How to keep a budget while on the road
The pain of figuring out the budget
Today, Chris and I bit the bullet, dumped out the receipts and figured out who owes who what. After all, it is a cold Monday night. Up until now, we had alternated who took cash out of ATMs and tried to split big purchases such as hostels or train tickets.
Bad idea.
Instead we wound up with half-remembered meals, whole days unaccounted for, and just a general sense of confusion about who was in the hole. Compounding the problem was the fact that we were dealing across several currencies, some of which share the same name. We resorted to making a handful of educated guesses and trusting that we were as close to accurate as we could be, but it didn’t have to be this way.
While crunching the numbers we realized that the best system would be to assign each person a city. For example, I would cover every expense in Berlin, Chris would cover every expense in Prague. We then take those two numbers and figure out the difference in U.S. Dollars. Using only a single calculation, we can then figure out who is in debt. This also negates the need to keep receipts as your bank statement should be information enough to figure out any calculation.
Dealing with large sums of money between friends is never fun, and doing so while on the road does not make it any easier. By going with a simpler, every-other-city approach you can assure that everyone knows the finances are squared away. Nobody can fabricate a bank statement. Additionally, there is the added benefit of arriving to a new place and knowing you don’t have to worry about the finances for a few more days.
Now if excuse me, I have to sell some stuff to pay Chris back.
