How can we have an enough budget for a travel that we’ve been eyeing to experience? I am always worried when it comes to travel money because I need to make sure every peso is well spent. I learned few tricks along the way of bumps and wasted money. Read on so you don’t need to experience it the hard way.

I ask myself about the place. Is it a place that I’ve always wanted to visit or is it a place someone asked me to go with them to? The basic idea of knowing that a place is a place you really love to visit can make your budget planning a serious course to take. One example is when we went to South Korea. I wanted South Korea because of cherry blossom and the beauty of spring season. I really wanted to go there that it became one of my 2010 prayers, bugged me for 9 months of daydreaming and 3 months of worries.

So I looked up the exchange rate and evaluated my available money. I assessed what I can only afford. And then I listed all the best spots in South Korea and the places where I can see cherry blossom. I listed them with their corresponding prices then I removed the places that are expensive. But for places I really really wanted to go to, I put them on the least priority places (with crossed fingers). We visited them when we were able to save money during the travel. It was because I really wanted to have a glimpse of these “moderately expensive” places that I was ready to find free breakfast (bread with jam included in our accommodation stay) and street-food for dinner.

In Bangkok, where the money (baht) is only a little higher than our peso and the city is a lot like Manila, I assigned a fixed amount. And since Bangkok is a place for shoppers, I assigned a separate amount for shopping. Beyond travel and shopping budget were considered as “pleasures”.  (I’m going to kill myself when I reach the “pleasure level” unmindly)

I must say travel takes money. It really does. But what it makes affordable to some is how they manage what they only have so they can have the maximum experience. In summary, it is always about what is in your itinerary, how you spend the money while traveling and how you intend to improve your budgeting skills.

And control your impulsiveness.