With the credit card statements coming in from charges from our trip I thought I should let you know about budgeting tips that I learned from this trip!
1. Try to figure accurately differences in currency! We went to Italy which has Euros as their dollar, and the Euro was worth more than our dollar. I didn't quite figure that as accurately as I could have.
2. Get the total of cost of a rental car before renting. I went through Hertz and they charged the airport taxes after the fact. Also, ask what the price of an extra driver is, and definitely fill up the gas tank before you return it.
3. Do not get tickets last minute online, if you can't stay long enough at a place that has wifi to print off the vouchers you will lose money on the deal. You have to have the vouchers to get into the museum or the place where the item is to be seen and admired!
4. Print off all reservations, tickets, car rentals, airline information, hotel reservations, as soon as you make them so as not to forget that you made a reservation. This is good advice for us older folk because the memory is not as good as it use to be.
5. Don't spend a lot of money on souvenirs! What are people going to do with a bookmark or pen from Israel or Egypt or Turkey! You can save hundreds of dollars if you just invite family and friends over to see the pictures and feed them dinner!
6.Stay in less expensive hotels. I did for the most part but twice I spent extra just to be in a scenic place. It was very nice while I was staying there but when you get the bill it becomes not so worth it.
7. Before the trip do not charge clothes and spend many dollars on a haircut! Keep the budget in mind and think about the charge card statement that comes in the mail after you get back.
I must say I had a wonderful trip and I am so glad we went, but more focus on what I was spending would have lessened the impact of the charge card statement. I should have kept track of my spending and then I would have know when to stop spending.The following quote fit the bill:
We didn't actually overspend our budget. The allocation simply fell short of our expenditure.
Well, I expect if you take a trip of a life time, you are bound to go over budget a little, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm just disappointed I won't be getting a pen from Egypt. But, oh well. :) Ha!
These are really great tips. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and spend, spend, spend. I'm sure the bill was a bit of a shock. Thanks for the slap in the face, reality! :)