Everyone thinks flights are the budget killer. They're not. It's the 47 random expenses you never planned for.

The $14 airport coffee. The $30 cab you didn't expect. The "we should try this restaurant" that turns into a $90 dinner. The souvenir shop you walked into "just to look."

None of these feel like big purchases in the moment. But add them up over 7 days and you've blown past your budget by $300-500 without realizing it.

The fix isn't being cheap on vacation. It's having a plan BEFORE you leave:

1. Set your total budget first, then allocate backwards. Don't just wing it. Break your budget into: transport, accommodation, food, activities, and a 15% buffer for the unexpected stuff.

2. Estimate your daily food spend. This is the #1 category people underestimate. Look up average meal prices at your destination. Multiply by days. Add 20%. That's your real food budget.

3. Track expenses daily. Takes 2 minutes each night. Open your planner, write down what you spent. The act of writing it makes you conscious the next day.

4. Pre-book activities. Not only does this save money (early booking discounts), it removes the "what should we do today?" panic buying that leads to overpriced tourist traps.

5. Have a "fun money" line item. Give yourself $20-30/day for spontaneous stuff — guilt free. When it's gone, it's gone. This is way better than pretending you won't spend anything unplanned.

The difference between a stressful trip and an amazing one isn't how much you spend. It's whether you decided how to spend it ahead of time.

I built TripKit for exactly this — a printable travel planner with itinerary, budget tracker, packing list, and daily expense log all in one PDF. Nine bucks, use it for every trip.