“Tips for Frugal Family Travel” plus 1 more

Posted: 24 Oct 2011 04:00 AM PDT

Family travel might not seem like something you can accomplish frugally, but with a little planning and a few budget strategies, you can get where you're going as a group without breaking the bank or losing your sanity.

Take a careful accounting of your hotel's amenities.

While we all want to get the best deal possible when traveling, going for the bottom-line price on your hotel room without considering the add-ons offered by the place down the street might end up costing you money in the long run. If there's no grocery store nearby and your only other breakfast option is a fast-food drive through next door, you could end up dropping an easy thirty bucks for a family of six. If an extra fifteen dollars per night would have scored you free breakfast eats, it was probably worth the upgrade. Are there laundry facilities on site? They'll help you pack light and avoid hefty baggage fees on the flight there. Free shuttle services offered by the hotel to nearby attractions cost only a tip, saving on rentals and cab fees.

Stay wired.

There are a number of family travel apps to assist with entertainment, directions and free places to stop and play. Making sure your smart phone is charged and ready can keep you tapped into things like historical markers, roadside attractions, car bingo and the location of the nearest rest area. There are also apps for bird watching, and finding restaurants with kid-friendly infrastructure.

Consider alternative accommodations to save money.

Depending on the time of year or climate of your destination, family camping might be an option to shave costs and save money. Otherwise, participating in a home exchange or house swap might be the way you want to go. Who doesn't love free digs? You can also save money by staying at family-friendly hostels or checking out owner-rented vacation properties which often offer a full cottage with kitchen access for further money-saving opportunities.

Don't assume a theme venue will be too expensive.

Not every place is as expensive as the shrine of the mouse. Water parks and zoos can provide tremendous value on a per-day basis, especially if you're in need of something to break up the museum monotony. Compared to multiple entry tickets at attractions costing $25 or more a pop, a thirty dollar day pass with access to a splash zone can bring sanity as well as fun to the family travel table.

Mother Nature is a bargain.

Seriously, kids love nature. Whether it's a day of snowshoeing in a state park, or bird watching in Costa Rica's Monte Verde cloud forest, there's lots to love about the natural world. If you're staying Stateside, consider purchasing an America the Beautiful pass from the National Park Service. One flat fee for the year gets you in to all of the national parks, reserves and federal lands in the country. That and a pair of hiking shoes per family member is a pretty cheap investment for fitness and travel.

Once you've dipped your toes in the financial waters of family travel, you may find that you not only enjoy it, but want to include more of it in your budget. If that's the case, and the kids are on board, consider that by implementing a few budget strategies and sacrificing a few video games to pay for plane tickets you may be able to spend several months on the road per year for less than what you normally would have paid to articipate in a single hockey season. Just a thought.

Managing your Finances through a Budget

Posted: 24 Oct 2011 04:00 AM PDT

When it comes to financial management one of the best things anyone can do is set up a budget for themselves, and follow it. You will find that without a plan in mind on how to manage your spending, you will only be spending without knowing exactly where it is going.

Budgets can help you see the bigger picture with your spending, and allows you to see where all of your money is going. When you make your initial budget, you will find that the amount you have allocated to each category will likely need to be adjusted drastically after your first month.

The fact is, a budget will allow you to spend without feeling the stress of knowing where your money is going. Ultimately, having a budget will allow you to become less stressful when dealing with your finances.

How can do I go about creating my own budget?

Creating your budget is not as hard as one might think. What it really comes down to it is that you need to go through your monthly spending and categorize it accordingly.

Most people will use their credit or debit card for the majority of their purchases, which is great because you can easily track your spending and determine how to categorize your budget.

The categories that should be in your budget include food expenses, debt, entertainment, etc.

At BankNerd we have been able to compile a comprehensive list of best budget temp lates, which we give out to consumers for free. Many personal finance bloggers helped provide their own unique budget templates.

As you can see below, the budget template from Krystal Yee, blogger at Give Me Back My Five Bucks outlines expenses, savings, debt and income in their own tables, allowing the user to easily track all aspects of their finances.

What makes this budget template great is the fact that there is another section in the document that allows you to breakdown your expenses, which makes it easy for you to determine exactly where you money has been going.

Creating your own budget is always one of the best things to do, however the key to budgets is actually recording all of your expenses. The fact is, even when you take the time to create your budget, chances are that there will be certain times where you either forget to write down a purchase, or completely disregard your budget all together.

To help you manage your finances better, banks have stepped up to help you.

How are banks helping in financial management?

Out of the Big Six, three banks have stepped up and are offering financial management tools that can assist clients in managing their finances better.

The three banks who have stepped up are none other than the Bank of Montreal (BMO), the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

Out of these three banks, CIBC was the first to offer a solution for those looking to manage their finances without having to rely on a secondary budget. CIBC launched CIBC CreditSmart, which is a financial management tool aimed to help people who want to budget their spending through their credit card. All of your expenses can be easily categorized, and once you have done then your transactions will automatically be directed to the respected category.

RBC was the next bank to offer a solution clients were looking for, and that solution is called myFinanceTracker. myFinanceTracker is a tool that not only tracks your spending through your debit or credit purchases, but also automatically categorizes them for you. Within each category, you are allowed to make sub-categories, allowing yourself to properly set and see where your money is going.

BMO ha sonly recently launched their financial management tool, which is called BMO MoneyLogic. BMO MoneyLogic allows the user to manage their transactions, set goals and track their progress, set budgets and receive notifications when limits have been met, and best of all collect the client's spending and saving data to produce easy to read charts and graphs.

What makes all of these financial management tools great is the fact that these banks have created them and are giving them to you at no cost. They allow you to easily track your expenses, and take control of your spending.

Creating a budget is essential for anyone looking to take control of their finances; it may take a little work at first, but in the end it will be worth it.

Guest post by Sensei from BankNerd.ca, Canada's Banking Information Source. You can Follow BankNerd on Twitter, Facebook or by Email Newsletter.

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