So I have a huge problem budgeting myself. I either spend too much or don't spend enough. I know 'not spending enough' is sorta wierd sounding but when you miss a Mayan Cave dwelling trip in Central America because you think you can't afford it and then wind up with extra money to burn on your way home...you're sad.

Anyway I know all that 'write down every little thing' way of budgeting but you know how there are just some things you want to do but know you wont? Like trying to keep a diary but you never write in it, or trying to learn piano without ever practicing? that's me. I know I won't write down what I spend every day...so I was wondering if you guys had any budgeting tips so i dont' do anything stupid overseas.

I'm going on my longest to date trip this April. And I was planning on getting that 'travellers check card' from American Express but I'm not sure if I should maybe skip that idea. Some of the places I'm going I doubt there will be ATM machines...parts of Morocco and Tunisia...anyway the money situation has me worried. Any thoughts anyone?

don't know about you, but i use all cash. what I do is seperate a "chunk" of money for each week or city, depending on the trip, and cary that weeks worth or that cities worth and if i want to spend my money and don't think i can afford it, i count how much i have left and see how long it has to stretch. hope that helps!

I do what gymboy says except I do it per day. His way is probably better but what I do is figure out how much I'm going to spend per day on the whole trip, say $25 a day, and I put that in my spending wallet each morning and that's what I have to spend for the day, no dipping back into my money belt. At the end of the day if I haven't spent it all I put it into a "slush fund" envelope for extra things that I don't want to miss (like your Mayan Cave trip). I start out with a little bit in the "slush fund" because the fun unexpected stuff sometimes comes at the beginning of the trip.

I can't say I don't fudge the system a little sometimes but physically separating the money into different "funds" helps me stay a little more organized.

Agree with the two posts above. I find that physically dividing my cash keeps things simple and visual. Just need to be a little more careful, security-wise.

Another way to approach the same idea would be to separate the cash by purpose rather than by time period. So you might bring a divided wallet along, or some envelopes, and make one section for food, one for lodging, one for transportation, and one for spending/other. That way you don't accidentally blow your lunch or bus money on your Mayan cave trip.

It also helps you prioritize your spending earlier in the trip when you look in the spending envelope and realize you can either spend $20 today on junky souveniers or you can spend it tomorrow on that cave trip you've been eyeing. I would probably also toss in a "big ticket" envelope where I could set aside cash in case something special or more expensive comes along. When you reach your next destination you can figure out your new budget there, get the local currency, and then divy it all out again.

That's a really great idea about diving up envelopes. And one I could actually get behind. Thanks tons!
Also I would not reccomend those Traveller Express Cards...they have a lot of fees.

I'm just scatterbrained with money and I tend to not really think things out all the way. But having envelopes and doing it all at the beginning of my time in the country would really work well...plus I could combine that with only taking 25 dollars (or whateva) with me a day and not going over my limit no matter what...ahhh yes, I see fiscal responsablilty on my horizon.

I always found a weekly or monthly budget much easier to manage, as there is a lot of variance day to day just from local transportation. When you're not on the move, you spend less.

Don't skip the special things though--that's my advice. Those are the things that you will look back on later and you won't care what the cost was. It will always blow your daily budget to go to Machu Picchu, or Petra, or Topkapi Palace, but what are you doing there if you can't take advantage of what's special about a place? Too many people stay on a shoestring budget every single day and end up missing half of the great experiences.

Believe me, when you're back home making $20 an hour, you certainly won't regret spending that $20 one day a year ago going island hopping and snorkeling all day on a boat. It all evens out in the end if you set a longer-time-frame budget and stick to it while you're traveling. Just keep track of the overall numbers. You can always chill out at a beach for a week later and slow down the spending if you're going over.