r/travel • u/AutoModerator • Feb 14 '19
Discussion r/travel Topic of the Week: 'Budgeting'
Hey travellers!
In this weekly travel community discussion topic we'd love to hear your thoughts about budgeting your trips. How do you budget your trip? Do you have any helpful websites for organization? Do you have your own spreadsheet? How do you keep that information organized and accurate? Do you pre-plan your budget before making a decision on where to go? Do you find a deal for a flight, train, etc then start budgeting? Do you completely wing it?
Please share with us all your thoughts, tips and ideas about budgeting a trip.
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u/invinoveritas10 USA Feb 14 '19
I always find a flight deal, buy it, and then plan my trip around it.
I don't necessarily sit down and create a budget for lodging/transportation/food, but I do try to find budget accommodations (shared hostel room, or my recent favorite, private single room with a shared bathroom). I'll take a look at the easiest and most affordable transportation options, and then based on research and how many days I'll be traveling, I'll come up with a daily "idea" for how much I'll spend on food, local transport, and other small things.
Once I look at how much I believe I'm going to spend on those things, I'll then create a budget on my "fun money," which is anything bigger than a 20ish dollar purchase. For my upcoming trip, it's $500. This means in two weeks I can do a bunch of smaller tours, brewery visits, etc, so I can find a mix of those and add in a day of skiing for $150, or a day bike tour, or something more expensive. I've found that if I don't have a more strict budget for this, I'll spend more than I planned. This also encourages me to pick the most important things and also be very creative in finding cheap or free things to do (which sometimes end up being SO FUN.)
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u/JoeyBones_jr Feb 18 '19
Same. I just wish i had more money to do evrything i want. But at least i still travel
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u/mathiasfe Norway Feb 14 '19
I've never made a budget before a trip. Too scared of seeing how much money I actually spend on travel lol.
Normally, I just look at airfare and if that is cheap enough (based on inner feelings about how much something should cost) I get it and never look back. It's only after I've purchased the plane tickets that I start looking into accommodation. Food and drinks is (almost) always cheaper than at home, so I've never researched that at all.
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u/magnus91 Feb 14 '19
Yeah, coming from NYC I just feel like my daily expenses at home is going to be cheaper than when I'm traveling (except for fucking Switzerland) so I don't really need to think about it too much. And I put all my spending money in a checking account with no transaction fee and atm fee reimbursement when I'm traveling.
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u/justthetips0629 Feb 16 '19
How much did you spend daily in Switzerland? Excluding hotel. Ive checked out some menus online and the cost of food didnt look much higher than where i currently live but everyone says its very costly.
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u/magnus91 Feb 17 '19
I stayed with a friend in Geneva. Cheapest meal I had was kekab for $8. Mostly ate bread, cheese and veggies from supermarket. $20 for a meal is the norm. $10 a drink is normal. And obviously portions are not American size. $4 for can of soda or water.
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Feb 14 '19
A few things that have helped me are being able to roughly convert foreign currencies to my home one in my head. It doesn't have to be perfect, but recognizing that 40 Baht is about $2CAD or 100 Mexican pesos is about $7CAD helps me see when something is worth the price to me.
Getting comfortable on public transit is another big one, especially in cities. Getting around by bus or subway takes a little more planning than just catching a cab but saves a ton of money. Of course, if navigating the subway is too much or walking for extended periods of time isn't possible it's not always an option.
Budgeting is great, but there's a time and place to say "to hell with it, I'll regret missing out on this". If it means spending a little more than I expected to get a once in a lifetime experience, I just roll with it. Even though I can always come back to a place if I feel like I've missed out on something, that's a lot of time and money and it might mean not going somewhere else I want to visit in the future. I can always earn more money so if spending $200 that I wasn't planning on means that I have a more memorable vacation, I'm okay with that.
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u/The-Smelliest-Cat Feb 14 '19
I pre plan it all!
