"I see the breakdown as a financial need versus a financial want," Shapiro says. The staycation is becoming more and more popular as people look to decrease their travel costs, and venture out in their own area to see what is available.

If vacation spending is impeding what you can put toward fixed costs, flexible expenses and goal contributions, then you may have to reset your travel approach. Disney and other family trips are on the horizon, but for now we need to stick closer to home. RELATED: You Shouldn't Work on Vacation, and Here's Why, LearnVest is a simple plan for your money.


Here are more surprising findings about the vacation-spending habits of your fellow Americans — along with tips to satisfy your adventure kick without digging yourself into debt. Housecleaner – with al the money saved from staying close to home, we thought about getting our house cleaned for one day – top to bottom. I’d rather know how much is reasonable and spend that amount joyfully, right?! Conclusion: As you can tell, I’m leaning towards a staycation next year. We’re heading out to Chile soon, so we’ll be reporting from the road. A house cleaner is on the wish list now but may become a priority when we start a family. © 2020 Forbes Media LLC. These percentages are part of each family’s net spending, not gross salaries, for reference. Tally up how much you spend on vacations in a year (look to past years' numbers for a good benchmark), then divide by 12 to figure out how much you need to stash away each month so you're financially flush once travel season hits. every year. I did a bit of research, and found some numbers to help guide spending on travel.
I’ve done some quick math and here’s what I came up with: Cost of a staycation: $250 meals, $400 sightseeing, $650 total. That is great you are able to travel so much, and $800/per person to Europe is cheap. Since I spend most of my days working I haven’t had the chance to check out any of them. Putting a vacation on a credit card is probably about the worst idea ever (although Mr. ThreeYear and I did just that on our honeymoon to Greece. Affordable too I’m guessing since prices seem somewhat reasonable there. That’s okay; our trip in a few months will give me time to rest and see new sites. For most of these trips, we’ve worried about how much we were spending, sweated the price of the airline tickets, and fretted about our travel spending.

"It's worth looking into Airbnb or VRBO to put your current place up for rent, since it'll be empty while you're on vacation," Shapiro says.

Pro Tip: If you'd rather not give up your social life, brown bag your lunch three times a week instead of eating out, and you could save an average of $143 per month. But are there guidelines out there?