If you’re like most people, the most daunting task of traveling – especially long-term – is knowing how much money you need to save up, and how to reach that goal. Spontaneous travel is romantic and desirable, but running out of money half way across the world from home can really kill your buzz. Luckily for you, you now have the perfect Travel Budget Planner to help you avoid the need to thumb your way across a continent or get your meals out of cafe dumpsters (although, it’s not the worst idea).
It’s time to plan your next trip! Whether it’s for a weekend or a year, you will be able to calculate how much mula you need stacked up in your bank account. Start your adventure by downloading your free Travel Budget Planner and following the steps below.
Free Download:
Travel Budget Planner
1. Fill Out Your Planner
You’ve got some work to do. In order to get an accurate approximation of your expenses while traveling, there is going to be some research involved. Start at box D15 on your planner and proceed filling out the following lines. If you get stuck, follow the instructions by hovering your cursor over the boxes with red tabs in their corners.
With some of the calculations, you will be guessing. Sure, you probably don’t know exactly how many taxis you will be taking in the next six months; that doesn’t mean you can’t estimate! To take a guess, see how many flights you think you’ll be taking – you will probably be taking a taxi from each airport. See how many big cities you plan on visiting – you will probably take several taxis while you are there.
Let’s say you will be flying into 5 different airports. You don’t know for sure how much your taxi will cost, but take a guess. Let’s say it’ll be $30 for each airport ride. That’s $150 for airport rides. Now, you’re going to be in 6 big cities. Let’s guess that you spend $50 on taxis in each city (if you are in places like Southeast Asia, you will be getting cheaper rides). That’s $300 for your taxis in the cities.
In total, you’ve estimated that you’ll be spending $450 on taxis. Is this exact? No, of course not. That’s why it’s an estimation! Is it possible you might find cheaper transportation while you’re there? Yes, absolutely, but you now have a budget for taxis. If you don’t use your whole taxi budget, you can spend it on other fun things!
Hints:
- Use Google or other search engines to estimate the prices of where you are traveling. The prices you find don’t have to be exact, but you can get a great idea of what you should expect to pay.
- When finding prices, always round up. If you find that hostels in Bangkok are between $5-$10 per night, use the higher number when entering amounts into your planner. It’s better to be over prepared and have money to play with during your trip.
- If you are planning for a long-term trip, you can use the Travel Budget Planner as a monthly planner. You can estimate what one month of travel will be, and use that as a reference for each month you will be abroad.
- If you won’t be booking a return flight, make sure you have enough money to buy a return flight. Get an idea of how much flights are from where you will be traveling to your home. Depending on how far away from home you will be, having $800-$1500 set aside for a flight home is a safe amount. This is money that you will not touch on your travels. It is only to get yourself home.
- At the very least, have an emergency credit card that you can use to get yourself home if you are not going to set money aside for your return ticket. Be aware that some countries require proof of a return ticket, or enough money to purchase one, before you enter.
- If you have bills or monthly payments that you will be paying for (i.e. car payments, rent, etc.) while you are on your travels, add them into the extra lines under Trip Expenses in your planner.
Websites for Calculating Prices:
- Flights: Skyscanner, Momondo, Hopper (App), Google Flights or pick your favorite airline/cheap flight website.
- Accommodation: Hostel World, Airbnb, Agoda or your favorite hotel chain/cheap hotel website.
- Travel Insurance: World Nomads
2. Make Money!
If you already have some money saved up, you’re ahead of the game. If you don’t, no big deal.Travel Budget Plannerdeparture date is flexible, you can maximize the amount of money you save up. If your departure date is set in stone, you will have to work extra hard to reach your savings goal. Besides the obvious – having a full-time job – there are other way to save up money towards your trip.
- Get another job. I know it’s easier said than done, but it makes a huge difference when saving. You’ll be making more money, and spending less because you’ll be working more. Now, that’s logic! Grab a part-time serving job, start dog walking, house sitting, or get some freelance side projects (writing, graphic design, art, etc.).
- Sell Your Sh*t – I Mean, Stuff! Almost all of us have stuff we don’t need. Like, that tenth pair of autumn boots that you never wear, yet you’re looking at your soon-to-be eleventh pair online right now. Or, that extra snowboard deck from ten years ago that you keep because you’re convinced you’re going to make some cool, hipster furniture out of it one day. What about that dresser drawer full of clothes that hasn’t been opened since high school; but, you refuse to get rid of any of it because you never know when you’ll want to wear that pair of Abercrombie & Fitch flare jeans again…IT ALL HAS TO GO. Sell, sell, sell. Use websites like eBay, GearTrade, Vinted, or Poshmark to sell all your old sh*t, I mean stuff.
- Get creative. There are hundreds of ways to make money these days – especially – with the help of the internet. You can get paid to take surveys; write and publish eBooks; review websites, music and apps; sell old text-books; rent out your car parking space; the list goes on. Take advantage of this cyber-world we live in!
3. Drum Roll…Start Saving!
Now that you know how much you need to save, it’s time to start setting money aside. Having, at least, two separate bank accounts is going to benefit you greatly. Your savings account is a no-touch-zone until your trip. Each week, or month, you will transfer money into your savings account and it will cease to exist to you. You won’t touch it and you won’t spend it unless it is for trip purposes.
You’ve already calculated how much money you have already saved, and how much money you think you can save with your Travel Budget Planner. If what you think you’ll have saved isn’t enough, your Difference number in box C8 will be negative. This number is how much more you need to save. You will need to calculate how much more money you need to set aside weekly (or monthly) to reach your goal.
Use the My Weekly Savings Plan box on your Travel Budget Planner to calculate your additional weekly savings goal (this is what you need to set aside, additionally, each week in order to reach your goal). To calculate your monthly savings goal, simply multiply your weekly savings goal by 4.
If your Difference number (box C8) is positive, then you are smooth sailing! You already have enough money saved up to cover your trip expenses. Stop worrying and start packing! If your Difference number is negative (a red number), then you have some saving to do. As you enter your weekly/monthly amounts into your Savings Map, you will see your savings goal (box J52) go from a negative to a positive number (hopefully)!
Work really hard, sell some stuff, get creative and start saving!