Generally it is the sum of
- Cost of Flights
- Cost of Accomodation
- Cost of Activities I plan on doing
- Cost of a travel pass if available. If not, Number of days x £10 for travel
- Number of days x £15 for food
- Number of days x £10 for misc expenses
- £1000 set aside just incase (buying emergency flight home, buying new phone/camera if mine is lost, ect)
I pre-planned a 4 month long trip like this, and only ended over budget by £50. (budget was £11,000) I thought it worked pretty great! Would have been under, but I did lose my phone and bought a nice new one without even needing to worry about it.
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u/1711onlymovinmot Feb 15 '19
We are huge on the pre-plan method as well. We are big into specialty boutique hotels, so many times those book out way in advance and we have to secure a room ahead of time. That involves putting down 30-50% right away. Then we budget out after that for flights, activities, and general spending. We utilize a spreadsheet with links to all the statements from hotels, airlines, etc. Maybe a little bit on the heavy planning side, but when you have a very set amount of time for a trip (limited vaca. for us) its well worth it.
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u/quixoticx Feb 14 '19
We usually plan to go somewhere a few months ahead of time, so for us the "budgeting" sort of is done as we go along. For example:
- We might buy flight tickets in November for a March trip. The flight tickets feed into our November budget, so in November we try our best to cut everything else down and either end the month within our usual budget, or try to evenly space it out with December's budget if flights are super expensive. We also
- January we'll book accommodations. Same with flights, it'll come out of Jan budget and if it's expensive/nice, it'll even out with Feb's budget.
- March, our trip. We'll just stay within our March budget. This is usually pretty easy to do because we tend to go to low-cost countries and in comparison to cost of living in NYC, everything is a steal! We can afford to eat out all the time, buy souvenirs, etc and make it home without sweating it too much.
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u/diannamallen Feb 14 '19 edited Feb 14 '19
I usually have a general number in mind that I stick to for the month, then plan my travels around that. So, if my goal is to only spend $700 a month, maybe $500 for accommodation, $200 for food, then I start researching places to visit based on that :)
A big part of researching places also comes down to finding personal experience. I absolutely must find a blog post or someone's spreadsheet to show me the real costs of places. I will not consider a place until I'm aware of what my potential spendings will be from a daily perspective.
And I usually cook most of my meals myself, so that helps save a TON of money. Literally THOUSANDS saved at this point (been traveling for over a year now).
I used to keep my own spreadsheet for budgeting while traveling, but found using other websites/apps were more helpful.
Here's some websites worth checking out:
Nomad Wallet (app for iOS only at the moment): https://www.nomadwalletapp.com/
Venture Cost: https://venturecost.com/
And this isn't generally for keeping track of your budget, rather finding things IN your budget, but utilizing Airbnb, Housesitting, and Couchsurfing opportunities will always help keep the costs low!
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u/lets_flamingo Feb 14 '19
We've been travelling for 2 months so far and have found Trail Wallet to be very useful for budgeting. It's not a bells-and-whistles app but does everything you would need well. Unfortunately, looks like it's iOS only.
You can track. categorise and tag every expense in multiple currencies (which get converted back into your home currency), set a budget and compare your expenditure against it on a daily basis and has all a few graphs to visualise what you're actually spending your money on.
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u/swollencornholio Airplane! Feb 14 '19
I typically don't have a target but keep track of everything in a spreadsheet and have fillers for items that may come up.
For country specific budgeting this website is pretty useful: http://www.budgetyourtrip.com/
This one's useful for backpacking: https://trekhard.com/calculator#eat=18&sleep=25&trek=25&trekfreq=5&balance=13
I typically don't have a target but keep track of everything in a spreadsheet and have fillers for items that may come up. I base most of my trips on where I want to go but I don't have too many specific places I absolutely need to go to today so usually if I find a good flight deal to one of the places I want to go, I will move on it.
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Feb 14 '19
Before I go on a trip, I research the costs and give myself a sort of daily amount that I can spend, and then allow an extra ~20% or so that I can spend if need be. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but it's pretty rare that I go under my daily budget.
It somehow always works out. I never track expenses while on the road, and I don't really worry about spending more every once in awhile since I know I'm always bound to have a few cheaper days that will come into the mix.
As long as you have a good estimate for your preferred lodging, style of eating and some transportation, it's relatively easy to come up with a daily budget.
