Okay, so I was planning this awesome vacation, right? Super excited, but then I started thinking about the money. Like, how much is this actually going to cost? I didn’t want any nasty surprises when I got back, so I figured I needed a way to track my spending while I was on the trip.
Trying Things Out
First, I thought, “I’ll just use a notepad!” Old school, pen and paper. I started jotting down expenses, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. Crumpled receipts, illegible handwriting… disaster. Plus, I wanted to be able to categorize things and, you know, do math without pulling my hair out.
Next, I figured I’d try a simple spreadsheet on my phone. I created some columns: Date, Item, Category, Amount. This was better, definitely more organized. I could even do some basic sums at the bottom. But it still felt clunky. Entering stuff on my phone’s tiny keyboard was a pain, especially after a few cocktails by the pool!
Then it hit me. There are Apps for it.
I checked Google Sheets. I input all my data there. It’s super easy that it even categorize and sum all expenses up!
I even made a little pie chart to see where my money was going. Mostly food, unsurprisingly!
What I ended Up With
- It’s free. That’s always a good starting point.
- It’s accessible. As long as I have my phone or a computer, and internet of course, I can see my budget.
- It’s customizable. I could add categories that made sense for my trip (like “Souvenirs” and “Emergency Tacos”).
- It does the math for me. No more mental gymnastics trying to figure out how much I’d spent on cocktails.
So yeah, by using this, I managed to stay (mostly) within my budget. And I didn’t have a panic attack when I checked my bank account after the trip. Success!
