“I would love to do some traveling this summer with my two children, but I don’t have a lot of money to spend. I don’t want to disappoint them, as they are looking forward to something different this year. Any tips on how to spend less and still have fun on summer vacation?”

School is out and summer is here! For the children it’s the beginning of two months of freedom, but for the parents it can start a period of over-spending and loss of budgetary control.

While you want to ensure that your children enjoy their vacation, it’s important not to spend more than you can afford on summer fun. The best way to ensure that your holiday plans are affordable is to prepare for it many months in advance.

How do you factor summer spending into your regular budgets?

Just like any other expense, you should estimate the total cost of the vacation, divide this total by 12 (or by the number of months left for your planned vacation to start), and then save this figure each month to arrive at the amount you need to spend. Regular investments or partner plans can give you the lump sum you budgeted for.

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If vacation time is already here and you haven’t started saving for it yet, be very careful about taking on debt in order to finance your summer fun. Remember that September and back-to-school time is just around the corner.

First look to the possibility of generating extra income in order to fund your vacation. Can you work overtime at your job? Is there any item that you can supply to friends and co-workers to boost your income?

If borrowing is inevitable, stay away from charging your vacation on your credit card, as this is a very expensive type of loan. Check with your credit union to see if you can access lower-interest financing.

Your objective should be to pay off this debt quickly. Use any bonuses you might get at the year end to clear it off. To ensure that planning for next year’s vacation goes smoothly, immediately start to save towards this goal.

Once you have secured the money you will need for the vacation, here a few tips on how you can have fun for less:

Local Travel

1. Create a theme for local travel: Use the summer to teach your children about Jamaica’s geography. Perhaps each weekend you can visit a different waterfall, or view the different mountain ranges from Blue Mountains to the Cockpit Country.

2. Pack a picnic: Visit free sites like Hope Gardens or the beach, or other family-friendly locations across the island. Bring along music, food and games for a whole day of fun.

3.   Look out for free or low-cost activities: Check the newspapers for details on free performances or low-cost festivals. Emancipation Park usually has a summer schedule of events. You can also check with local community centres to see what they may have planned.

4.   Join up with other families to save costs: Some entertainment spots will give you lower group rates if you have a minimum number using the facility. You can also consider renting a villa with other families in order to split the costs. This is a great way to organize a family reunion, or a church group outing.

5.   Car pool: If you’re going to be traveling out of town with friends or family, it might help to reduce gas costs by car pooling instead of driving separate cars.

Overseas travel

1.  Fly midweek: You can save money on airfare by traveling mid week instead of on the weekend.

2. Look for deals online: You can sometimes save on airfare by buying your ticket online. You can also find ways to save money at amusement parks and other entertainment packages by scouting on the internet.

3.  Go with an organized charter: Many travel agencies organize group charters to popular destinations. You can benefit from the reduced costs from traveling in numbers, and hopefully also have fun with new friends.

4. Try to avoid buying food at amusement parks; you’ll end up paying maybe three times the price of the item in the supermarket. If possible, bring a picnic basket, or eat heartily before going to the venue.

5. Explore less popular locations: Disney World and Universal Studios might be the big sites for summer entertainment, but they can be costly. Look in the travel guides for smaller destinations that are less expensive.

However you decide to spend your vacation, make sure that you spend within your means so that you won’t regret it financially when the summer is over.