5 Ideas to Boost your Holiday Fund

I started saving towards a holiday fund over the past year and it’s been a game changer for my finances. I can now spend money on holidays and travel without feeling guilty or coming back to a big bill.

My aim is to keep my holiday fund around £2,000. I aim to regularly contribute to this fund to enable me to go on spontaneous trips and pay for new experiences while on holiday. So far, I’ve used this money to go snorkelling with turtles in the Indian Ocean and to fund part of my trip to the Maldives.

I’m constantly looking for new ways to increase my travel money, here are some ideas to boost your holiday fund.

Having a pot of money to use towards holidays and travel is important so you’re not tempted to overspend or use a credit card that you can’t afford.

Automate your holiday fund

One of the easiest ways to boost your holiday fund is to consistently save into it every payday. Set up a direct debit to move a manageable amount into your savings each month.

To boost your fund further look to save it in a high interest easy-access savings account.

Best Easy Access Savings Accounts

• Tembo – 4.55% on up to £20k – easy access saver
• Zopa 4.45% AER – easy access account (+ 7.1% regular saver).
• Plum 3.05% AER – with the Plum 95 Day Notice Pocket.
• Monzo 2.75% AER – easy access account (+ £10 bonus for new users).

Review your outgoings

I like to regularly review my outgoings to make sure that I’m not overpaying on any of my bills or subscriptions. Work through all of your bills (including council tax, gas and electric, broadband, mobile) to see if you’re entitled to any discounts or can find a better deal elsewhere.

Once you’ve done this, review all if your subscriptions (including gym, TV, music, etc), consider whether you actually need these subscriptions and then see if you could reduce the price through discounts or a different package.

Keep a track of how much you manage to reduce your monthly expenses by and set up a regular payment of this amount to your travel fund.

Credit card rewards

If you struggle to pay a credit card off in full every month then you may be best avoiding this one. If you’re able to pay your credit card bill no sweat then credit cards can offer some incredible rewards that can allow you to travel more.

When I booked my flight to the Maldives I took out the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card, this gave me some incredible perks including:

• £200 worth of points as cashback (including welcome bonus)
• 4 free priority airport lounge visits
• £10 cashback at Deliveroo every month

However, there are some terms and conditions to be aware of, including an annual fee of £160 after the first year and a spending requirement to get the welcome bonus.

This was my first time using a credit card to claim rewards and it’s something that I’ll be doing for every holiday going forward.

Side hustle

A side hustle is a great way to earn extra money on top of your regular wage. One option is to use your wage to pay for all of your necessities (e.g. bills, food) and using the rest for sensible things (like savings and investments), then using your side hustle money to fund ‘fun’ and new experiences.

I’ve tried dozens of different side hustles but here are the ones that I’d recommend starting with:

• Surveys
• Market research
• Paid offers
• Matched betting
• Referral offers

I regularly share my side hustle totals on Instagram and you can see how much I earned from side hustles last year in my 2022 income report to help inspire you.

Free money promotions

I’m a big fan of free money promotions and regularly claim several of these every month. From bank switching offers to free investment promotions and lots more, this is a great way to get some quick cash that you can put towards your holiday fund.

Some of the best free money promotions right now include:

• Chase £50 bonus – for a limited time, new users can earn £50 by signing up to Chase.
• Custard £10 bonus – Custard is a task website that will may you to complete various free offers, trials and sign-up promotions. Claim your earnings after completing 15 tasks.
• Monzo £10 free – Monzo is an online banking app. Get £10 free when you open an account and make a card payment within 30 days.

I update my free money offers page every week so bookmark it and re-visit check for new offers.