Holiday saving hacks: clever ways to build your travel fund

You know the feeling.

You spot a cheap flight to Spain. You start imagining sea views, tiny tapas restaurants and aggressively relaxed afternoons in the sun. Then reality appears when you check your bank balance.

The good news? Holiday saving doesn’t always mean living off baked beans or cancelling every tiny joy in your life. Often, it’s about a few sneaky systems, small habits and making your money do less wandering and more working. Here are a few practical hacks to help build your holiday fund.

Start with a holiday fund – and give it a ridiculous name

Setting up a separate pot or easy access savings account just for a holiday can make saving feel more real. Because “Savings Account 3” sounds about as exciting as a tax return.

With thisbank’s Mobile Savings App, you can easily create and rename multiple savings accounts with nicknames that match your goal, making it easier to keep track of what you’re saving for.

Try naming your savings something with a bit more personality:

• Greece Escape Plan
• Operation Sangria
• Get Me Out Of Here Fund
• SPF & Spritz Budget

Keeping money separate from everyday spending is one reason people use savings accounts.

Pay future-you first

Here’s a classic trick: move money automatically before you can accidentally spend it.

For example:

• £25 every payday
• a weekly transfer
• spare change roundups
• moving cash back into holiday savings

Automation removes the need for willpower. And willpower tends to disappear somewhere around Friday lunchtime.

Having money move automatically can make regular saving easier because the process happens in the background.Tiny amounts can look surprisingly less tiny over time.

Watch out for tiny money leaks

Big spending gets attention.

Tiny spending quietly sneaks out the back door, carrying your holiday budget. Worth checking:

• Subscriptions you forgot existed
• Takeaway habits
• Impulse online shopping
• Food delivery fees
• App purchases
• Unused memberships

This isn’t about cutting out every treat. It’s about spotting the little leaks that add up over time.

A few pounds here and there can quietly become your flight money.

Turn unexpected money into holiday money

Not every pound has to come from your monthly pay. People often use one-off money to build short-term goals.

You can repurpose:

• Birthday money
• Cashback rewards
• Tax refunds
• Selling unused clothes
• Money from marketplace sales

The key bit: move it before it mysteriously disappears into “general spending.”

Use challenges to make saving less boring

Let’s be honest. “Spend less” isn’t exactly thrilling. Adding a game element can make saving feel a bit less like homework.

Save every £5 note

Every time one lands in your wallet, stash it

Try a no-spend weekend

Use what you’ve already got. Cupboard pasta needs its moment to shine.

The 52-week challenge

Start by saving a small amount, then increase it each week — £1 in week one, £2 in week two and so on. Small amounts can quietly build up over time – just putting away

Holiday saving doesn’t have to become your personality

Building a travel fund isn’t usually about one dramatic change. It’s often the smaller things:

• Automatic transfers
• Fewer money leaks
• Separate savings pots
• Making progress visible
• Giving your future holiday self a head start

Small habits can look very ordinary. Until suddenly you’re boarding a flight somewhere warmer.

Funny how that works.

TL;DR (Too long; didn’t read)

Don’t fancy turning into a budgeting monk just to afford a week in the sun?

Here’s the short version:

• Give your holiday fund a name you’ll actually enjoy seeing
• Automate your saving so future-you does less work
• Hunt down tiny money leaks (looking at you, forgotten subscriptions)
• Move surprise money straight into holiday savings
• Turn saving into a game with challenges and goals
• Small habits can build up surprisingly quickly over time

Tiny tweaks. Less effort. More chance of future-you eating chips by the sea