Making a Budget Work
So when you are planning a trip, it’s easy to freak yourself out thinking you will have to sell a kidney to afford this. The most important thing I can recommend is to set a daily budget. There are a few different ways to do this, but here’s the one that works for us. We do a little research ahead of time and come up with a flat daily budget. This one budget includes entertainment and food. This way you can calculate before you leave that expense and there is always fun ways to make it work. Here is an example:
When we went to central Europe we had a goal to spend about 50 American dollars a day. So we of course had to convert about how many Euros, Polish złoty, or Hungarian Forints, etc. Then we planned our days around that. Some days we would spend more on food and less on entertainment like the day we spent in Amsterdam. The Netherlands actually has a very large Indonesian population and cultural influence so we wanted to experience “Rijsttafel” in Amsterdam. This is a MASSIVE meal of side dishes (ours had THIRTY) including rice, egg rolls, fish, fruit, vegetables, nuts, satay, and more. Here’s a picture below. Now obviously this meal was a more expensive splurge. So to make up for it, we did a free walking tour of the city which is often offered by Hostels or even the local tourism board and ate breakfast cheaply from a grocery story. There is always a way to make something you want to do work within your budget.
Image Left: The enormous, delicious Indonesian dish, Rijsstafel, that we splurged on for the day.
Image Above: A view from the FREE walking tour we did to save cash for that meal. It's hard to imagine the gorgeous views of this city are free!
Of course this budget can work in reverse as well. One day we really wanted to do the "Heinken Experience" (16 Euro) AND the Van Gogh Museum (17 Euro). Together these things can be pretty pricey. So we really cut back on the food cost this day. We bought a simple loaf of bread (which we cut with keys), cheese, super cheap wine, and fruit to eat in the park. It was actually delicious AND there were tons of locals eating at the park with us. The whole meal was ten Euro for FOUR of us. Sometimes you have to get creative, but there is always a way to make it work.
