The Frivolous Spending We Tend To Do When On Vacation

Going on vacation for a long period of time is very fun. However, depending on where you are going and what you are doing, it can be tough on the wallet. Although there plenty of things you can do to help prevent spending too much, there are easy traps to fall prey too when traveling (especially abroad).

Traveling with friends can lead to peer pressure

Vacations are great with friends. However, when you are traveling with others who may not share the same financial success lifestyle as you do, it can be tough to NOT let things get out of hand. When we went to wine country a couple of years ago we brought a crockpot with us to cook meals. Unfortunately, this is not as easy when you travel internationally with no access to a kitchenette. This can be further compounded when you are traveling with friends. With no access to being able to cook your own food and friends who don’t mind spending the money, you can get wrapped up in the spending as well.

Vacay FOMO

Traveling is a blast. However, it can be difficult to put a limit on the things we end up doing. When traveling to a place where we are not sure if we will have a chance to come back to, it can be difficult to not want to do everything. This is again compounded when you see others doing cool things different than what you are. Thus, you are hit with FOMO (fear of missing out). Adding things at the last moment can certainly add more costs to your trip for which you were not budgeting for. Although FOMO is tough to overcome, you have to understand the balance of what you are doing. If you decide to proceed with other items you didn’t plan for, just know your limits. If you try to do all of it, you will be in a very rough situation when you back to reality.

The understanding

Spending money on vacation is going to be inevitable. Knowing this up front is actually the good news. You have to simply plan for as much as possible. In many cases you can actually plan for some of the extras for which you are not prepared for such as souvenirs and some extra food. Yes, you are going to want to do everything, but financially it is not a smart way to go.