Vacation Sinking Fund Tracker

Vacations are not expensive because of the flight. They are expensive because nobody ever priced the whole trip — hotel, food, tours, transfers, insurance, the buffer — until the card statement arrived home a week after you did. This tracker prices the whole trip first, while it is still a plan: every category estimated, deposits logged as already paid, and the rest turned into one calm monthly set-aside that finishes before the departure date, not after it.

What it does for you:
– Start Here — 2-minute setup: destination, departure date, the day you start saving, and what is already sitting in the vacation fund.
– Trip Cost Planner — eight categories (Flights, Hotel & Stays, Food & Drink, Activities & Tours, Ground Transport, Travel Insurance, Souvenirs & Shopping, Buffer / Extras) with Estimated Cost and Already Paid; Still to Save calculates per category and in total. In the samples: a $5,705 Maui trip, $545 already paid in deposits, $5,160 still to save.
– The set-aside math — Left to Set Aside (still to save minus what is already in the fund), the months until departure, the Monthly Set-Aside Needed and a Biweekly Set-Aside for payday savers ($545.56 a month, or $251.80 every two weeks, in the samples).
– Savings Schedule — twelve months to departure: Planned Set-Aside pulled from the planner, your Actual Saved typed as it happens, Running Saved (starting from the money already in the fund) and Still Needed counting down. Sample saver is at $1,750 after three months.
– Dashboard — total cost, paid, still to save, set-asides, fund balance now and % of the trip funded (40.2% in the samples) at a glance.
– Expense Log & Monthly Budget — a zero-based budget with a Vacation Fund category, so the set-aside is a line in the budget, not a hope at the end of it.
– Sample rows pre-filled so every formula works the moment you open it; formula cells are locked (password disclosed in Start Here) and every formula is error-wrapped. Estimates are yours to research — prices vary by season and destination. A planning tool, not financial advice.

What’s inside (.xlsx, works in Excel AND Google Sheets): Start Here · Trip Cost Planner (8 categories + set-aside math) · Savings Schedule (12 months) · Expense Log · Monthly Budget (zero-based) · Dashboard · Monthly Summary (12 months).

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