Having a 'Shopping' Budget While on Vacation

Yes, you read that right, a shopping budget while on vacation! I don't mean shopping as in buying souvenirs, I really am suggesting setting a clothes or shoe shopping budget for your vacation. I'm sure this may seem taboo to many of you, but it has been a huge rule for us when going on vacation. I know most of you are reading this with major skepticism, but that's why I'm writing this! So to the best of my ability, I'm going to explain exactly why you should consider making this a part of your vacation budget.

Neither one of us is huge on souvenirs, we mostly just like to take lots of photos, go on tours, and do as many beer or wine tastings as we can. The only items we bring back from a trip are gifts for the people who watch our animals while on vacation and a fun travel mug from each place we visit. Like I said, we're not big souvenir people. After our first major vacation together as a married couple we realised how big of benefit a shopping budget could be. We started to notice that each major city we visited had an abundance of thrift stores, and on the outskirts of the city there was always some sort of outlet mall. As most typical girls would do when they see either one of those places while driving, they make their husband do a pit stop there. I mean, how can you say not to a Kate Spade bag that is brand new and 75% off? Or, how about Men's skate shoes that are half off? Then throw in the fact some states don't charge sales tax...we couldn't say no to any of that! Not to mention all the thrift store items! Seriously though, how can you beat those prices? Well, you really can't here in Orange County. Especially when they were things we had really wanted or needed. Making these pit stops is also a great way to go way over budget on a vacation. Which is what happened several times on a few of our trips.

After our third vacation in a year, and third time blowing our budget way out of the
water, we sat down and talked about putting an actual shopping budget into the vacation plan. Since then we've only gone over budget once in our 3 years of going on trips and have also found amazing deals we pretty much would never see at home. Deals such as, a Kate Spade purse for $65, Hunters boots for $40, or even Vans shirts for $2 a piece.

 For each vacation each vacation we now set the same amount as before, or increase/decrease it according to where we are going. For example, when we went to Idaho we set a budget of $20 to spend. We spent exactly that and not a penny more. What helped us decide that budget? We asked friends who had been there what there was to do for entertainment, they told us pretty much nothing but hiking and farm museums. Based on that review, we decided $20 was probably a good budget.

Now that you have heard my case, I hope you're able to pull some useful tips out of this post. If you do decide to put this budget in place, please keep some things in mind:

1. It doesn't have to be a huge sum of money. Something like $40 is even appropriate if you only go to the thrift stores in town. Just be sure it's a sum you can afford.

2. Try to make sure that sum of money is pulled out of your account and in cash before you leave. Some times a visual of just how much you have to spend can help you not go over budget or get too crazy with spending.

3. Just because you set that sum of money to spend, doesn't mean you have to spend it all. It's okay to have money left over when you get home.