Not all travelers were born with silver spoon in their mouths, not a lot of spare cash even. We have to admit that this contributes a big part to the fun factor in traveling.
Before the year 2011 started, I set out in Microsoft Excel all my forecasted finances like my monthly income and monthly expenses for the year. After arriving at the budgeted spare dough and the cash level per month… then I will determine how much goes to which.
At this point, I now can allot a specific amount for travel per month, plus the fact that I can save more from my monthly food allowance since I opted to bring baon to work.
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| my finance forecast on a monthly basis |
Where do I want to go?
After I determine how much is allotted to travel per month, I now plot targeted destinations in my travel calendar on a per month basis. I also take into considerations the expected number of days of travel, my leaves balances, and the non-working holidays within the year.
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| my travel plan upto 3rd quarter of 2011 |
How do I get there?
Budget airlines let Filipinos fly for less. Cebu Pacific pioneered the era of budget flying, providing much-needed competition to the then monopolizing Philippine Airlines. PAL was forced to create another airline company to level with the market of CebPac, hence AirPhil Express was born.
These airlines offer budget fares, and sometimes super low even. All you need to do is book the right dates at the right time. Booking the right dates at the right time is critical so it is important that you already have your travel plans laid out for the year. After booking my cheap airfares, I will prepare an MS Excel file for my flight timetable. This will serve as my reminder of my upcoming flights, to avoid wasting money on forgotten plane rides.
Land travels are easier because you can adjust the dates anytime because you are not dependent on low airplane fares.
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| sample of my flight timetable for latter part of 2010 |
Make it happen!
Most important of all is having an itinerary, detailing your trip schedule and your budget. It is also important on how you make your budget, for it can make or break a trip. Of course we have to stick to the budget to ensure that we will have enough cash spare for our next trip.
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| sample itinerary with budget |
Bon voyage!
Uy, Tuguegarao! Masarap pancit dun.
ReplyDelete(may masabi lang lol)
hahaha. thanks for dropping by nina.
ReplyDeletei will make a separate post for my tuguegarao daytrip. i've been there for like less than 6 hours. hahaha. and sadly i haven't had the chance to eat batil patung (if that's the one).
This is very educational content and written well for a change. It's nice to see that some people still understand how to write a quality post.!
ReplyDeletemakati apartment for rent