HOW TO MAKE A TRAVEL BUDGET

Using a vacation cost calculator and creating a travel budget is the most important step you can take when you start planning a new trip!

We always, try to stick to our budget worksheet but of course, it is vacation so sometimes we don’t mind spending more on activities and food. You do have to take into account that if you spend more then what your worksheet says you can spend when you get back home you have a mess to clean up.

Sounds like no fun, huh?

I believe that everyone can afford travel, as long as you know the type of travel you can afford.

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These are the steps to using the vacation calculator:

• Research places you might be interested so you can then be able to search for the vacation cost
• Make a draft travel budget
• Then a final Budget
• Pay off your trip in advance
• Know where your earned money is going

Those things believe it or not will save you money, time, and headaches.

Many people don’t plan out their finances and they just spend as they go. Once they get back to normality, they realize all the money that they spent. You don’t want to be that person.

Travel budgets are necessary for planning vacations on a budget & for saving money for travel. 

How much should I budget for a vacation?

Take into account that this will, unfortunately, be different for everyone.

These are the items you should be accounting for in your travel budget worksheet:

• Activities
• Food costs
• Hotel costs
• Gifts
• Transportation costs
• Miscellaneous (travel essentials for the trip, sitter, or shopping)

The exact amount I cannot tell you but you can write down anything you think you might need. If you end up not using it, you can take it off the worksheet.

How do I create a travel budget?

Before you even look at flights, activities or hotels you need a template.

Open up your excel, grab a notebook or let me know if you need this template.

Below is a sample travel budget with a list of items that will help you narrow down what you need to account for.

Next, we do research and start looking up flights, hotels, transportation, and activities to get an idea of how much we need to budget.

We tend to always aim for cheaper airfare and a decent price for a hotel. Honestly, you are barely in the hotel anyway, so why get the most expensive? Everyone thinks differently of course, so it’s depending on your preference.

Food cost will vary depending on how many days you are traveling and people you have in your party.  Some destinations have cheaper prices than others as well.

As you can tell, the total expenses are more than the total budget which leaves you in the negative. If you’d like to strictly stick to your budget you must not have any number in red.

If you realize that this vacation is too expensive, you have a few options:

• Change the time of year you are traveling (makes a huge difference)
• Find a way to cut/minimize expenses
• Change your travel plans to a cheaper destination
• Give yourself more time to save for your trip and meanwhile stay local

I’m sure you will find this worksheet helpful since you are able to visualize it all. Again, this should get you in the ballpark of how much you will be spending overall.

READ NEXT: PLANNING A TRIP FROM START TO FINISH

How can I travel on a budget?

If your travel budget seems too high, there are some things you can do to cut cost.

Planning your trip in advance is vital, usually, flights and hotels get more expensive the closer you get to your travel dates. Start planning your trip early to get the best price.

Below, I’ve written a couple of our go-to moves:

• Being flexible with travel dates/destination makes a huge difference. All destinations have their peak/low seasons. We use Skyscanner to find the cheapest places to go to. Just search as “everywhere” for the destination, from there you are able to compare prices around the world and sort by the whole month to find the cheapest dates to fly.
• Time of the year makes a difference in hotels as well. During peak season things skyrocket.
• Find free/low-cost activities to do. For instance, vintage markets, museums, gardens and etc.
• Don’t buy in-flight food, doesn’t taste good and is expensive for something that isn’t savory.

Saving for travel

The last way we reduce our travel expenses is by saving for travel in advance and putting money aside. We have a travel fund that we tap into for trips, however, we use it as well for miscellaneous things that we can pay and get out of the way.

READ NEXT: TIPS FOR STRESS-FREE TRAVEL

We keep the travel fund going all year round so we aren’t struggling to save for the trip at the last minute!

Make sure you create a travel budget, it will make your life 100 times easier!

Happy travels!