Trip Budget Planner to Get You Faraway
It’s that time of year again. Warm weather is around the corner- hopefully- and it is time to start planning vacations. We all need some time away from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. I know I do. Dreaming of a vacation is so easy. Affording a vacation, though, can be a struggle.
Bills seem to never end and every time I think I will have a little to put away, I get surprised with another bill or some type of emergency. While saving for a vacation can be hard- and sometimes nearly impossible- you do not have to give up. With some planning and a little extra work, you can be enjoying some time away before you know it.
Start Your Trip Planning
One of the first steps to going on vacation is planning it, so let’s start with a few questions. Keep in mind that as you plan, budget, and save, you might need to adjust these answers. The point here is to get a basic idea of your trip details so that you can properly research. Here’s what you should consider for your trip budget planner:
Where Do You Want To Go?
Personally, I would spend every second of my life on a beach, but that is not everyone’s cup of tea. Where do you want to go? Perhaps you want to visit Paris or backpack through Europe. Maybe you want to head to New York City to experience the big city life. Then again, hitting Las Vegas may be more your style.
Where Will You Stay?
Will you need to book your own accommodations or do you have family in that area? Do you want to stay in a five-star resort or do you want to camp in the wilderness? Maybe you want to stay in a cabin, a condo, a tent, or in a good old-fashioned hotel.
What Do You Want To Do?
What activities do you want to participate in when you get there? I prefer to sit in the sand and play in the ocean all day, but my children want to get out to do things. Oddly enough, they are usually much more excited about hotel and condo pools than they are about the ocean.
How about you? Do you prefer to just sit around and relax or are there places you want to go and things you want to do? Obviously, when you get there, you might see some additional things you want to do, so you will want to take a little more than you originally plan.
When Do You Want To Go?
You probably know that traveling at different times gives you different prices on airfare and accommodations. Different times also mean a different number of people. Trying to go to the beach mid-summer usually means fighting a large crowd. However, if you wait until school starts back, there are not as many people around because families with kids are back at home.
You may not have much control over when you go, though, depending on your job. I have a friend who can only get time off for a vacation when it is pretty much too cold to enjoy anything. Still, the earlier you request time off, the better chance you have for getting your request approved. Pick a time now so you can put in your request and so that you know how long you have to save up.
How Will You Get There?
Do you plan to fly, drive, take a bus, or hop on a cruise ship? The answer to this question will depend largely on where you are going. I mean, if I ever get to go to Hawaii, I cannot exactly drive there, so that limits my options. The earlier you determine how you will be getting to your destination, the better you can plan. Also, the earlier you book, the better chance you have of getting a good rate. Last-minute bookings are usually very expensive.
How Many People Are Going?
Is this vacation just for you, for you and your significant other, for you and your kids, or for a whole group of people? The answer to this question will definitely have an impact on where you should stay. If you are going with a large group, you probably will not all want to fit into a hotel room. It is possible to fit a bunch of people in a hotel room, though. When I was a teenager, I went on vacation with my sister, her husband, and their only child at the time. Along with us, there were I believe eight additional people. It was a little uncomfortable, but we did it.
Still, if you do not want to share the bed with two or three other adults, large groups are usually better off in a condo. The point is that the number of people going with you will dictate the type of accommodations you book. Again, the earlier you can book it, the better chance you have at getting an affordable rate. By answering these questions, you can start your planning, do any price checking, and determine how much vacation savings you need to add to your personal budget.
Trip Budget Planner
Having a trip budget planner is a great way to get organized. It does not have to be anything fancy, really. You could use paper and pencil, an Excel spreadsheet, or a budget tracker app. The point of a trip budget planner is to set your savings goals for your trip and try to figure out where that money is going to come from. You then want to use your trip budget planner to track your progress and determine if you need to make any adjustments.
The type of trip budget planner you use is up to you, though using an app often gives you the added benefit of easily tracking the progress you have made. Every time you slip some money into your trip savings, you can add that to the tracker and effortlessly see how much farther you have to go. Of course, you can do this through a manual goal chart or through charts on the spreadsheet, but these take a little more work.
How Much Can You Afford To Spend?
While this amount can fluctuate depending on whether you can work a little harder or find some other way to add to your trip budget, you need to have an idea of what you can afford to spend or how much you are willing to spend. You can always change this amount later but get an idea together to work with. If you are planning to go on a trip in three months and you know that the max amount you can save is $300 per month, you will either need to make your trip fit that $900 budget or find some extra money through a loan or some other source of income.
Before coming up with any other ideas, though, start with the amount you know that you can handle comfortably in your trip budget planner. You are almost always better off keeping it in your budget than having to come up with alternative means.
Take a Look at Your Monthly Budget
How much can you put to the side as your budget stands now? Is that amount enough to pay the estimated amount for your vacation? If not, keep going.
Is there anything you can cut out or cut down on until your vacation to put a little extra to the side?
