I use two important tools to budget for travel: YNAB and spreadsheets.
YNAB
You may have heard that “you need a budget,” but have you heard of You Need A Budget (YNAB)? YNAB is a budgeting software platform with a cult following.
When you sign up, you get a 34 day free trial to build your budget and play with the features. They have live classes and recordings that help you understand the system.
My favorite part about YNAB is the option for automatic importing. You can securely connect your bank accounts and credit cards to automatically import your transactions as they post. I recommend manually inputting transactions on the go, but the auto-import function ensures that you won’t miss a transaction.
Using YNAB, I budget for our monthly and yearly expenses. I also budget for long-term savings goals and short-term savings goals. Of course, the best part is setting aside money every month for travel!
YNAB’s goal feature allows you to set a budget category goal; I find this feature particularly useful for vacations. You have several options including goal by date (e.g. $1000 by January 1st) or monthly savings goal (e.g. save $250 every month) to keep you on track.
I set aside money in an overall vacation category, but I also organize travel savings by trip.
YNAB is great for setting overall travel budgets, but I prefer to use spreadsheets to plan the details.
Spreadsheets
The best part about a travel budget spreadsheet is that it can be as basic or as complicated as you need. On the most basic level, you can estimate costs for transportation, lodging, food, and entertainment. You can start with these basics and, if desired, fill in these categories with specific as you start to research your trip.
Will you be using credit card points or cash to book your lodgings? (For more information about a great card with flexible points, see this post.) Within transportation, will you need a flight? Rental car? Ride share? Public transport? Under the heading lodging, where will you stay and how much will it cost each night? How much do you plan to spend on breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner? What kinds of entertainment costs will you have? Are you booking a guided excursion? Will you have theme park fees or museum fees? Do you need to buy a national park pass?
Getting specific with the details of your trip will help you to not only to save an appropriate amount of money but also prioritize your plans! Do you have enough entertainment money to have a massage and go snorkeling or should you pick one of the two? If you want to do both, do you need to cut back on your food budget and plan to pick up groceries for lunches instead of dining out. Budgeting as you plan your trip allows you to make those tough decisions ahead of time so all you have to do is enjoy your planned trip while you travel.
I understand that this approach will not work for everyone, but I encourage you to try this method. If it doesn’t work for you, try something else!
If you’d like a version of my travel planning spreadsheet, DM me on instagram or email me at the link above.
If you would like to try out YNAB, please consider using my referral link: click here. YNAB always has a 34 day free trial; I think using a referral link gives you an additional month free and gives me a month free!