This is a collaborative post.
Taking a spontaneous holiday or vacation may make you feel like you’re living in a movie, but it doesn’t feel so exciting once you arrive back home from your trip and and check your bank account. Holidays are a great opportunity to relax and enjoy new experiences, but it’s important to budget properly if you really want to make the most of your time.
Here are some aspects to consider when budgeting for an upcoming holiday or vacation.
Check your finances before leaving
Before you go on holiday, examine your finances to be sure you can afford the budget you’ve got in mind for this trip. Take a look at your current account, savings account, any credit card accounts, and any other kind of debt you may owe. If you’re trying to boost your savings or you have significant debt to pay off, you may need to reconsider some of your holiday choices. For example, if your goal is to save £5,000 this year and you’ve only saved £2,000 saved so far, consider staying in an Air BnB or hostel rather than a hotel, or check out blog posts to find free or cheap things to do and see in your chosen destination.
Checking your finances before leaving will also help you to determine whether or not you need to save more money to travel with. If your trip is several months away, you’ll have some time left in which to put away some extra cash before heading off. Even if you think you’ve got enough saved up already, an additional financial buffer certainly won’t do you any harm; you don’t want to have to fork out for any unexpected travel costs, simply because you didn’t save enough before leaving.
Calculate big expenses first
Before getting down to the nitty-gritty of food, excursions or entertainment costs, work out the cost of the biggest spends involved in booking your holiday. Usually, this’ll mean adding up your transportation and accommodation costs. This way, once you’ve decided where you want to go, you can see how much it’ll cost you to travel there, and stay for a certain amount of time.
If you aren’t set on one place, it’s a good idea to investigate how much various destinations would cost to visit, and then compare them. For example, your flight to Paris and your flight to Croatia might cost around the same, but the accommodation in Paris is probably going to be significantly more expensive than in the likes of Dubrovnik.
Do your research
The better prepared you are before leaving, the less likely you’ll be to spend money unnecessarily. You don’t want to end up hungry, searching for a restaurant and forced to choose the first one you stumble upon that looks good, only to find that the prices are incredibly high and not what you’d have chosen if you’d had more time. If you research restaurants in the areas you’ll be visiting, you’ll be able to save a lot more money throughout the trip. Don’t forget to check out transportation options and be mindful of common scams, too.
It’s also important to research how to get the best deals – especially on your flights and hotels. Understanding credit cards can be beneficial when it comes to maximising rewards and benefits on your travel purchases. There are lots of tips and tricks you can use to find discounted plane tickets, like checking whether your preferred flight is cheaper on different days of the week, for example. Carrying out thorough research can also enable you to take advantage of cheap travel deals when they become available. If you know the average price of your plane ticket or hotel and see the price drop significantly, you’ll know that it’s a good time to buy. Many travel websites and comparison platforms will actually allow you to set up travel alerts to track when prices go down, too.
Budget for each day
Once you’ve decided on your destination and figured out the biggest expenses, you can start to budget for the day-to-day costs. Start with any activities you want to do that are likely to cost money, such as a museum visit or guided hike. Then work out your smaller costs, like local bus or train fare, food, alcohol, and any souvenirs you might like to buy.
This part of your budget can be as rigid or as flexible as you want. For example, if you’ve done enough research to know exactly which restaurants you’ll want to eat at, and which local candy store you’ll be heading to to buy freeze-dried candy to bring back for your loved ones, you can easily factor these additional costs into your budget.
On a final note, while planning is the best way to ensure you budget effectively for a big holiday or vacation, remember to leave some cash unaccounted for, too. Spontaneity can be fun, and no doubt you’ll be grateful for room for movement if you happen to spot somewhere you’d like to visit that you haven’t added to your itinerary, or incur any other hidden travel costs.
What are your favourite way to budget or save for a holiday or vacation? Comment below to share your tips.
This is a collaborative post.