Saving up for Florida can be a challenge. So what’s our approach and how can we keep going back every year?

Firstly, we decide when we want to go. We factor in how much we can save per month, what saving to our day to day outgoings we can reduce. What we can eBay or car boot and how we want to travel.

Once we’ve done that we can roughly decide when we will be able to go. Now we are in a fortunate position that we both have well-paying careers and can afford to go each year but it still takes a large sum of money to get us to Florida and to allow us to do the things we want to do when we are there. This simple system of working out what you can afford to save each month and then working out a cost for the holiday should help you.

I also use a spreadsheet to track all our outgoings. It’s great to see where the money goes and work out how we can reduce our spendings. Even if that doesn’t mean you can head to Florida it is still worth doing. You will be surprised what you can save by doing this.

Ok, let’s take that a step further…

Once I have a good idea of how much we can save each month and when we can go, we’ll have a look at the options. If we can get it cheaper we can go sooner, if we decide to travel in style then it might push things back.

I’ll start to look at the travel agent websites. If we have a good date range I’ll quite happily spend an evening looking at every date and every price over the whole range of dates we could go. By doing this I found that traveling on a Wednesday seems pretty cheap. I actually saved over £300 by flying on a Wednesday rather than the day before so don’t let a travel agent pick your dates for you.

There are also big differences in price from travel agent to travel agent.

Yesterday I priced two weeks in the Grand Floridan for a family of three.

The highest price was over £15,000. The lowest was £11,500. That was for the same holiday over the same dates. If you can travel on different dates you could probably reduce that further.

Once we’ve decided when and where we are going based on how much we can save I do something crazy, I book it! Some people wait but for me, those people are less likely to go plus I like a bit of pressure on me so I book it. Once it’s booked I keep chipping away at the balance. I make sure I’m set up online so I can pay anything extra off the balance. It works really well and it’s a real game to see the amount coming down. The day when you have paid off the balance is such a great feeling, we are going and it’s paid for!!!

So that’s what I do but to actually find the money to go here is a few more practical ideas for saving up for Florida…

1. Car boot sales. They won’t make you a millionaire but they can be a great way to have a clear out of the loft or garage and make some money. Just make sure you get that money paid off the balance as soon as possible.
2. For slightly bigger and better things you can sell on eBay.
3. Combine the two. Do you have an interest that you can leverage to help you save? I know a few people who buy stuff at car boot sales and sell it on eBay for a profit. I’ve done this myself with guitars and vinyl records.
4. This is my favorite tip for someone who is saving up for Florida. I buy a money box tin from Amazon for less than £5. You can’t get into the tin unless you use a tin opener. It’s technically for £2 coins and if you fill it with those you’ll save £1000. I just stick anything in it from 1p to a £20 note. I am quick to put any money into the tin no matter who’s it is! My daughter is also very vigilant when it comes to adding money. This works really well and last time gave us over £500 extra towards our Floridian holiday.

I hope some of these ideas help you to save for your holiday. If you have any other tips that might be able to help someone else with their saving up for Florida please leave a comment below.