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Have a ball without blowing your budget

Sticking to the budget you set in the lead-up to your trip can be hard work when you’re actually out on the road, but a few simple money tricks can help make it doable.

2 minute read

There’s something about the freedom of overseas travel that makes us freer than usual with our wallets – taking in every experience, and buying every souvenir key ring we can.

Sticking to the budget you set during all that careful planning can be hard work, but a few simple money tips can help make it doable.

Here’s how to make sure you don’t start your holiday with an expensive bang, and end up with an empty wallet before it’s over.   

Set yourself a daily spending limit

Break your holiday budget down into daily chunks, and set a spending limit for each day. Then, the hard part; challenge yourself to actually stick to it.

If one day turns out especially cheap, don’t feel you need to spend more to reach your limit – just add it to the next day’s budget, instead.

And if you’re really struggling, you can always remove the temptation completely, by moving your daily budget from a savings account like a Rapid Save account into your spending account - and leaving the rest of your money in your savings.

Don’t forget about exchange rates

One of the easiest ways to blow a holiday budget is by forgetting to convert all your spending back into NZ dollars. Use a currency converter to help you get an idea of what you’re spending in NZ dollars. It might help you think twice before buying your fifth novelty key ring.

Track your daily spending

Avoid any mid-holiday cashflow surprises, by keeping track of your spending while you’re away. The BNZ app is the best way to monitor where your travel money is going. It’s available for iPhone, iPad or Android, and lets you check out your spending habits from anywhere with an internet connection.

Check in daily, and take note of where you might be spending too much – and, if you’re lucky, where you can afford to spend more. 

Live like a local

Tourist traps are an easy way to blow through your holiday budget in record time, so try living like a local instead. Find out where people go to eat, drink, and spend their time. Take public transport, and look for free museums and attractions. Or swap that expensive dinner out for a trip to the markets, and cook your own meal with locally grown ingredients.

Seeing a place through the eyes of the people who live there isn’t just cheaper, it often ends up being much more fun. So give it a go, and spend some time enjoying saving.

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