After creating your calendar plan (A14-002- How I Plan) it is time to check your budget. No good doing anything or going anywhere where you can not afford to do what you want to do.
We have a basic plan, so the first step is to construct a budget. We need to make sure that we have enough money to do what you would like to so. I went to the UK many many years ago and we had a budget of P30 per day, for 3 of us. That was all the money we had. We had a bucket flight ticket bought, inflexible, and counted how much money we had and just divide that amongst the number of days. I ended up with 3 months in the UK and no money to do anything ! PS – was not my planning, and was the last time this travel companion ever planned anything for me!
So here we are making a budget. Unfortunately the word ‘budget’ has come to mean ‘cheap’ but I am using it in the traditional sense – it is just an allocation of money. Let us consider our needs –
- How fancy/basic do we want the accommodation ?
- Do we eat out or cook ?
- Hire car, train taxi etc
- First class or cattle class ?
- Do we want to do lots of paid activities
- Or do we want to take lots of walks
- Do we want to go to shows, pubs, wine testing, theme parks etc
Have a look at your ‘calendar plan’ and copy off the information into this format. Although putting the time in seems silly for a budget, I use the same table for an itinerary later on.
| Time | Activity | Cost pp | Cost p2p |
| Day 1 | xxxx to Sydney | ||
| 3.00 | Train to Sydney | 45 | 90 |
| 8.30 | Train arrives in Sydney | ||
| Stay | YHA in Sydney | 60 | 120 |
| Dinner | On train | ||
| Daily allowance | 100 | 200 |
| Time | Activity | Cost pp | Cost p2p |
| Day 2 | Sydney to Queenstown | ||
| Bfast | On plane | incl | incl |
| 7.00 | Leave Sydney | 480 | 960 |
| 11.00 | Arrive in Queenstown | ||
| 12.00 | Pick up hire car, $500 for 9 days | 250 | 500 |
| Petrol for the day | 5 | 10 | |
| Stay | YHA Queenstown | 100 | 200 |
| Daily allowance | 100 | 200 | |
| pp=per person, p2p=per 2 people |
After many years of budgeting, in particular budgeting for people who travel with me, who need to know how much it will cost before they leave, I have decided that a daily allocation of money works better than trying to calculate how much it will cost.
The Daily Allowance
With a bit of practice we have worked out that a daily allowance of $100 per person is affordable and practical. [2020 approx] For me it is very generous, as we do not do a lot of paid activities, but we do not want to be short. This is the cash available to spend on items of choice. It is here to cover
- Meals and snack not included with accommodation
- Taxis, buses, trains which are not going from destination to destinations. ie local transport
- Entry to museums, castles, shows etc
- Activities like bungee jumping and roller-coasting
Some days, for example day 1, the expenses are small – one dinner.
Day 1: $100 allowance less one dinner $10, leaves us with $90 extra for tomorrow ! But, there is not enough money for skydiving. There are two choices here. Either don’t go skydiving because it is too expensive, or use less of your daily allowance in the up coming days to make up for it. We use a daily allowance of $100 per person which is enough to cover, all meals and some activities. Other people may feel they need more, others maybe less.
Though do bear in mind that the aim is not to use up all the money, but to use it wisely and not find that at the end of the hols you are eating packet noodles and sitting in a smelly dorm room.
So after adding up each days’ potential expenses you can get a fare idea of the cost of the trip! Now we know how much money to put aside. I put all the allocated money into one account and pay from there.
