Every once in a while, we would need a break from the busy hustling urban city life we are in. Swamped with office buildings and blue and white collar people everywhere. We often take this opportunity to relax our mind and go to places that our heart desires. Travelling should be a relaxing and stress-free activity to do. Hence we do not want any of you to be stressing over money as it seems that money is always the root of all problems.
Here are some tips and tricks that may help you along the way to have a better and proper budgeting when it comes to your overseas vacation, this is to avoid any financial mishaps and overspending for occurring.
1) Do up an itinerary of the places that you want to visit
As most Singaporeans typically book their air tickets in advance. Upon booking of air tickets, one is able to confirm the country that they are going. Hence you should do up a simple itinerary of the places that you want to visit, if possible find out the costs of each place including travel expenses, tickets, or any entrance fees involved. Segregate places and spread them evenly into the number of days you are there for. From this brief overview, you will then be able to predict an estimated cost from there on.
2) Budget your daily spending expenses
After averaging out an estimated cost from your itinerary planning, you should also find out the daily expenses there, such as how much would each meal costs on an average, transportation fees if there is any public transport involved.
Set aside some spare cash knowing that you may have the tendency to buy some souvenirs or tangible items that you have in mind or is not available in your country.
3) Try to avoid making any withdrawals from overseas
The last thing you would want to do is to utilise your credit cards to sign for any purchases, or making withdrawals from the ATM machines there. The exchange rate would be on a floating rate and it would usually be higher than your physical money exchange booths as banks need to make a profit as well, they will filter in their own mark ups during the withdraw and credit cards would be taken into consideration as well.
4) Avoid meeting your friends beforehand prior to the trip
This is a casual statement that should not be taken too seriously (grinned). If you are someone who has many friends, you may want to steer clear away from them or keep your trips low profile. This is to avoid any situation where you should feel obligated to buy any souvenirs or stuff for your friends. The more stuff you buy for your friends, the more friends you need to account for. This would burn a big hole in your pocket. Well of course you can buy something small for those immediate families or friends if you have the spare cash.
5) Distinguish between needs and wants
Make your purchases always between your needs and wants. That does not mean that you have not seen this item before, or it is not readily available in your country, means that you should get it. Unless you have an excess amount of cash that you can utilise, it would be best to distinguish between your needs and wants. Only get what you can afford and not compromise any budgets out from your other expenses.
