Tracking Vacation Expenses
The value of tracking vacation expenses
The immediate and most prominent con of tracking vacation expenses is that you have to be aware of what you spend. This in itself could be thought of a detractor as it could innately be absorbing the joy away from the vacation. Indeed, to some this is very true. There is however joy from this action of tracking the expenses keep on track with the greater and overarching goal of becoming FI. Also once the bliss of the trip is over and you get home, you will not expense the hangover many have of guessing how much they spent and if they have enough space available in their credit cards.
One of the key pillars of becoming FI is knowing exactly where every dollar goes, and tracking vacation expenses is no exception.
How to not make it painful experience
While on vacation, the main objective is, to enjoy! Having to track expenses can seem like a chore and can take away from some of the joy. On the similar notion though, arriving from the vacation, having no idea what you spend and where can be even worse as it can be a very daunting task to go though all those hundreds of receipts or bank transactions.
After many years of tracking vacation expenses I have landed on a reasonable approach that works for me and my wife. I simply track my expenses on a Google sheet where we track our daily expenses. I log on approximately every 2-3 days and transfer the expenses in, this takes me no longer than 20 mins. For me this also helps me re-live the events of the last few days and I find it somewhat enjoyable. At the same time it helps me take a mental count of how much we are spending and where as we go in the vacation. In my experience it does not take away from the vacation as I normally do this in the evening during down time, quickly some time before dinner and before getting ready for bed.
It’s also important to track (only) the important aspects of the expenses. I track only the following items:
1) date
2) amount & payer
3) note of expense — to give me a quick reminder on what or why I spent the amount
4) code for expense — linked to extensive mapping for my expenses, single code gives expense type, category, subcategory etc
With this simple information for each expenses I can create detailed dashboards that help me summary and keep on track with my goals.
Travel Expenses
The dashboard overview above is specific for all expenses during the time we leave our house for the vacation, until the time we return from the vacation. In other words, door-to-door expenses. I find it kind of nice as it gives me a clear start & stop to the vacation 😊
The overview shows all individual transactions, this includes all expenses made. This would be items such as hotels, restaurants, car rental, entertainment, flights and any other expenses during our vacation. To the bottom left of the dashboard the scatter plot (bubble chart) which shows in detail every expense made during the trip selected. This is really useful so show which expenses were the largest – from the overview above I can see that in our trip to Italy in 2021 the hotels and car rentals were our top four largest expenses.
As I travel together with my partner and we have separate bank accounts, we also track ‘who bought what’. We find this useful to keep things level and helps use keep a fair balance in who is spending more or less. To the top right of the overview, the pie chart shows my partner’s expenses in pink and mine are in blue. After putting all the expenses we realised that she paid about 2/3 of the total expenses, so we will level this out to keep it fair. This type of system useful for relationships as there are no money disputes, as everything is very clear and we can discuss and align on this clear overview.
Additionally I also find it useful to consolidate all expenses in their sub-categories. This is can customized as anyone’s likings. This is where a single code per expense comes very handy, as with a simple three digit code an extensive mapping is build to provide sub-category, main category, expense type, etc. For this code I am able to create the view below the pie chart to the left of the ‘spending by category, payee & purpose’. From this quick overview I can see that transportations was the largest expense for our trip in Italy. I can also see that restaurants and hotels were about the same at around a thousand euro each, where shopping and activities where smaller sub-category expenses.
The last piece that I add to the dashboard is the country visited during the vacation. The reason I include this is nothing more than that I find it aesthetically pleasing.
How you can track your next trip expenses?
To the expenses of your next vacation stress free, I would recommend the following three steps:
1) Create a Google Sheets prior to leaving, in case you do not have this already. It could be any spreadsheet software, but something you access with ease with a poor internet connection.
2) Take 20 mins every 2-3 days to record your expenses.
3) Create an overview similar to the one I created above to provide you the overview of how much the trip cost.
Taking this small amount of time to record and assess your expenses will be very helpful to know where your money is going. Also, it puts this into perspective when you get back, for me for example, I think I need to find a cheaper way to rent a car as this was very expensive in comparison to all the other expenses.
I really hope this is a helpful way for some to track your vacation expenses, or any other expenses as well. If you have another way of tracking your vacation expenses I would be interested to know. Also, if you would be interested in how I create the dashboard, let me know and I can write a post about it.
vacation responsibly, don't take your vacation worries home
When on vacation, enjoy!
To fully enjoy your vacation, a degree of structure can help and knowing that you have been responsible in your expenses, will enable you to enjoy the vacation that much more!