Hello All
I have noticed that most people on their trips seem to keep track of their money by using things like spreadsheets or note books full of accounts.
It is something I would like to do on my trip, but being terrible with things like that I don't know where to begin.
I think it would be interesting to hear how you kept track of your budget?
Reply to this Hi there Tina!
Um, accounts, spreadsheets... you want to do this on your trip but you don't know how? My advice would be not to learn! Don't do it, it's not healthy!
Sorry! Personally (as you may have guessed) I couldn't think of anything worse to do when away. I beleive that all the hard work of budgeting is done before the trip and that when you hit the road there is not much you can do to change it. Working out a daily budget before the trip is a good thing, trying to then religiously stick to it day by day is impossible and restrictive. You will become obsessed with hitting your targets and depressed when your spreadsheet shows a discrepancy!
Of course, for all but the very rich, keeping track of funds is very important, but that can be accomplished easily with internet banking. I just draw out either one weeks or two weeks budget at a time, mark the date and then see how long it lasts. It is better to take your averages from a longer period than a couple of days, as your spending will vary from day to day, to week, month and by country.
I'm a fairly regular visitor here at travelblog and I've noticed quite a few posts from you re. budgeting, planning and money. I myself am an inveterate planner and always fret the hardest about money, right up to the second we land. Then the amount you have is out of your hands and you'll find yourself drifting into a lifestyle that will fit your means. After a couple of weeks in any country you will have a handle on the basic price of most goods and services, making for easier daily planning. The more money you have the more you will spend and, having but a small budget is in no way a limiting factor for the amount of fun you can have; doing accounts and using spreadsheets is!
Scott
Reply to this Oh gosh I subject close to my heart!! I used to drive Dale mad with our budget! Good job I am answering!
We didn't travel with a netbook otherwise I would happily have been typing away every evening.. Scott I so wish I could be like you but sometimes OCD is hard to overcome 😊
I used to keep a little notebook and write in there how much we got out in cash and used that to keep a running total of how much we'd spent in each country. My parents were in charge of doing the transfers back in the UK and as some ATM's don't give your balance it also helped me work out when we need a restock.
Like Scott said I'd work out an average after a week or two and if we were going massively over we'd reign it in a bit and if we had a bit spare we could afford a nice meal or something.
The only major thing I would suggest is to keep a pot of money separate for trips and things you really want to do. We really struggled with trying to build these things into our daily budget.. it doesn't work.. have a daily budget for things like food, transport, visas, accommodation etc and draw from your 2nd pot for the one off experiences and trips. It will make life much easier for you. Something I wish we'd done for our whole trip.
I'm sure a million other people will have a different method but at the end of the day it's whatever works for you. Like Scott says though you don't want to be spending your whole trip producing spreadsheets analysing every penny you've spent... keep it as simple as you can.
Reply to this Sophie, that 2nd pot idea is brilliant. A standard travel fund then a seperate "adventure fund", that way your money should last AND you'll get to do loads of special activities or treats. We'll be doing this on our upcoming trip now, only problem is our 2nd pot is going to be our credit cards; oh well, I've always seen travel as something of a procrastination!
Reply to this There's an App for that!
Ha...
I wish I could be so relaxed when it comes to budgeting, but it's not in my nature. I, like Sophie carried a small notebook round with me, and wrote down EVERY expense. At the end of the day I'd then stick it in a spreadsheet on my Laptop, this was even before netbooks... can't believe I carried a 2.5kg laptop round with me but it was SO totally worth it. It then converted from local currency to Sterling using the exact exchange rate I'd withdrawn at (checked using internet banking).
It was great, like Sophie said if you see you're ripping your budget apart, you can cut back a bit and if you find things a bit cheaper splurge every now and again. It doesn't help to look at it on a daily basis though, even weekly sometimes as one large expense throws things completely out. We bought a Van for example which means our daily average in Oz didn't work out correct at all, till we'd sold it 3 months later and recouped the cost.
We're on holiday now in Thailand for a month on a trial run for a another extended travel adventure next year and the notebook is out... I've gone all 2010 and am using an iPod Touch with an app called expenses. It's esentially a pocket computer that fits in the palm of my hand, I needed a new mp3 player, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.... 😊
I hate my new Apple branded lifestyle though!
Reply to this only problem is our 2nd pot is going to be our credit cards;
that's what the plastic friends were designed for .... As well as helping you out at the time you get to remember the memory for years afterwards when you're still paying it off 😊
Reply to this I did a lot of research on the net before we went traveling and my need to plan everything helped with regards finances before we left. I asked loads of questions on travel forums about the daily cost to travel a country. I got the lonely planet and added 25% to their estimate for daily budgets. As i had an idea as to how long we were going to spend in each country, I did the maths and came up with what we would need as a total. I then saved like hell to reach that target. Our estimates were pretty close and some we had to increase and some we had to decrease. In fact we arrived back in Ireland with one solitary pound after buying a cup of tea in Heathrow with our last few pound. Not bad budgeting if I say so myself.
