Budget Travel Apps Maximizing Value for Your Dollar
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Introduction
There’s no denying that the cost of living is on the rise. Fortunately, the market is full of budgeting apps for travelers who want to stay financially savvy without sacrificing their vacation. Travel is more than a luxury. It’s a method to broaden the way you see the world, reward yourself for goals achieved, or recharge from all that life delivers. Still, preparing for a trip can add stress to any financial situation. But it doesn’t have to. By setting a budget and utilizing the tools to manage it, you can plan smart and maximize value per dollar. These travel budgeting apps go a long way in making your travel dreams a reality.
Budgeting Apps that Make Travel Easy
Travel budgeting apps take a few different forms. Some programs operate best as a method to track your spending, offering interfaces that show snapshots of your goals compared to your real-time costs. For others, the prime feature is splitting or dividing expenses across a group of friends. As you can imagine, these models keep the fun flowing by performing calculations typically regarded as a vibe ruiner. Finally, some apps do a bit of both while also giving you a platform to track your travels in a diary or itinerary format. No matter what you need, fortunately, there’s an app for that!
All of the travel apps we profile below are accessible worldwide, available for both iOS and Android, and free to use, though there might be optional paid upgrades.
TravelSpend
This program is a budgeting app for travel, through and through. Start using TravelSpend by setting a budget goal. As you add your trip’s various expenses, the app calculates your total and even breaks it down by a daily average. The primary color scheme makes the expenditure graph easy to follow, helping you visualize all the places your money goes while you’re on the road. There’s even a map element that traces your pocketbook’s path. Offline functionality means you can add charges easily when you’re off the grid.
Along with setting and maintaining your allotment, TravelSpend also allows you to split charges or bills among other people, so you can easily settle up with travel partners at the end of your vacation.
TriCount
TriCount is good for budgeting your travel expenses, but its strongest functionality is equalizing expenditures across multiple parties. Anyone within a group can add their charges to the shared TriCount and can do so in various currencies and percentages of the total charge.
Ultimately, the Square Up feature calculates the fair and true percentage of expenditures and shows who owes what to whom. Users can add their receipts or other photos to the charges they enter, creating a bit of fun to an otherwise tedious and unexciting part of traveling by group. TriCount has more expense categories than the average budgeting app and is totally free to use.
Trabee Pocket
Part of budgeting when travel abroad includes the need to keep foreign transaction fees and exchange rates in mind. Trabee Pocket does this via an exchange rate function. It adds fees to your budget while converting amounts to your home currency. Thus, you have a spending picture that is true to your money.
Trabee Pocket also does so much more. Using this app, you can develop custom categories for your charges and humanize them by adding comments and photos that turn ordinary receipts into a travel log containing all your favorite memories.
PocketGuard
The tricky thing about committing to a budgeting app for travel is that sometimes the interface can be overwhelming. If you have a tough time following a spending scheme, then a complicated-to-use app might hinder your progress or keep you from using an app altogether.
PocketGuard operates like a traditional budget app. It allows you to plan for travel by showing you exactly where your money is going (and the percentage a particular category is claiming of your total expenses). Yet, the overall interface is super user-friendly. Your various bank, credit, and debt accounts can be consolidated in one location, along with any scattered charges. Clear, simple graphs clarify how much money is available to you, too. With PocketGuard’s realistic goal strategy, you can more easily save, prepare, and make purchases for travel that fit your needs.
Splitwise
Put the calculators away! When it comes to Splitwise, the name says it all. There’s no more need to stress about configuring your individual budget around a group of people, as this app is designed to make expense management and budget tracking as breezy as a day on the beach. One of the main roles Splitwise fills is the ability to compute costs by percentage or a share of a total.
Splitwise works with 100+ currencies and 7+ languages, and the Pro version offers advanced charts, receipt scanning, and an itemization of your expenditures. But, this app really shines in its ability to quickly simplify debts. When using Splitwise, you can create groups to divide expenses among. There is even functionality for subgroups should a couple members of your party head out for drinks while others go to the spa. Hit the settle-up button at the end of your trip and watch as various “this person owes this much to this other person” situations become one simple sum.
Download the app here: iOS | Android
Wanderlog
While there are a lot of applications good for budgeting that function well for holiday usage, Wanderlog puts travel at the center. Start by selecting a trip and date, add your trip mates, and go from there. Along with inputting and categorizing their vacation expenses, travelers can even build a full itinerary in Wanderlog.
You can return to add stops and destinations retroactively, a process that helps you budget for the things often missed, such as museum tickets and bus or subway passes. Best of all, Wanderlog users can create guides for their destinations or share itineraries, so there is a strong communal aspect to using this app.
Download the app here: iOS | Android
Budget-Friendly Destinations in the US
Saving money for travel becomes much easier when you have an inspiring goal in mind. Consider these domestic locales for a quick getaway or a much-needed vacation.
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Denver: The mountains, the music, the amazing food. Denver is waiting. Whether you want to catch the end of the snow season or arrive for the beginning of wildflowers in bloom, it’s all just a plane ride away. Along with an abundance of opportunities to explore nature, the city offers a unique art scene like few others.
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Miami: When you use one of these budgeting apps for travel planning to get your savings and expenses in order, it makes a long week on a beach in Miami closer than ever. Biscayne Bay National Park is a warm and welcoming place to pass the spring or summer. Plus, the food and culture of Little Havana wait to be explored.
Budgeting Apps for Travel Work with Your Wallet
No matter where you want to go, using a budgeting app to plan travel can help you get there. These tools are a good place to start, but they’re not the only ones. You’ll always find great deals on flights, hotels, and car rentals with Skyscanner. Start planning now!
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