It’s a year away and going to be a big one so best we start saving our money now. How much to save? And how to save? 

We are planning a trip to the UK to visit family and see the sights over 3 to 4 weeks. The biggest expenses will be transportation and accommodation. My ball park estimate is $10,000. 

Now for the detailed budget – Although we may be able to stay with friends and family for part of the trip, we’ll have to budget for at least half of our stay in paid accommodation. Flights and a combination of train travel and a rental car will get us to and fro. Let’s see how it adds up:

• $4,000 Flights (4 * $1,000)
• $600 Rental Car 
• $600 Other Transportation
• $1,500 Accommodation (10 * $150)
• $1,575 Food (21 * $75)
• $500 Gifts
• $500 Tourist Stuff

For a grand total of $9,275. Quite close to my $10,000 ball park estimate.

I think $10,000 is a good savings target and now the trick is how to save for it. I set aside $250 each month for holidays, I am paid 26 times per year but we budget on 2 pays per month which means 3 paycheques to save between now and next year and in the latter half of the year, both of us have paid our CPP and EI premiums and our cheques are a little bigger. I think these 3 opportunities will get us to our $10,000 savings goal if we’re disciplined. Now we have a plan!