It's pretty rare that I would ever let a flight deal sway me into going somewhere as I'm a big proponent of just going where you want to and not letting money guide your choices... but maybe this is why I've spent so much of my disposable income on travel in recent years.
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Feb 14 '19
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Feb 14 '19
When you get old and look back on your travels, you probably won't remember what you ate, but rather what you did.
As someone who really likes to eat, I strongly disagree with this statement.
There are many meals I had on my previous trips that I daydream about eating again.
Basically it just comes down to figuring out what you value and like spending your money on, and to not waste it on anything else that you feel like you should be doing.
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u/diannamallen Feb 14 '19
I also daydream about past meals I've eaten LOL
Wan Tan Mee in Malaysia...
Pizza 4P's in Vietnam...
Princess Cake in Sweden...
Mango Sticky Rice in Thailand...
Banitsa in Bulgaria...
I just love trying traditional dishes! (Well besides the pizza... but hey, that was was a delicious restaurant!)
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u/Weather_No_Blues Mar 06 '19
Lmao I can't believe you went to 4P's. That was some good pizza for Vietnam..certainly a mouthwatering memory. And yeah eating is the best part of travelling !!!
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u/diannamallen Mar 06 '19
I recommend Pizza 4P's to everyone I know LOL, they think I'm crazy but I'm like NO you absolutely MUST eat it in Vietnam haha
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Feb 14 '19 edited Aug 21 '21
[deleted]
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Feb 14 '19
Yes, which is why I said it's important to know what you value when you travel.
Clearly OP does not value food. Nothing wrong with that.
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Feb 14 '19
You're right that planning and prioritizing what you want to spend your money on is key to keeping on a budget but recognize that your priorities are different than someone else's.
Food may not be important to you but for others it's a core reason to travel. I happily paid about $20USD for a single bite of fresh sea urchin in Tsukiji market at 6 in the morning and seven years later, I still remember exactly where I was, how I felt and what I was tasting in that moment. I've spent 10 times as much on other experiences while traveling that haven't brought me one tenth of the joy as that moment has.
If food isn't important to you, there's no point in breaking the bank on an elaborate meal if it means not having the money to see or do what's important to you but it's pretty narrow minded to make a blanket statement like saying that food isn't important.
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u/Scandalchris Feb 14 '19
10 years full time traveler here. Never budgeted before. I know how much I have and vague idea of how little is too little. Couple years ago I calculated how much a 16 month circumnavigation trip cost (24 countries, 4 continents) and it came out to be just under $7,500 flights included.
As per the question in the OP, I find a deal and then wing it. Didnt plan on that trip, just happened. The biggest money savers for me have been hitchhiking, couchsurfing, and work exchanges, these also have helped immensely with meeting locals and like minded travelers.
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u/marcopaulotravel Feb 15 '19
I've been traveling solo through Central America for 3 months now and have been keeping a detailed budget.
I just use the notes app on my iPhone and right down everything that I spend to the minutia. Then, each day as I write down the things that I'm buying, I see how much I'm spending.
If there are certain days where I do tours that inflate what I'm trying to spend, then I scale it back for the next couple days.
How to Save while on the Road:
- Street Food over Restaurants
- Grocery stores to stock up on snacks and multiple meals to cook
- Nescafe over cafes
- Hostels over hotels/airbnbs
- Drink beers over cocktails when out
So far this method has helped me pay the same amount (roughly $1k per month) that I was paying for rent back in Los Angeles! Damn I love traveling!!!
Cheers!
- Paul
--
New to Reddit but loving all of these forums. Quit my finance job back in Los Angeles in November to travel and see more of what this world has to offer! So far, it's been the best decision of my life!!! Decided to keep family/friends abreast of what I'm doing with videos on youtube and insta @marcopaulotravel. Most of the stuff I cover revolves around budget travel but being able to do everything that I want to do (adventure, good food, and local experiences) while traveling.
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u/Kier_C Feb 15 '19
I tend not to have a set budget but follow a couple of rules to get value for the money I'm spending. So for any big trips I will always have an outline of where I want to go a good few months in advance. This allows me to book flights/car rental etc. as cheap as possible instead of waiting until a couple of months out.
