During the summer season, families across the country map out road trips, beach days, and theme park getaways. However, along with sunscreen and souvenirs, many return home with something less pleasant: credit card debt.
Ashley LeBaron-Black, a family life professor, wants to help families enjoy time together without feeling forced to take on long-term financial stress. Her solution—budgeting.
“The word ‘budget’ probably sounds boring and constraining to some people,” she says, “but budgeting is all about getting the things you really want...it just requires some discipline to achieve those goals.”
In a recent article published on KSL, LeBaron-Black shared findings from her research on how families can prepare for travel without relying on borrowed money. Her advice centers on three core budgeting steps: planning, tracking,
The first step, she explains, is to assign vacation savings its own category in the monthly budget.
“Budgeting is all about balancing income versus expenditures,” LeBaron-Black says. “You might need to plan ahead and take money away from other categories to put aside for your vacation. Examples of this type of saving include spending less on eating out or cutting out a subscription.”
The second step involves tracking spending throughout the month. LeBaron-Black recommends checking expenses midway throughout each month.
“Checking how you’re doing once in the middle of the month, let’s you see if you need to rein yourself in during the second half of the month in any category. Then at the end of the month, you need to balance your budget and finalize how much you were able to save up,” she says.
The third step is to protect your vacation savings. Whether set aside in a separate account or marked clearly in a budget, the money should remain untouched until the trip. Families can then repeat the cycle each month until they’ve saved enough to cover travel costs in full.
This kind of intentional planning can help families avoid a common financial trap: funding leisure through credit cards or loans. LeBaron-Black believes that consistent financial habits reduce stress and help build stronger family relationships.
“By repeating steps two-to-three until you’ve saved up enough to go on vacation, it allows you to enjoy your well-earned trip with the peace of mind that you are spending money you already have, not money your future self will have to come up with,” she says.