According to happiness theory, when money is spent on travel, happiness grows over time. However, when money is spent on things, happiness tends to diminish over time. So, pack up your things and travel this year!!! But you need to consider budgeting for your travel unless you want to run out of cash in the middle of a trip. Not all of us can just wake up and hop onto the next plane to an exotic island. You are not the Kardashians. That’s why we need a travel budget.
A budget is an estimate of your income and expenditure for a set period of time based on future plans. So for us to build our travel budget, it means that we are not planning to travel right now but in the future.
How do we come up with a travel Budget?
There are things we need to consider when we are making our budget for travel. This being a budget travel blog, we ought to stick to affordable travels. Where are we planning to travel to? when? for how long? Solo or group travel? how are we travelling? Let’s say you are planning to fly to Mombasa, for a week, with a group of friends.
Now that we have answered the above questions, it is time to move to the next step; which is setting a limit to how much you will spend. A good budget should be within your financial means. Don’t budget for what you can’t afford. Set a limit on the amount you want to spend on the maximum.
The next thing is to start estimating the amount you need for your trip starting with the most expensive items first. For our trip to Mombasa, the most expensive thing is probably the transport (flight tickets), followed by accommodation then finally food. While we are calculating our estimates let’s not forget to factor in miscellaneous expenditures. Have 10% of your budget as miscellaneous expenditure. You never know when you might need some extra cash.
With budgeting, you have to be flexible. Flexible in terms of changing your travel times, taking a hostel or airbnb instead of a hotel, taking public means instead of hiring a car. Anything that makes you spend less than you budgeted for is welcome.
| EXPENSE | BUDGET | ACTUAL | DIFFERENCE |
| Air tickets | 10,000.00 | 8,000.00 | 2,000.00 |
| Accommodation | 7,000.00 | 4,000.00 | 3,000.00 |
| Food | 3,000.00 | 3,000.00 | – |
| Drinks | 3,000.00 | 1,000.00 | 2,000.00 |
| Activities | 5,000.00 | 2,000.00 | 3,000.00 |
| Miscellaneous | 2,800.00 | 800.00 | 2,000.00 |
| TOTAL | 30,800.00 | 18,800.00 | 12,000.00 |
We are now done with budgeting our expenditures. The next thing is budgeting for our income. Analyse how much you have verses how much you need. If the amount you have is less than the amount you need, come up with a strategy on how you are going to acquire the balance.
The best method is to have a saving plan. Start a saving plan whereby you decide the specific amount you want to save daily or weekly or even monthly so that you cover the balance. You can do the famous 52 week saving plan which has proven to be very effective to many. Refer to my previous article on how to budget for the holidays for the holidays to get more information about budgeting.
Apart from saving, you can also find other ways of increasing your income or reducing your expenditure whichever works better for you. With the above information, budgeting for your trip will be very easy. Be on the look out for more details about affordable and smart travel this year.