Savvy Travel Students Disclose Budget Formula

Michele Cyr & Kelley Gallagher took off for 3 months to Europe last summer. They managed to streeeeeeetch their trip to 5 months. Here is how they afforded it.

Create a PLAN!   This time last year our trip of a lifetime was just a dream——a fantasy I played over and over in my mind for most of my life. My boyfriend and I took off for 3 months & stayed five months in Europe. I'd have to admit that the trip was a success because of the time we invested in planning. Of course, we had to plan well enough to afford resigning from our jobs and saving for transportation, a daily budget, a comfortable back pack, sunglasses, travel and health insurance, books, camera, film, and good walking shoes.

Our planning was based on a Budget Travel class with Mele and reading Rick Steve's books. It really is possible to travel to Europe on an average of $80 US Dollars per day for two people (excluding transportation) while seeing and doing about everything we always imagined.

We found it extremely important to keep track of our daily expenditures. Money can be spent without even realizing it. Initially, I kept track of our daily expenses in a small pocket notebook, writing down each purchase. But it became too cumbersome to keep track of every coffee and postcard. We decided to keep track of our daily budget using a simple formula and replaced the notebook with our front pockets. Each morning we counted out our daily budget and moved the amount from our money belt to our front pocket. The pocket was kept closed by sewing Velcro to the top of each pocket. When the pocket was empty, we definitely knew we had spent our daily allowance. Yes, we dipped into our money belts more than once, but we made sure we made up for these splurges at another time. Our formula for budget success:      (A x B) - C

      A) Number of days will you stay in the country times (X)

      B) Your daily budget per day, adjusted for the specific country's economy minus (-)

      C) Credit card or calling card charges

In (B) above, note that our daily budget was adjusted according to the country we were touring. For example, we toured the Mediterranean on $50 to $60 per day while we budget mindedly spent $120 per day in Scandinavia. We seemed to be able to estimate adjustments to our budget by pricing a cup of coffee and a meal in a fast food restaurant. To us, it seemed like coffee and fast food prices indicate the value of the dollar in the country.

Cash Tips for Traveler

• Obtain $50 to $100 per person worth of foreign currency for each country you will be visiting before you leave the USA.

• Withdraws can easily be made from your personal checking account using the Cirrus or Plus network ATMS. The Cirrus network is most widely accepted. We found Plus in only a few places. Our bank charged us only $1.00 for withdraws and had a good exchange rate.

• Prepay your Visa card at regular intervals and make cash advances. TREAT IT LIKE A BANK ATM CARD!. The credit balance on your account will make the advance interest free but you will still incur the 2.5% transaction fee. We used Citibank Visa and found the exchange rates to be very good. Remember that the charges you make will also be used against your credit balance so to avoid the interest, make payments at regular intervals. We found Visa not widely accepted in Holland.       We relied heavily on our prepaid Visa and Traveler's checks to get us through Europe. We had a Plus card and wished we had a Cirrus card. We liked the idea of the ATM with their 24 hour access to cash, but found sometimes if the satellite was down, it was good we had traveler's checks for back up.

• Withdraw money or cash traveler's checks in the country of the currency you need because cashing travelers checks before you arrive in that country will create expensive double exchange rates.

• Take traveler's checks for emergencies. Traveler's checks can be obtained free for AAA members, along with great maps too. Traveler's checks are not treated as cash as they are in the US. There are charges to purchase and cash traveler's checks through out Europe.

• Spend all of your coins inside the country you got them in, as they are worthless outside that country. Coins are neat, but very heavy souvenirs.

Plan for Unexpected Budget Blowers

• Laundry costs a small fortune. Wash clothes in the sink and hang to dry. Youth Hostels usually have inexpensive laundry facilities.Or hand wash and take it to dry at a laundromat.

• Museum Admission prices added up fast. Get a student card to save on admissions, if possible. Purchase museum cards from the tourist information center, for one price the cards offer admissions to many attractions

• Food and Restaurants had some unforeseen outlays. We found water, bread, and seating charges are added into the bill in Mediterranean countries. In England & Ireland choose pubs for a great dinner or lunch. Share entrees with your travel partner. Enjoy your wine/beer before/after dinner purchased at the market, not the restaurant. Coffee can cost $3 to $4 USD per cup, no free refills. Cans of soda pop are smaller than in the US and many times more expensive. Grocery stores weren't open 24 hours, rarely after 5 or 6pm and usually closed for the weekend. (and sometimes during the noon hour). Plan ahead for meals if cooking in hostels.

• Picnic, Picnic, Picnic! - We found that money went fast when eating in restaurants.

Miscellaneous Surprise Expenses:

• Some Inter-City trains have reservation charges even with first-class Eurail passes. No city busses accepted our Eurail passes for fare.

• Postage cost $1 USD per postcard.

• Some hostels/hotels had coin operated showers or charge per shower.

• Sometimes, a double room in a one or two-star hotel is cheaper than two singles in a hostel.

• Phone calls, even local ones are charged by the length of call and ate up our phone cards.

In summary, the biggest money-savers were picnicking, shopping for air fare, staying in youth hostels or one-star hotels, and keeping our souvenir shopping to a minimum. Michele Cyre

Check out these TERC articles and web sites for more information:

     Student/Youth Bargains & Deals
     How to Budget for Your Trip
     Money Matters
     Travel Insurance
     TERC Readers on Money
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