On the other hand if we had another 10,000 for the 10 months we would have spent it i'm sure. Its all about living within your means. You cant go on every tour but you dont want to be scrimping either.
You will also find your spending divided into 3 distinct periods. The first 3rd will be heavy. The second 3rd cautious and the final third will be...... "but we did something similar to that in country X, so we dont need to do it here" kind of scenario's. Anyway, thats how I went about it!
Reply to this I was about to say that "there's an app for that." but it was already mentioned.
I also use Expenses on my iPhone. Useful app to help you manage and track your expenses. However, I don't really get to tight and technical with my budget. I just kind of think of an overview of how much I am spending and not closely monitoring it to the dollar.
Reply to this When i travel i make a simple budget. Anyone who knows me would know i'm actually quite strict when it comes to the finances, but its important not to restrict your budget too much when travelling, as you'll have plenty of time to save, and stay in and do nothing when you get home.
The trips i tend to take these days are 2/3 weeks sadly, so in terms of budgeting for them i simply allow x amount for accomodation, and x amount for spending/food/drink/tours. Now you may say that it would be easy to go over budget on the second x, and yes somedays you will, but sometimes on a tour you will spend nothing for the whole duration, whereas if you weren't on the tour you might spend a lot more to entertain yourself.
Reply to this Reading, planning and researching before you head out is a great idea.
We set a monthly budget rather than a daily budget. Prior to leaving you can estimate the food and housing expenses fairly well but the entertainment and sight seeing is more difficult.
I suggest making a list of "have to do things in each country (or city) and try to estimate a cost before you leave.
Once you come up with the amount of money that you think you need I would save 10% to 20% more if you can. There are going to be unexpected expenses and things you want to do that you didn't know about.
We kept a spread sheet on our vaio of the hostels, guest houses and hotels. Plus it was a great way to track memories for later.
We used a credit card when we could and hit the ATM when we needed cash. We didn't want to travel with a lot of cash.
Ah-- we'd love to be back on the road again. We are creating a plan!
Reply to this It's easy to keep track of spending...charge everything and wait for the bill to arrive! But I don't think that is your real question. How do I keep within budget is the real issue. At home I am a spreadsheet freak, updating my budget on a daily basis ( I have to be with three kids in college and being retired).
However, on the road my best intentions to track expenditures as a means of staying within budget falls apart. I usually do ok for budgeting accommodations and transportation, and staying within budget on that because I can budget realistically for those expenses with good research. I know for example the cost of the hotels or hostels in each city, and the cost of planes, trains, and automobiles, and in many cases pay before the trip starts. However, for for food, shopping, sightseeing, and miscellaneuos expenses, I usually withdraw funds from an ATM (the $300 - $500 withdrawal limit per day is good for x number of days per my budget). Having a realistic budget helps to stay within the budget, so good research on average daily costs is important.
I used to use a notebook to write down my ATM withdrawals, and then subtract each expense as I went along. However, I usually forgot to document every expenses, and wondered where all my money went when I was short before the x number of days was over. So I no longer track individual expenses; and just try to make that $300 withdrawal last the required number of days. You will soon learn to control your spending pattern; going from spending more at the beginning of the period, and scrimping towards the end, to having a more even spending pattern across all days. I hate to break larger bills as I know it will be easier to go through that money quickly; so having that psychological break also helps level expenses. You also will learn that good restaurant meal can be offset by several less expensive meals. I don't have a problem with shopping as usually I have no room in my bags, and I hate to pay the high cost of shipping.
All the ideas provided by others aree also great!
Reply to this We are on a long travel and being 5 (2 adults and 3 kids) we really had to ensure we are on budget. We did a rough estimation before we went on the trip on the monthly cost travelers have and then we decided that as we are with kids that eat less and enjoy discounts we would be spending like 3 adults. Above that, we took an additional amount of 10% as unexpected expenses. The p0lanning then is the first step like everyone has mentioned. For the tracking of the cost, what we have done is created 2 lists: the first with our expenses, but we did not write each and every ex0pense, but rather only when the cost hit our bank acount, meaning cash withdraws from ATM or 0payments done with credit cards - this way we balanced the need to track with not following every 10p cents you spend on a bottle of water or going to public toilet... The 2nd list was to control our cash in dollars Vs. the local money - this would also help us to make sure nothing goes missing or stolen etc. Here we would write teh amount of dollars we took or withdraw and then reduce the amounts we have converted into local currency. Once in a while, we would check on our average cost to see that we are close to the plan. Hope this would hel0p you.
