We all have limited finances. Vacations are often seen as a luxury, but to some, it is a complete necessity. It is good for your marriage, and often your sanity. Vacations are a time to get away, visit the world, experience cultures, and make memories.

Growing up we went on at least one vacation every summer. Last year I went on 5 vacations. I know this is much more than most are capable of if for no other reason than their work schedule, but could also be more than you think your family could afford. I am here to share tips on how to plan a vacation that is not only awesome, but doesn’t break the bank and will even allow you to travel more!

• The first step in planning a killer vacation is to make a list of several places you would love to go. Sit down and make a list with your spouse (and kids), and put the season beside the location if that is important. For example, I want to go to Iceland but my entire desire centers around the Northern Lights. They are at peak during the winter (Nov-Feb), so even if airfare is cheap in July, that doesn’t help me much.
• Next, decide when you are going. Many people work around the schedule of their children or plant shutdown weeks. If you are flexible, skip this step!
• Now that you know when you are going, you have parameters to search with. The last bit of information you need before you begin your search is how much you wish to spend.
• Weed out all of the places that are out of the season you are looking at, and look at your budget and see if any are unrealistic. For example. I live in KY and flights to Hawaii are $800. If my total budget is $2,000, I should probably save myself the time and just eliminate that from the list.
• Make a spreadsheet with each location, across the top label the columns with Flight, Hotel/Room, Rental Car/Gas, Activities, Etc. I usually leave off food since it is a requirement no matter where you go but feel free to budget this in here.

• Use Google Flights and, if the location requires you to fly or you just prefer flying, search each location. If your dates are flexible you can easily adjust your parameters to get the best deal possible. For more information on how to use Google Flights click here. Enter your flight prices in the spreadsheet.
• From here you and probably eliminate other locations. You can estimate $100/night for a room on the lower end, so if you plan to stay for 7 nights and only have $300 left in your budget, save yourself some time and go ahead and eliminate those.
• Next I like to look at rooms. Use Groupon, Airbnb, Home Away, Google, State Parks, etc to find your accommodations. I like to browse and get a close idea of price and enter it in, ill save the actual digging for the best room later after I narrow down exactly where I am going.
• Like before, eliminate any options that are over budget or pretty close.
• Finally look at whether you will want to have a rental car there, subway cards, or if driving your gas expense (and you may want to throw in some extra for an oil change, etc).
• I also put activities in there as a category because some places I want to do is for a certain activity. For example, if I go to NYC I want to do an on and off trolley. This would be around $300 for me and my husband. I want to budget this in now.
• Now you should have your options narrowed down significantly. If your budget is super tight you may want to weed further down, but from there let your kids decide, draw rocks, or play a game to decide where to go.

I hope you have an awesome vacation!