How Much Money Should I Spend on My Journeys?

Travelling is always going to cost money – even when you do it on the lowest budget possible, you have to spend something. But how much should that be?

It’s hard to set a budget when you don’t know where to start. Here’s how to plan your journey and your budget at the same time.

How much do you have?

The first question, of course, is how much you have to spend. If you have an unlimited source of money, you can go and do whatever you want. If you have a very small budget, on the other hand, then it may not be possible for you to spend much more. The important thing is to think about how much you want to spend and then tailor your trip to that – not the other way around.

If you are thinking about earning money to raise your budget, there are lots of ways to do that. You can sell crafts that you make yourself, or use skills like writing or coding to work online. You can also learn to trade and then play the markets while you travel. That’s a really fun way to increase your budget. Either way, having an upper limit figure is really useful.

Where are you going?

The question of where you want to go will also affect your budget needs. If you are staying within your home country, the costs will be considerably lower. If you are going to the other side of the world, there’s going to be a lot of cost to factor in with flights and transport from hotels.

There’s also a question of whether you go to a big resort which is used to tourists and can be very expensive, or a country that has a weak economy and therefore costs very little to stay in. You can even change your budget depending on whether you travel in season or out of season. There’s never a simple answer for a travel budget – you always have to take into account the where and the when.

Take a look at travel forums, travel blogs, and even booking websites for different times of year to get a good idea of how much your travel and accommodation should cost. You can then also get an idea of the daily living costs you will need – for things like food, drink, and entertainment.

What can you sacrifice?

If there is a bit of a disparity between your budget and your estimated costs, then don’t panic just yet. There are lots of ways that you can sacrifice convenience or luxury to bring the cost of your journey down. You could consider staying in homestays and rented spaces instead of a hotel. You can book your flight during the middle of the night, and split it in two with a connection. The cost will go down if you buy your own food at supermarkets and cook it in your accommodation rather than eating out. You can backpack or hitchhike instead of paying to travel. The list goes on and on.

The important thing to do is to figure out which parts of your holiday you want to keep, and which you don’t mind about. You can even plan ahead to find lots of free entertainment, such as museums or art galleries, rather than going to attractions which require an entry fee.

When you have answered all three of these questions, you should come up with an answer that fits within your budget, saves you as much money as possible, and still gives you what you want. That’s how much money you should spend!

Author bio

Abby Vonda works at Datastical.com. She specializes in entrepreneurship and self-improvement topics. She is very passionate about productivity, personal and career development, as well as business and leadership.