Reply to this I kept a spreadsheet and wrote expenses down whenever I bought something. The easier way is to only put the amount of money you want to spend that day in your wallet and when you run out it's time to stop spending. Or you can look at your ATM withdrawals from your online bank statement and see if it matches your budget. Either way you should probably make a spreadsheet before traveling to get a sense of what you can afford.
Reply to this Like Sophie and Dale, I had 2 sources of funds....the general fund and the adventure fund. Planning to stick to $xx/day gets all hosed up when you take a 5 day SCUBA trip or go bungy jumping, etc.
I tracked my expenses by writing down everything I spent in my journal. I kept a basic total tally to check against my bank account balance. Some people think this daily accounting makes me a bit of a lunatic...and especially how I tabulated it in detail when I got home, but for how my mind works, this was the way to go.
I've posted this before, but here's how it all ended up...
Gone Global - The Bests And The Mosts
Reply to this We are on a long trip and need to keep an eye on what we spend simply because if we spend it all we have to go home. We record daily expenditures in a little all purpose note book. Every now and then I convert it to $A and enter it all in a simple spreadsheet. We don't panic when we blow it but, over time, we ensure it stays under the magic amount.
We set a monthly budget - days and weeks are too short. We also have a set aside amount for majors, so that we don't have to try to manage those specials within the monthly bucket.
We did try to manage by keeping track of it all on bank and card statements. Didn't work for us. It was too much work trying to remember track it all. For years we had used credit card statements as a way of tracking expenditure but the banks have started charging for foreign exchange conversions etc and it is now much cheaper to withdraw cash.
Reply to this There are a number of interesting approaches here with regards to budgeting.
But somehow I am missing the point completely - I don't do any kind of budgeting at all. I do know how much money I have, and after a while on the road I had an idea of how much I would spend in a day (or a month for that matter). With that rough figure you then know how long you can be on the road for.
To put some real numbers into this: I am spending an average of just under 30 Euros a day. Many days are cheaper, but extra expenses like the odd flight, replacing a broken camera or travelling in a more expensive country push the average up. So if I set out with, say, 10.000 Euros in my bank account, I know that the fun will be over in 333 days.
I don't really get the point of working out a (daily/ weekly/ monthly) budget and then trying like hell to stick to it. Some countries are dearer, some are cheaper, some places are more touristy, some less. The only way forward is to accept this simple fact and live with the external circumstances. And if an expensive country is on your list of places to see, you can choose to either miss it (or shorten your time there) or simply go home a few days earlier as your 10.000 Euros will run out a little faster. And you will easily spot this as you check your bank account at the end of each month.
So what's the point of worrying so much whilst on the road? It would just drag me down enormously without adding any kind of advantage whatsoever. Just my humble opinion....
Reply to this I guess the question really is how long you want to be on the road, and still enjoy each day. The previous example of 10,000 euros lasting 333 days with an average daily expenditure of 30 euros per day is probably realistic for a backpacker budget. However, I have noticed that backpackers typically waste a lot of time traveling on trains and buses, where they are scammed terribly. Compare the gruelling experience of going from Bangkok to the southern islands by bus, train, ferry, etc. against an Air Asia flight that gets you there in an hour; for a couple dollars more you cut travel time and the scam factor significantly, arrive rested, and have a more enjoyable experience and longer time at your destination. Also compare the cost of the cheapest hostel against one slightly more expensive that is clean and bug free, and perhaps has air conditioning, cable TV, and a pool, and is it really worth saving a couple dollars. I have found that my accommmodations color my view of the destination. True, that 333 day trip may be cut to 300 days, but you will see more sights by getting from one place to another efficiently, and enjoy each place more with better accommodations. So when planning your budget, decide if the goal is to spend as many days as possible on your fixed amount, or spend fewer days, but each more enjoyably at each destination.
Reply to this My previous comment may appear to some as being descriptive of flashpackers...more affluent backpackers. I don't know where you draw the line in defining a flashpacker. Is someone who spends $40 for a one hour flight more affluent that one who spends $35 for a combination of bus, train, ferry, tuk tuk, etc? Likewise is someone who spends $10 on a clean hostel with air conditioning more affluent that one who spends $4 for a hot, dingy, dirty, bedbug ridden one? I maintain that you can still travel as a backpacker without setting records for the cheapest of everything. However, I recognize that I am a flashpacker!
Reply to this Ben - I don't know about others, but simply saying that I need to average xx (let's use your 30 Euro) per day doesn't mean that every day I actually spend 30 Euro per day. I don't take 30 out of the ATM when I wake up and spend until that's gone then just sit there. For me, the xx per day was a target to average. In Oz I was way above that...in Laos I was way below that.
So I didn't try like hell to stick to a fixed budget every day, but rather an average daily budget over the 11 month period. Keeping track of my expenses helped me do this. I didn't worry so much like you indicate...but if I hadn't kept track, I'd probably have found one day that I was spending too fast and then would have had to come home sooner.
Just my thoughts.
Reply to this 
