Interesting post. I'd just like to point out that the savings listed above also offer excellent reason/incentive to try to work from home one day a week, stay home one weekend day, and/or generally just do less running around.

It's more relaxing that way too, and that itself can be very fulfilling. Another plus: if you don't go out, you can't go shopping. And less shopping practically always means less spending.

Part of what makes a great vacation is doing something that's very different from what you do at work.  Although it's sometimes nice to just veg out--reading trashy novels and sleeping in the shade--there are all sorts of useful (even productive) things you can do if you're not stuck at work all day.

Back when I had a day job, I more than once took a week of vacation just to stay home and write.  It might have been cool to fly to a Greek isle and write there, but staying home was not only a lot cheaper, it meant I didn't have to take days away from the writing and spend them traveling.

Of course, in my case, writing was what I wanted to do.  It might be harder to work up as much enthusiasm for, let's say, repainting the garage.  But still, while you're on vacation is a great time not only for lazing about, but also for having fun with your hobbies--and many hobbies can pay their own way, or even make a little money beyond that.

Like Mary, I wouldn't save money just by staying home. (I bring a lunch, I ride the bus for free, and I wear thrift store clothes, just like I would at home.) I would actually be more likely to spend more money (not trapped in my cube all day, turning on the air conditioning, etc.).

I was thinking from the title that you would give us ideas on things to do with our time off that could help us save money. Like we could do things we might normally pay others to do, such as making our lunches for the rest of the week so we don't go out to eat, ironing our own clothes, mowing our own lawn, changing our own oil, stuff like that. Things we don't mind doing or even would like doing if only we had more time.

Another idea is to schedule service people to come over and take care of little things before they become big things. Of course you have to be home for this, but there's no reason not to do relaxing things while you're waiting like watching videos, playing games, reading, quilting, or any other time-consuming thing you can do at home that is interruptable.

Or you could fix or mend things that you would otherwise replace.

Some things are also cheaper or at least easier to do during the day. Movies at theatres are cheaper (matinee prices). And lots of places are less crowded, so you might be able to get lots of errands done and then have more free time after work for the next week. And some places are only open during work hours. I think my local consignment shop only buys things during M-F 8-4 work hours, I can drop off hazardous wastes (like old batteries) only during those hours, and my local AAA offices are open only then.

I like when I'm brilliant!

Phillip's comment was reminding me of another way to take vacation time. I once took off two hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon for a month to write.

If you have too much vacation that's going to roll over but too much work to do, you may be able to do something like that too. You could come in late, have long lunches, leave early on Friday, and/or have several three-day weekends. My boss likes to take long lunches to do errands sometimes, for example. One of my co-workers takes off every Friday afternoon each summer.

Then no one will have to wait more than a few work hours before you'll be back. Most people will feel guilty complaining about this, especially if you can time these during the slow periods.

That sort of strategy probably works best for people who get paid by the hour rather than a salary. Salaried folks could probably squeeze in a couple of long weekends or mid-day weeks before their time rolled over.

My husband has a long commute and a backlog of vacation days to use up, so he took this past Monday and Tuesday off from work (I already had the days off). Because his commute is long, he saved a tank of gas by not going to work those two days. Yes, it would be better if he didn't have that long commute in the first place, but we can't afford to live where he works at this point. For example, our mortgage (including taxes and insurance) is what most people pay for an apartment in that area.

That point aside, we used this time to get stuff done around the house. We built our garden boxes, ran errands, did yard work and so forth. It was nice to do this on Monday and Tuesday because places were less crowded. For instance, we needed to get new tires and an oil change and had that done in less than two hours.

Although we'd like to take a more relaxing vacation later, this was really productive for us. It saved us from having to rush around on the weekends when we'd likely get less done, and lets us feel a bit more relaxed...at least until we come up with another project!