Vacation Budgets are no Vacation

When it comes to budgeting for a vacation, Marzz and I take it very seriously. We put a lot of effort into planning and researching with the intent to know and understand all of the actual and potential costs for an upcoming trip. It does not always play out like we plan, but over time, we've come up with a pretty good system and these days, we're far less likely to be caught short on cash while traveling.

In a previous blog "Going Clear....of Debt", I shared how we have taken control of our finances and have switched to using our Apple Credit card as our everyday purchases card so that we earn cash back and pay off that balance after it posts to our accounts. The key takeaway is that managing our finances has become much easier and this translates to other things, fun things, like traveling.

In my twenties, most of my traveling trips relied on credit cards. I had little cash on hand, and saving was so difficult for me, it was not an option. While on the these trips, I was constantly thinking about how much everything cost, how much I was charging and wondering how I would pay it off. Yes, I had fun on my travels, but to say finances were not on my mind would be a blantant lie.

So what has changed?

These days, I have a plan in place before we even begin booking hotel rooms or flights or anything else. My planning starts with using Microsoft Excel, or you can use any other spreadsheet style software. The first things I put into it as column headings are: hotel, gas or flight, food and then I work off the top of my head for any other things that I think I'll need and I can add or remove as the plan develops. I then place some simple formulas so that I can get a grand total and then split that by how many people are going, including Marzz. Marzz and I treat our finances as separate and one simultaneously. This allows for her and I to purchase anything we want as individuals, but we both have eyes on each others so when we have shared expenses, we ensure that they are met. This gives us a lot of flexibility and doesn't make either one of us feel like the other is taking "their" money.

I have a few standard amounts that I enter into my spreadsheet. For example, my food budget is always $100 per person, at least for me and Marzz, not always for any additional friends or family going. I purposely over budget so that if we decide to eat an expensive dinner or fancy drinks etc, we will be covered. The other is for gasoline if we are driving, I budget $50 per tank. Again, this is usually an overbudget, depending on the current price of gasoline and where we will be at when we fill the tank.

Speaking of over budgeting, I also do this with a few other items, such as souvenirs and what I title as "entertainment" which if we're in Las Vegas (non-Covid) we may see a show or a concert. By over budgeting it ensures we will have enough money on the spot and usually means, we end up with cash leftover when we return which ends up being a nice bonus since our budget will reflect us paying all of it in full.

Let me pause for moment. I realize some of this will hit your ears as obvious. I agree. The reason I want to share it, is not because I don't think people understand this, but because it can still be difficult to execute and has nothing to do with intellegence. I will compare it to losing weight. Most people fail because it is difficult and your body will fight you the entire way. Some would argue it is mind over matter, which I think there is some truth to that, but others will just say that if you fail, it was because you didn't want it enough. This I disagree with. To blame it on the person as if it were simply a choice, is wrong. It is far to complex an issue to over simplify it like that, and I think the same for budgeting.

Ok, I'll get off my soap box now, but I do think budgetting is more than just knowing you need to save or not buy crap.

When it comes to items like hotel costs, I never over budget for those and I also try to capture all taxes and fees involved so that when I do the "per person" cost, even if it's just Marzz and I, I want this cost to be 100% accurate. It comes to play a bigger role if there are friends or family so when they send me money or visa versa, it is accurate and it is fair.

Now my travel budget is created on its own Excel sheet and once I get my grand total for myself and for Marzz (if she is traveling with me), I then take that total and enter into our separate finance charts, as mentioned in my previous blog, "Going Clear....of Debt". This sort of puts it into "real life" for me; because I can then see how it affects my current budget in real time. Sometimes I have to fiddle with the numbers a bit, lower things around that week such as, that week's spending allowance or maybe we had another event planned and we can shore up the budget for that or even cancel it altogher if it was something novel. These days, most of the time, the trip I'm planning for is far enough in the future that I don't have to adjust anything around it and instead it gets entered and sits there just fine until the date grows closer and then, maybe I have to adjust but that would only happend if I went astray in the weeks between me placing it into the chart and when that trip date arrived.

There is plenty of work that goes into my planning for a vacation, but it all has a purpose and it allows for us to travel worry free and keep us on track in our overall budget.

It does not escape me that this is the second finance related blog in the past month or so, but it has become such a large player in our lives that it feels like everything revolves around it.