Accommodation tends to be split between Airbnb, low/mid range hotels and one or two splurges per trip.
After that it costs what it costs, I'm currently planning a trip for the end of the year, I'm keeping track of what I'm spending but don't have a target. Cost of living at home isn't overly cheap so that helps when I go abroad as day to day expenses seem fairly good value
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u/mashton88 Feb 16 '19
Hi all,
My question is loosely related to budgeting for travel so I thought I would ask here, otherwise if someone can direct me to the right forum that would be much appreciated. In May my wife and I are travelling from New Zealand to the US, however we are now expecting our first child so that has changed our itinerary somewhat. Specifically, for our return flight home, rather than flying ~20 or so hours in one haul, we are going to fly to Hawaii and rest a couple of days before doing another 10 hour flight direct to Auckland. I figure this will just be less stressful on my pregnant wife and she would get to relax by the pool with mock tails to unwind a bit. Now, to my question. When searching New York to Auckland via Hawaii the flights are $200 cheaper PP than purchasing separate flights from NY>HNL>AKL. Is there a way I can book the entire trip home to get the cheaper flight, but extend the layover period in HNL from a couple of hours to a longer duration(couple of nights or whatever works)?
The saving would be $400 US total which to me is significant, so it is worth me at least asking.
Thanks 🙏
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Feb 18 '19
You'll get more answers if you were to just make a separate post to /r/travel instead of piggybacking on this one.
I can't tell you for sure, but I'd guess that you can't really extend a layover that long. Flight ticket prices are constantly changing based on tons of factors and you may be looking at leaving on a day that lots of others are planning on flying from Honolulu to Auckland. Even if you were saving $400, that money would be eaten up and then some by staying in Hawaii for a couple of days.
Personally, getting to and from the airport, going through security, waiting in lines and actually being on a plane is my least favorite part of travel. Give me the choice between one 20 hour flight and two 10 hour flights a couple of days apart and I would choose the direct flight every time because it means two less trips to the airport. Of course, I've never had to be in a plane for 20 hours while pregnant so YMMV.
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u/blurreyes18 Feb 16 '19
My recent euro cities travel EVERYTHING is well documented in a spreadsheet
Within EU Transportation: I've made my own spreadsheet to identify the lowest cost of train travel. Also, it can identify the most efficient one in terms of time vs. money. I tried applying data analysis tools to my budget and plans and it literally helped me to decide better. City trains/metro are accounted to this as well.
Flights: I book early as possible. I find deal flights in all flight booking tool e.g. Skyscanner, Hopper, Google flights, Next Departures, Flighthub, etc...
Food budget: In terms of everyday budget in each city. I used the BIG MAC Index to determine the purchasing power of money to my destination city/country and set aside "realistic" budget for food and transpo. I don't add shopping budget though.
So for example, my budget in Switzerland is 100 francs per day per person AT MOST. But in reality I spent 50-65 francs a day. It gives me piece of mind that I have gone cheaper than planned. It's a good feeling.
Hotel vs. Airbnb vs. Hostel: I compare prices from hotel, airbnb, and hostel to figure out what's the best location and thinking if it's worth the money. This is a very personal preference. I usually pay more on cleanliness of the facility and I can stay on a place where at least I can reach city Centre or nearest public transpo stop in 10mins
I always plan my trip but I'm not bounded by my plans. I can follow strict budgeting but I also splurge on things that suits my preference.
During the trip, I also keep tabs on my spending. Helps me alot esp on comparing my plan vs. Actual.
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u/Onetoughcookieortwo Feb 17 '19
I find that my biggest expense is the flight so I always search for fuel dumping tickets or offers. I recently booked a ticket from Romania to Thailand for 364 euros return trip with Qatar Airways after I had browsed for ages on secretflying and skyscanner and compared offers. It helps to search for flights from airports that you know you can reach easily and cheap from your home town. Even if they are further away from your destination, tickets may be cheaper depending on several factors, like available offers, companies, etc.
