Make sure you can go on holiday next year

Are you worried you won't be able to afford a holiday next year? Here are some tips to ensure you'll be able to get away.

When times are tough, holidays can be more important than ever. If you haven’t had a pay rise in three years and you’ve been working harder than you’ve ever worked before, a holiday can feel close to essential.

Trouble is, the time when you most need a holiday can also be the time when you can least afford one. So what can you do to make a holiday more affordable in 2012?

Here are four tips on cutting your costs:

1. Try a youth hostel

Holidays in the UK can work out a lot cheaper and they can still be very relaxing. Take your family to a youth hostel and you could get a family room for as little as £30 a night.

2.  Do a house swap

Swapping your house with another family is a fantastic way to save cash. Go to ukholidayswapshop if you’d like to a swap in the UK while Geenee has a database of 15,000 properties round the world.

3.  Cheap train travel

If you’re travelling in the UK, going by train can be very relaxing, but fares can be pricey. Sometimes you can cut costs by ‘splitting your ticket.’ 

If you were planning to travel from Station A to Station  C, you might think it would be best just to buy one ticket for the journey. But sometimes, it can be cheaper to buy a ticket for the journey from Station A to Station B and then another ticket from B to C. You still complete the journey from A to C and stay on the same train without getting off.  Find out more at Splityourticket.

4.  Cheap airport parking

If you’ve ever left a car at an airport while you go on holiday, you’ll know that prices can be extortionate. You could cut the cost by parking in the driveway of a private home.

Time to budget

Of course, cost cutting is all very well, but your holiday will still cost some money and you’ll need to find some cash from somewhere.

The best way to do that is to start careful budgeting now. If you monitor your spending and draw up a tight budget for every month, you can almost certainly reduce your expenditure. Then you can use the money you’ve saved for a modest holiday.

We think the best budgeting tool out there is lovemoney.com’s MoneyTrack. You can set yourself tight spending targets and then monitor how you’re doing against them every day.

Sign up today and you could be a tiny bit closer to getting a well deserved break in 2012.

More:  Make your money last until payday! |  The seven top websites for holiday bargains | Grab an ultra cheap holiday