After reading Get Rich Slowly’s 10 money-saving vacation tips I became convinced that setting a trip budget is a great way to save money without cutting out the experience. The problem is that it takes time and many frequent travelers, be it for business or pleasure, tend to pack, buy tickets, and tell mom at the last minute – let alone leave time for creating a budget.

Setting an upper limit, breaking down your expenses, and making a list of what you’re willing to sacrifice can be done on a large post-it note or jailbroken iPod Touch in roughly 10-15 minutes.

• Set An Upper Limit – You need an absolute maximum that you will be spending during your entire vacation. Use the POT (price of transportation) vacation budget rule to get this figure, then divide it by the number of days you’ll be traveling. It’s easier to keep a 24 hour budget.
  • Keep this daily budget in your wallet as cash to stick to it, and avoid fraud abroad at the same time. Carry an unactivated card for those places that require it for insurance.

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Narrow your vacation budget by using your transportation costs as an indicator on how much you should spend on your next trip. Transportation costs include anything you’ll need to get to and move around your destination. That includes the cost of plane tickets, rental car fees when you get there, or metro rides. The price of transportation vacation budget rule differs slightly for short and more expensive trips.

• Domestic Travel and Discount Flights -Your budget for any given day should be half of your original transportation cost (whatever method you used to get there – for example plane tickets).
  • Lets’ say all of your transportation costs to a cheap destination, say Chicago from Detroit for $69 both ways, plus the cost of a cab to the airport are $30, totaling $99. The maximum you budget for a given day should be $49.50.

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