Another important part is food. I tend to enjoy that very much and consider eating local dishes a big part of the experience, so while travelling I definitely indulge in restaurant meals, but also like to visit local markets or supermarkets and grab whatever snacks I find interesting. Not only is this a good way to try local things, but it's also cheaper.
Regarding accommodation, I tend to search every offer possible, be it hotels or apartments or boats. If travelling to different cities in a foreign country, I try to book the most expensive places first and not on weekends or other more costly days like religious celebrations or festivals.
Walk more, drive less, keep your priorities in check (do you really need a jacuzzi in your bathroom?) and most importantly search for cheap flights and you will travel longer for less money.
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u/lemoncreamcake Feb 18 '19
I always know where to go before everything else. Food you wanted to ate, things to buy, and even to a point not bringing anything then buying essentials later. My budget always overblown just incase of emegencies. It happens when you traveling a lot. For example yesterday in vietnam i booked a capsule hotel. When i arrived the reception told me she sold my bed since they arrived before i do. So i needed to booked another. When i lay on the bed it was itchy. So either i need to buy new sheets or clean the old one. I could prevent everthing if i bring one of my own right?. Listen when you travel you wanted to travel light, since you want to go everywhere. Dont bring your house with you.
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u/kvom01 United States 50 countries Feb 18 '19
I "plan" to spend 50% more than I think is "reasonable". Nothing worse than running out of money with weeks to go before the return flight. It's pretty hard to be accurate in advance for many areas, and you find out real costs when you arrive; so the first day or so you can pretty much decide your spend rate.
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u/Anastasiia1993 Feb 19 '19
Hi,
we usually try to buy tickets to the countries we want and book apartments as early as we can to save more money. Then, we read a lot about local sights and try to understand where we will go in reality, plan our walks and look for places to eat.
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u/makeawesome Feb 19 '19
I'm a (former) Project Manager, before I quit my job to travel. So spreadsheets, budgets and tracking is what I did for a living (along with herding cats and pushing more papers). You can check out my budget spreadsheet here (Google sheets). I would update it with actuals every month and see if my forecasts changed (or our plans changed).
We use Toshl for tracking our expensive while on the trip. It's more build for regular day-to-day at home budgeting but I made it work for travel. We don't have iPhones but we heard TrailWallet is a good one specific for travelers.
There are lots of resources we use to input into the spreadsheet. For accommodations, I usually look at average airBnB or hotels.com prices (filtered by our needs / travel style). Food is tricky so I usually use LonelyPlanet to get a rough estimate. Then we use Rome2Rio for rough transport costs and Google flights, Skyscanner and Kiwi for airfair cost. Wikivoyage also comes in handy for some specifics costs/planning/logistics.
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Feb 20 '19
We were able to go to venice, italy for 600 EU. Flight included. We flew through Ryanair and our hotel was 4 stars and JUST opened so they had a discount. We went to local places for dinner and it ended up being a very affordable trip.
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Feb 20 '19
I am a big Workaway fan! So far I have been traveling for 14 months all around the world and the budget is still going strong:)
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u/ScrewTheAverage Airplane! Feb 14 '19 edited Feb 14 '19
Travel costs can vary wildly depending on your type of travel (slow vs fast, grocery shopping vs eating out) the countries/locations you’ll visit, the length of time you’ll spend in each country/location, and how much (not free) sightseeing you’ll do.
In our case, we did a year abroad and visited 3 continents, 23 countries, and 60 cities and partook in every attraction, museum, and thing in general that we wanted to for less than $25 per person, per day.
We tracked every expense and used a combination of strategies that included, award travel hacking, Airbnb, house sitting, grocery shopping, travel price comparison sites (like Go Euro, Google Flights), traveling light, etc. However, there are also services/strategies like WWOOFing, HelpX, hostels, and others that can also be used to keep cost down.
Further Reading: What we spent while traveling for a year.
Save travels!
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u/magnus91 Feb 14 '19
- Plane ticket and Accomodation are the only 'real' cost.
- I have a ongoing financial allotment from my pay to a traveling saving account. A week before my trip I take that amount and put it in my Schwab Checking account (free checking, no transaction fee and international atm fee reimbursement) and that's my spending money.
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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '19
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