How Can You Create a Travel Budget That Actually Works?

Hey there fellow travellers, it's Mark here with Wolters World, and today we're in Barcelona, Spain. And today what I want to talk about is the kind of things you need to think about when you're putting together your budget for a trip, because this is a question we get a lot. Wolters World, what am I going to spend my money on? How do I even know what to budget on? Well, here are kind of the main things I kind of think about when I'm budgeting my trips. Number one, I start thinking about my plane tickets. If I'm going to be flying from the US to Europe, or Europe to Asia, or to Africa, wherever I'm going to go, how much is that big ticket item going to be? Because that's probably going to be the biggest one-off purchase you're going to have, is that big plane ticket for a big trip. So look at your options that are there. Check out for deals on Kayak or Skyscanner to find out who has better deals, and then go book direct with them. So that's the first thing, is that plane ticket part. After I figure out my plane ticket, I start looking at where all am I going to go within that country, within that region, and how am I going to pay for the transportation? Number two, am I taking the train? Am I taking buses? Am I taking ferries? Am I renting a car? Figuring my transportation costs. So I'm here in Spain, and I can actually go online and figure out what the cost of all my train tickets are going to be beforehand. I can pre-book them if I want, so I know exactly how much my budget is going to be on those train tickets. Or if I'm going to be using cheap airlines like Violin or EasyJet, I can have an idea what those are going to be. So I'm figuring out my transportation costs to travel within Europe, That's the next thing. Third thing you need to think about with your budget is your accommodation. Where are you going to stay? Are you going to be at the five-star place, or is a two-star place with a bed fine with you? Or maybe just a hostel that you can just throw your backpack in a locker and go to sleep in. That's going to be another thing you got to think about, because remember, your accommodation is just where you're sleeping. I'm not here in Barcelona to enjoy my bed. I'm here to enjoy Barcelona, because it's beautiful. So consider that when you're looking up hotels and hotel prices of where you're going to stay, that might influence your budging for your accommodation. Next, we have to think about food. And food is one of those things that you can spend as much money as you ever wanted on food, or as little money as you ever wanted on food, because you can go to five-star restaurants and go see where Bourdain ate and do all those things. Or you can go to Aldi or go to the grocery store or go to the market and get deals that way. That's one thing I kind of think about is for me, I plan out my meals that lunch is going to be my big meal, because usually you can get a lunch special a lot of places around the world. And then dinner is more like picking up something from the bakery or the grocery store. That could be something you factor in. Now, the next thing we need to talk about are the museums and the sites you're going to see. Again, these are things you can look up before you go, because they typically don't have the dynamic pricing of airlines, or the tickets go up and down, or the hotel prices go up and down. It's more like, oh, the Sagrada Familia costs this many euros. You already know that, so you can factor that in, so you can look and see how much you're going to spend. And when you're doing your research on the sites and the museums, make sure you look and see what days of the month might be free, or days of the week that might be free. Schedule that in to make your budget go a little bit farther. Now, the next thing we'll think about on your budget is your souvenirs. Look, you're not going to come home with nothing. You're going to buy something when you're there. We buy paintings from local artists, and we bring them home with us. Some people, they, Jocelyn, if she was here in Spain with me, she'd be buying shoes to bring home, and we factor that into our budget. So think about what you're going to bring home. And if you're going to get gifts for your friends to save yourself money, don't get them the cheap, crappy gifts. Don't even get them anything. What you get them is you go get a postcard. You write them a nice letter and mail it to them. You're spending a euro 50 here in Spain, or maybe a dollar 50 in the US, and you're sending a postcard back to your friends back home, and they know you thought of them, and that'll mean more to them than some keychain, or some, you know, $10 little souvenir thing. But do factor in how much you're going to spend on things when you're here, because I know Jocelyn, when she comes to Europe, she buys all her clothes here. She doesn't buy them back in the US. And so we know that, so we factor that into our budget. Another thing you have to think into your budget is your insurance. You do need to get your trip insurance or your travel medical insurance. You want to have that just in case something goes wrong. Usually, it's not very expensive, but it's an important thing to have, because it can get really expensive. You get sick or get hurt when you're traveling, and you don't have it. So that's another thing. I think another thing you need to realize is what do you have to pay for while you're away? Do you have a dog? Do you have a cat? I mean, I have to think about it. How much is doggy daycare going to be if I'm going to Spain for two weeks? What, $50 a day? Oh man, 50 times 14? Ouch. That's a $700 hit to your budget, so you need to factor that in as well. And the thing is, is these are all just ideas to have for you to kind of get you thinking about, hey, how much money am I going to spend? Well, let's think about where your money's going to go, okay? So I hope this helps you get started on preparing your budget for travel. So if you want more help, we have all kinds of budget tips for traveling, budget mistakes people make when they do travel for first-time travelers or seasoned travelers. Check it out on our website at waltersworld.com, and also we have the link below, and I'm sure it'll be up here on the side to help you know what to look out for. But anyway, I hope you have a great time traveling, and I hope this helps you get your budget started so you can figure out how much it's going to cost you to have the greatest trip you could ever imagine. Bye from here in Barcelona.