Money and Vacation

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Note from the writers:  thanks for your patience as we were away this weekend, meeting in person and working on many writing projects.

What is it about vacation that prompts us to open our wallets and let cash fly from our fingers?  Personally we blame pickpockets and exhaustion.  And by pickpockets we don’t mean overpriced vendors but the real worry of any tourist that all our cash will be lifted from an unsecured pocket.

Because we fear pickpockets we compensate with travel wallets and luggage that promises to protect all our earthly belongings.  See, they even have prictures with the hidden pockets!  But yeah, most pickpockets can read or at least look at a picture.

What’s a nervous traveller to do?  Hide the cash!  Some in the front pocket, a little in the back, other bills hidden from the hotel staff and a little more in your shoe.  Which creates an entirely new dilemma when it comes to spending.  No, not how to dig the twenty out of your bra, actually lots of money in lots of places is rather hard to track.

Exhaustion comes into play as we push and push ourselves to get it all done until we end up acting like the cranky four year old being dragged our of Disneyland crying and kicking.  Very few people end their days on vacation by cataloging daily purchases and collecting cash from its forty-seven different hiding places.  Even fewer of us want to do this in public brandishing a wad of cash.  And have you tried remembering how much that drink on the street or trinket from a vendor costs?  Nearly impossible.

Inevitably we end vacation desperately scavenging through our luggage, pockets and new purchases for cash. Surely we could not have spent it all! There’s got to be a better way and with any luck a traveller more experienced than us will chime in with some tips.  Here are ours:

1.  Create a trip budget. Whether it’s $100 or $1,000, make a budget.  This allows you to mentally track if you’re spending too quickly.

2.  Consider where the money will come from if you go over budget.  Savings? Rent?  Will you need to carry a credit card balance?

3.  Consider where the money will go if come in under budget.  Will you print your vacation pictures and frame them?  Go out to dinner?  Begin saving for the next adventure?

4.  Divide money into envelopes either by day, event or category.  We recommend by day unless you intend on just one or two very expensive days it generally works best.

5.  Track receipts or at the very least write down purchases.  Our favorite trick is to email or text message your travel partner or use the note feature on your phone or in a planner.   Vacation is not a time to run, run, run.  Take time to relax, even if just to note how much lunch at the fantastic new restaurant set you back.

6.  Carry a variety of bills.  Don’t count on the ability to make change or get stuck paying for an expensive item with a huge wad of ones.  That’s vacation stress you don’t need.

A little more advice for tip #4:

Let’s say Monday is travel day #1.  You’ll want some small bills to tip any service people who help you on your way.  Maybe some additional cash for food as you travel, a newspaper or new book to read.  When you awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed, on Tuesday in a different time zone move any leftover Monday money to Tuesday.  You may also consider an In Case of Emergency stash.

One last tip for you, go to your own bank before leaving home.  If you want take some of their deposit envelopes for this exercise.  Also, if you’re wise, get a roll of quarters and feed the meter.  No one likes a parket ticket on vacation.