Budgeting is really difficult, well at least it is for me. For someone who is a drama student and an amateur traveller, I find it very hard to allocate things especially not knowing what you’re going to need while planning a trip overseas. I’m going to discuss the major things that have affected my travel that I didn’t count in my budget.
- Visas – Although this may be an obvious thing for many, I overlooked this and it ended up costing me a lot. Mainly because I had my first visa application rejected for the UK and I had to reapply and fast track it because you are only allowed to apply 3 months before the arrival date and they took a month to respond just to give me a big no. Not only did this double the cost of my visa but I had to fast track it which was an extra $300 that I could’ve spent on my trip. The visas for the EU and the UK have very similar rules. You need to have a visa in the first place you enter either the EU or the UK before you apply for the second visa.
- Travel Insurance – Many countries need you to have a travel insurance for you to get a visa and in some countries, it’s just recommended. I would definitely recommend getting it regardless because it’s always good to have a safety net especially when your country is known to not be that great in looking after its people overseas. Nothing bad about it, its just sometimes you might be in a city without a Nepalese embassy and it’s better to have an insurance that you know is going to cover you in the countries you are visiting.
- Transportation – You might think the plane tickets are the biggest cost but that is where the expenses start. I didn’t factor in the costs for the numerous buses and trains we took overseas getting to places and most times you don’t even know the best deals that the different transportation have to offer so more than likely you’re going to cop an expensive rate. We were purchasing single trip tickets in Paris for 2 days until we realised on our last day there that they do all day tickets and weekly tickets that would’ve been way cheaper.
- Food – I only have one thing to say about this, please have a generous budget for food. When you are travelling you realise that you will be more generous spending than you have been budgeting and you’ll want to try everything and you will run out of money in an amazing city that has amazing food and you’ll end up having to cook yourself dinner.
- Souvenirs – Being in a new country will tick off something inside you and you’ll turn into this souvenir monster because everything will be super cute and will remind you of everything your trip was. As ridiculous as it sounds you will want to factor this in. This will be your breathing space because the last thing you want is to chip into your food budget and beats having to walk everywhere either. Just account a couple of hundred dollars on top of your cost for every place. This will allow you to spend without making it too tight and if you don’t end up spending so much you will have some extra cash for when you come back or even better for food.
These are the 5 things where my budgeting failed me and I found myself wishing I had saved more money for these or at least accounted for before diving head in first and purchasing my tickets to Europe. I hope this helps some of you out there planning on travelling soon. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Prathu
Byzantine Adventures 