furbster: this year i had 2 vacations: 1 week in spring and 3 weeks in summer

in november i still had about 20 days vacation left on this site ... i saved those in case i would need them around christmas or for unforseen circumstances

i renewed in november and now have 30 days left .. which i wont use at all :)

good use of weekend days (you can change them once a week) helps a lot to preserve vacation days
have a look at your games and when they time out .. try to move in all your games just before your vacation .. if your fastest game has 3 days per move then you wont have to set vacation days for the first 2 days, you can set the weekend for the 3rd and 4th day, this will save you 4 vacation days already. be sure to have automatic vacation days if something goes weird (you might get into a next round of a tournament with 1 day per move, or someone starts a stairs game with you (although you should retire the stairs while on vacation)

also try to figure out when your opponent will move ... if (s)he will move the day after tomorrow, then you wont have to worry about your game timing out before that (plus the time you have for the move yourself)

try to finish the fast games before your vacation and only join games with longer times per move

use fixed vacation days when you will surely need them as this can preserve vacation days which would have been used for the games which would time out the day after

dont set a vacation day for the first day you will be back .. although you might not have a chance to make a move ... you might have a chance to do so .. which would have made it a waste .. let automagic vacation take care of that day if needed :)

all this helps a lot to preserve vacation days :)

have fun on your holidays!!!! :)