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 overspending 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.

Ideally, you should have started planning for your vacation many months in advance. Just like any other expense in your budget, you would estimate the total cost of your holiday plans, 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.

Finding the funds for fun

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, so you can’t afford to spend unwisely with these impending school expenses on the horizon.

If borrowing is inevitable this year, 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.

Another way of financing your vacation needs is to look at ways to generate extra income. Can you work overtime at your job for a few weeks? Is there any item that you can supply to friends and co-workers to boost your income? Get the children involved in coming up with ideas on what the family can do to make extra money.

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

Loving our local hotspots

1 Create a theme: 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. Visit free sites like Hope Gardens or the beach, or other family-friendly locations across the island.

2 Look out for free or low-cost activities: Check the newspapers for details on free performances, low-cost festivals and government institutions with a summer schedule of events. You can also check with local community centres to see what they may have planned.

3 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 host a family reunion, or a church or community group outing.

4 Car pool: If you’re going to be travelling out of town with friends or family, it might help to reduce gas costs by car-pooling instead of driving separate cars. You may also decide to leave your vehicles behind and utilise the luxury bus service, which travels to many popular vacation spots.

Opting for overseas travel

1 Look for airline deals: You can sometimes save on airfare by buying your ticket online. Sometimes the ticket costs vary according to the time or day of the week, so keep checking the airline’s website. You may also find that travelling mid-week instead of on the weekend is a lot less expensive.

2 Go with a charter: Many travel agencies organise group charters to popular destinations. You can benefit from the reduced costs from travelling in numbers, and hopefully also have fun with new friends. You can also save money at amusement parks by scouting the Internet for discount tickets and other volume packages.

3 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 amusement centres that are less expensive, and use travel guide websites such as loneyplanet.com to find destinations at great prices.

4 Stock up at the supermarket: Try to avoid buying food at amusement parks; you’ll end up paying maybe three times the price of the items in the supermarket. If possible, bring a picnic basket to your destination, or if the location does not allow food to be brought in, eat heartily before going to the venue.

However you decide to enjoy your vacation, make sure that you spend within your means so that you won’t regret it financially when the summer is over. To ensure that planning for next year’s vacation goes smoothly, immediately start saving towards this goal.

Cherryl is a money coach, business mentor, and founder of Financially S.M.A.R.T. Services. Her upcoming book, “The 3 Ms of Money” will reveal all the secrets she learned about financial success. Get more advice on money and business matters at www.financiallysmartadvice.com and www.entrepreneursinjamaica.com. E-mail comments to cherryl@financiallysmartonline.com.