Here's how much money I plan to bring and spend abroad. I feel like 20-year-olds are just dropping their life savings in Europe with no direction, so here's my advice. I was based in London for four months and spent 8,500 give or take. I took 5,000 of my own savings and then my parents were generous enough to give me my meal plan in dollars. My meal plan at school was $3,500, so they broke that up and sent it to me in chunks every two weeks. This was awesome because it kind of gave me an allowance and helped me budget myself a little bit better. From everything I've heard, I think the majority of people spend around that 10,000 number, but I've also seen people do it for 5,000 or 4,000. The money conversation in regards to a trip could be like five separate videos, so I'm going to focus on credit cards and debit cards and cash ATMs in that stuff in this section. Bring cash, do it at your local bank before you leave, it's going to give you the best conversion rates. Never convert your money at the airport. Come in with 200 euros. I was in London, so I also brought 200 pounds. Same with Barcelona, a lot of fresh trans or cash only, and you can get deals in markets for using cash instead of cards. Bring a debit card. You need a debit card to get cash from the ATM. You will not have it. You will need a debit card to get cash. You cannot get cash with a credit card. You will not have it. This was a really hard lesson. On a similar note, do not bring a local bank card, do not bring your Amex behind. Bring Visas and Mastercards with no foreign exchange rates. Everywhere takes Visa or Mastercard. You do not want foreign exchange rates. And you also do not want to ask every single barista or waitress, do you guys take Amex? Overall, you should be fine. Apple Pay always works. Just don't bring a Goldman Sachs card. Spending on trips, my goal was always to keep hotels plus flights under 500. So if my flights were 200, the hotel had to be 300. This was very reasonable for most of my trips, but that was my hard cutoff. I never wanted to spend more than 700 on a trip in total. Most trips will cost you anywhere from 500 to 1,000, all expenses included. Make these calculations before you decide how many weekends you want to travel. If you're based in Barcelona, Rome, or London, lucky you, your flights are going to be cheaper, but Copenhagen, Florence, that's going to be harder. And I think Paris, Madrid also has cheaper flights. So many factors went into this 8,500 number that could have definitely been avoided, but I was also working with a budget. There definitely Uber's I didn't have to take or close I didn't have to buy. You can realistically do abroad for four months with 6,000 and not kill yourself. Trying. Also, my first month or two, I kept an Excel spreadsheet of how I was spending, so I'll pull that up because I'm insane. Okay, I think this was my goal starting off. This is kind of crazy, but that's my thing. Um, but yeah, that's how it started. My first two weeks, I spent 79.44 on coffee, 119.79 on groceries, 198.67 on eating out, 118.99 on nightlife, 24.83 on transport, and 289.73 on activities. Total 831.45. That's the most expensive chunk of your trip, when you're kind of getting settled. So that was valid. The second two weeks, I ended up spending 190. So it really varies week to week. My third, um, bi-weekly total was 365.11. So yeah, then I started stop tracking my expenses like crazy. It wasn't necessary. I was spending far less than I needed to. And I had some wiggle room. So that's like a 600, 700 dollar trip. These get a little bit more detailed. Um, but yeah, boom, Paris, did it in 330 instead of 500. Okay, so I went ahead and made a little budget template on my website. This is exactly what I would have wanted before I left. So I didn't have to do it on that ugly Excel document. But this has been really helpful. So if you want to try it out, do it. But, you know, you have your category breakdown, you can input your trip budget, it'll tell you the percentage of how much you've spent, how much you have remaining. Pretty cool. So that's how if I was doing it again, I would do it, but yeah, I will be doing more budgeting money videos later. So my first month or two, I kept an Excel spreadsheet of how I was spending, so I'll pull that up because I'm insane. Okay, I think this was my goal starting off. This is kind of crazy, but that's my thing. Um, but yeah, that's how it started. My first two weeks, I spent 79.44 on coffee, 119.79 on groceries, 198.67 on eating out, 118.99 on nightlife, 24.83 on transport, and 289.73 on activities. Total 831.45. That's the most expensive chunk of your trip, when you're kind of getting settled. So that was valid. The second two weeks, I ended up spending 190. So it really varies week to week. My third, um, bi-weekly total was 365.11. So yeah, then I started stop tracking my expenses like crazy. It wasn't necessary. I was spending far less than I needed to. And I had some wiggle room. So that's like a 600, 700 dollar trip. These get a little bit more detailed. Um, but yeah, boom, Paris, did it in 330 instead of 500. Okay, so I went ahead and made a little budget template on my website. This is exactly what I would have wanted before I left. So I didn't have to do it on that ugly Excel document. But this has been really helpful. So if you want to try it out, do it. But, you know, you have your category breakdown, you can input your trip budget, it'll tell you the percentage of how much you've spent, how much you have remaining. Pretty cool. So that's how if I was doing it again, I would do it, but yeah, I will be doing more budgeting money videos later.
