Imagine this: you’re on the road to your long-anticipated vacation, packed and ready for a week of relaxation. And then you realized you forgot [insert vacation necessity here]. Or parking costs more than you expected. Or someone gets sick and you can’t find any doctors nearby covered by your insurance.

While this may not be the most pleasant imagination exercise, it’s an important one to go through if you don’t want hefty credit card bills to follow you home from vacation this year.

Plan for Everything

Luckily, taking the time to think ahead now can save you time, money and frustration when you’re trying to enjoy yourself later. Here are some tips to help you prepare for terrific time off.

• Do some digging. If you’re visiting a new location or looking to try new things at a familiar spot, hit your library and check out some travel guides of the area. Once you find one you like, consider buying a copy to mark up and keep handy on the road.
• Determine your priorities. Figure out what activities are important to you and your family members. If the “traditional” mini-golf game has everyone rolling eyes this year, scrapping it is a great way to save money.
• Make an estimate. Once you have an idea what you want to include in your vacation, you can guess what it’s likely to cost. This would be a good time to guess a little high.
• Trim the fat. Knowing what the most important parts of the vacation are will help you find activities you can eliminate without upsetting anyone. Sometimes, you can save serious money on gas by simply deciding to go places in a different order.
• Start saving. It’s not too late to begin a vacation budget. And, once you’ve spent time plotting out your trip, it will likely seem more real and much easier to save for.

If you have young children, you and your spouse may want to have a discussion about how much spending money to allow them for the trip. Once you’ve decided on a number, take the opportunity to explain to your kids how their allowance will work.

This is a great opportunity to teach some basic money lessons and will help you prevent over-spending on last-minute souvenirs.

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