Planning Ahead and Budgeting For School Holidays

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Planning Ahead and Budgeting For School Holidays

With school holidays approaching again in a few days, it’s often a struggle for Perth families to maintain a budget and stay on top of commitments such as a mortgage. How do you cover additional childcare costs, unpaid time off work, plus the wide ranging costs of entertaining your children during the school holidays and still stay ahead?

Planning ahead for school holidays certainly helps in avoiding falling into mortgage stress, and also helps make the most of the days spent with children. Adjusting the budget earlier in the school term to save for holiday expenses should help make maintaining repayments easier and see the whole family having a more relaxed time.

When saving for a financial goal, it is important to set a target, work out how much is needed to put away weekly or monthly whilst still ensuring the budget allows you to meet other expenses and commitments.

Getting a head start of the holiday budget could very well put you in a better financial position for the entire year as you could up with leftover funds that could be contributed to your home loan / mortgage repayments, which in turn, helps reduce overall interest owed and the loan term.

Some helpful tips in planning ahead these school holidays.

Savvy shoppers save online – Often, discounts are available if you book things in advance and/or purchase online.

Make the most of savings – An offset account attached to your home loan or a home loan with a redraw facility can put to good use those new savings or dollars being accumulated for holidays.

Do some lump sums – After the holidays, any money saved (big or small) from your budgeting efforts can be put back into your offset account or deposited into the loan account as a lump sum.

Budget for a feast – Stay healthy and limit spending on takeaway and junk food by challenging kids to a junior master chef competition

Redraw if you need to – If you have been working hard to create a financial buffer in preparation for trying times, keep in mind that, as mentioned, some loans allow you the flexibility to withdraw extra payments made. However, some lenders have a minimum redraw amount and may charge you a fee each time.

Of course, fun can be had without spending a whole heap of money. Consider some craft activities in doors, visiting local parks and reserves, taking nature walks through some of Western Australia’s beautiful bushes and seeing what creatures you can spot.