Trip budget calculator
A trip budget is easiest to keep as one number a day, in the currency you spend. Enter what the trip can cost in your own currency, what is paid ahead and a buffer, and see what you can spend each day on the ground, in both currencies, and how soon your savings get you there.
A day on the ground
For the whole stay
¥176,537 to spend ($1,188.00)
$132.00 held back as the buffer
Saving $300.00 a month, you have $2,500.00 in 7 months.
Converted at the rate you typed. A card or an ATM abroad may use another rate and add a fee.
Runs entirely in your browser, the savings line on the Tavala app's own calculators. Nothing you type is sent or kept.
How it works
Start from what the whole trip can cost in your own currency. Take off what is paid ahead: flights, hotels, anything booked. Hold back a buffer from what is left. Divide the rest by the days, and convert one day into the local currency at today's rate. Or start the other way, from what a day costs where you are going, and the calculator adds the buffer and what is paid ahead to give the total.
Two trips, worked through
| What | Japan, 14 days | Mexico, 10 days |
|---|---|---|
| The whole trip | $2,500.00 | €1,800.00 |
| Paid ahead | $1,180.00 | €720.00 |
| Buffer | $132.00 | €108.00 |
| For the days | $1,188.00¥176,537 | €972.00MX$19,585.80 |
| A day | ¥12,610$84.86 | MX$1,958.58€97.20 |
The Japan trip leaves ¥12,610 a day, enough to check against a ramen shop's board without converting. With $600 already saved and $300 a month put aside, the $2,500 is there in 7 months, on the same savings-goal arithmetic as the Tavala app.
During the trip
A daily amount only helps if you know what you spent. In the Tavala app, a trip with its dates takes every expense dated inside them, in the currency you paid, and shows the total, the average a day and the Set aside amount beside it, offline. ATM and card fees come out of the same money: see the CFPB on ATM fees.
What it assumes
One exchange rate for the whole trip and spending spread evenly over the days. Real trips have expensive days and cheap ones; the daily figure is an average to steer by.
Words this page uses
- Paid ahead
- What is booked and paid before you leave: flights, hotels, tours. It comes off the total before the daily amount is worked out.
- Buffer
- A share of the money for the days on the ground held back for what goes wrong: a missed train, a doctor, a night in a hotel instead of a hostel.
- Daily budget
- What is left for the days on the ground, divided by the days: food, local transport, entry tickets, small things.
- Exchange rate
- How much of the local currency one unit of yours buys. The calculator uses the rate you type; your card or an ATM may give another.
Questions
- How much buffer should a trip budget have?
- There is no official figure. Ten percent of the money for the days on the ground is a common starting point; more for a long trip, a place with volatile prices or a currency that moves a lot.
- Should I budget in my currency or the local one?
- Plan in your own, spend in the local one. The calculator gives the daily amount in both, so you can check a menu price against it without converting.
- What about ATM and card fees?
- They come out of the same money. An ATM abroad can charge twice, the machine's owner and your own bank, and a card may add a foreign transaction fee; the exchange rate loss calculator shows what a conversion costs.
- Can I put the result straight into Tavala?
- Not automatically: the site keeps nothing. In the app, create a trip with its dates and type the total as Set aside; the trip's page then shows what you spend each day against it.
Track the trip in Tavala, free
Make a trip with its dates and a Set aside amount, and every expense dated inside it joins the trip in the currency you paid, with its day's rate, offline. Trips are free on every plan and stay out of your everyday budgets.
Go further
- Trip budgetsJapan in cash, a road trip, a work trip paid back.
- Exchange rate loss calculatorWhat your card or ATM conversion costs.
- Trips and projectsEvery trip inside your everyday ledger, free.
- Start a trip or a projectName it, choose the dates and tap Save. A trip ending up to 60 days after it starts takes in expenses dated inside it. Leave the end empty for a project.
- See what a trip or a project costA trip's page shows the total, the daily average, what is pending or estimated, a category breakdown and every entry. A finished trip adds a summary.
- Record spending in another currencyType the amount with its currency, like taxi 1200 MKD. Tavala converts it into the wallet's currency and your main currency, and keeps both amounts.
Start with what you spent today.
There is no account to create and no card to enter. Pick your currency, add what you paid, and Home shows what is left.