Holiday Planning Mum, Budgeting for Family Holidays

I recently saw this opportunity to blog about budgeting for family holidays, and thought this is right up my street. Chris gets incredibly bored of me constantly pricing holidays and flights to get the best deal. In fact I think after blogging, searching for holidays is one of my favourite pastimes. I really should have been a travel agent and not a teacher. So here goes; my top 10 tips for planning and budgeting a holiday.

1.    Do your research, if it is a big holiday plan well in advance. I find flights are always cheaper as soon as they come out. For the Disney trip we are going on next year I researched prices and deals a year in advance, this way I got a feel for the actual prices. When a deal came out, I could recognise that it was infact a great deal. This paid off; We got the Disney Dining Plan Free for our holiday to Orlando next year, saving us a fortune.

2.    For cruises book early to get on board credit, the best cabins and early booking discounts. 

3.    Collect air miles, I use my American Express credit card, and Join the British Airways Executive Club to build air miles. We have flown business class on holiday for the last few years using our Avios points.

Amazing Air Miles

I love air miles; I cannot believe the cheap flights we have receive by using these. 

There are many schemes available but we use British Airways Executive Club. When you read reviews there are good and bad, however I can honestly say we have never had any problems. As long as you are prepared to be flexible there are flights available, you just need to be organised and keep watching the availability.

There are several ways to collect, 

1. Firstly American Express Credit Card.  For every pound you spend you get 1.5 air miles (or Avios as they are called). When you spend £10,000 in a year on your card you receive a free companion voucher, this means you can bring a companion on a flight and pay the tax but no air miles.( when you think what you spend on shopping and petrol alone this adds up quickly)