If you eat out a lot, can you swap over to eating from home more so you can save a little more?
Can you cut your grocery budget by using coupons?
Can you cut out your cable or cut back on the channels you have, even if just for a little while?
Are you using that gym membership that you are paying for every month?
Sometimes, even swapping to store brand shampoo, conditioner, and other toiletries can save you quite a bit. With some thought and a little dedication, you can add $100 or more to your monthly savings.
Gather Your Trip Information
Now is the time to fill in your trip budget planner. A minute ago, you answered the questions about where you want to go, where you want to stay, and so on. You now need to figure out how much all of this will actually cost so you know how much money you need to put in your trip budget planner.
Accommodations
It seems the absolute most convenient thing to look for and book a hotel, condo, and so on online. It is not usually the most affordable option, though.
Negotiate the Price
I worked the front desk of a hotel a couple of years ago, and I am going to let you in on a little secret: At almost every location, the front desk clerk can get you a lower rate than what is quoted online and- very often- the initial price they quote you on the phone. I cannot speak for every place, of course, but I can tell you that the “standard rate” can almost always be decreased.
What this means for you is that if you actually take the time to call the locations and speak to a human, you can get a more affordable rate. This is especially true if another location has quoted you a smaller rate. You can then tell each other place you call something like, “Hi, I am looking for accommodations for my vacation and am trying to determine who has the best rates.”
They will then quote you something, and if it is more expensive than your other quote, just say, “Okay, thanks. That’s more than X gave me. Thank you for your time.” Almost always, they are going to ask what the other place quoted you and try to offer you a better deal. Businesses are built on competition, and no one wants to lose you to their competition.
Instead of taking your chances online, block out an hour or two. Make phone calls and speak to humans. I promise it will feel worth it if you save a couple of hundred bucks.
Travel
If you are flying or renting a vehicle, take a look at the rate calendars. Are there specific days of the week you want to go that are cheaper than others? If so, plan your trip around those days. This may mean adjusting the dates you originally hoped to be on vacation, but if the difference is a significant amount of money, change your dates. (This is why it is a good idea to either have a digital trip budget planner or to fill out the physical one in pencil.)
Food
Of all the categories on your trip budget planner, this is the one that can be modified the most. Many people just automatically plan to eat out on their vacation. I understand that- no one really wants to be cooking on what is supposed to be a break and some places have food types you really want to try. I get it.
Still, you can save money on food. Let’s start with eating out. If you are going somewhere that has food you really want to try, don’t stop yourself from doing so. Just do not do it your entire vacation. Pick a couple of nights to try those foods but try not to do it the whole time.
Bring It with You
If there is nothing you really want to try, even better. You can save a lot of money. Last year, my family and I went to the beach. This included me, my husband, two teenage boys, a preteen girl, and a six-year-old. We were gone for five days. Throughout that time, we ate off of less than $80 in food. I will share exactly how.
We stopped once on the way there and once on the way back for drive-thru dollar menu burgers.
Everything else I spent at the grocery store before we left. During the five days, we ate:
Canned biscuits and eggs for breakfast
Sandwiches for lunch
Soup for two dinners
Baked chicken for one dinner
BBQ chicken sandwiches one dinner
Spaghetti for one dinner
While I do love to cook, I was not trying to spend my whole vacation doing it. I took my Crockpot, put the soup on in the morning before we went to the beach, and then we enjoyed it for dinner. My oldest son likes cooking, so I let him cook the spaghetti. We had a little oven in the room, so I just put the chicken in to bake while I got myself and my girls cleaned up. I then turned the leftovers into the BBQ chicken for the next night’s dinner.
Everything was simple and quick. There was no slaving over the stove and my family ate well. Thanks to spending so little on groceries, I was able to take plenty of bottled water and snacks with us. The point of all of this is that there is no need to spend hundreds of dollars eating out on vacation. You can easily cook and make quick meals if you just prepare ahead of time. Even if you cannot carry a bunch of food with you, you can still run to a nearby grocery store when you reach your destination. Again, food is one of the best areas to cut down on your trip budget planner because there are so many ways to do it.
Other Items
Everyone says I overpack, but with six people to think about, can you blame me? No? Neither can they because it never fails that we end up needing everything I pack. And we always save a ton of money not having to go buy necessities at our destination.
If you have not caught on yet, allow me to let you in on something: Almost everything is more expensive in vacation areas. This is because tourists need the stuff and stores know it. If you can take it with you, do yourself a favour and pack it. Do you really want to blow your budget on daily essentials instead of enjoying your vacay?
Conclusion
If you are getting ready for a vacation, do not do another thing until you have a plan and a budget. Then, transfer everything into a trip budget planner for organization purposes. As you go through your planning process, do not be surprised if you have to make adjustments- this is part of life. Starting with a plan- no matter how many adjustments it needs- is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your trip.
Visualize Your Budget. Budgetry Can Help You Do That.