollar but also a much more significant amount. Be strong and refuse all this trifle for the time of savings. After all, you yourself admit that the expenses are penny and the pleasures are minimal.

It is such trifles that often help to save the required amount, although at first glance they seem negligible. Do not neglect them!

Change Your Transportation

Ideally, walking is the most beneficial: it’s good for your health and doesn’t affect your wallet. In reality, this is not always possible, so think carefully about whether you can save on transportation. Walking and cycling are great. A car is also good because it can almost always be replaced with something cheaper. In other cases, you may have to frown over a public transport map to find the cheapest route. It may be a bit longer than usual, but this is also not too high a price for the money saved. Listen to good music or an audiobook during this time, imagining how you will bask on a warm beach or enthusiastically explore European architecture.

Switch to Cash

It’s so easy to pay for everything with a card. So if you only pay with cash and withdraw no more than a fixed amount per day or week, you physically won’t be able to spend more than you wanted. And leave the card at home. This method is especially good for those who have not yet developed the willpower of a Buddhist monk and are afraid to succumb to temptations. No money – means no expenses. No money, no problem!

Practice Delayed Purchases

Of course, you won’t be able to avoid expenses altogether, and weekly purchases are not limited to just food and transportation. In the months before your summer vacation, you will have to buy something else. In this case, try using the delayed purchase technique. If the purchase can wait a little, postpone it for a week or two and think carefully. During this time, either a more profitable option will come up, or you will change your mind, or you will still make this purchase, but you will be 100% sure of its necessity. However, it’s better not to do this with simple things like a new light bulb for the entrance.

Use Cashbacks

If you still pay for some of your purchases with a card, sign up for a reliable and trusted cashback service. Some banks offer their own programs for returning a certain percentage of purchases. Sometimes separate organizations and sites do this. Study the market and find an option that won’t be too intrusive for you.

Share and Share Alike

Make a shopping list for a long time ahead and go to a huge wholesale market with friends. You can even go to a non-specialized wholesale market, just buy large volumes of something you need, as they are always cheaper than small ones. Buy a lot and share it with friends and acquaintances who will also surely not refuse to save. Maybe they will even start saving for a trip with you if you share your ideas with them. Together you can shop and vacation together!