The Free Travel Budget Template (PDF + Google Sheet)

What belongs in a travel budget template

A travel budget template fails when it only holds one number. Split the trip into six categories before you type a price:

1. Transport. Fares to and from the destination, baggage fees, and the transfer between the terminal and the place you are staying.
2. Accommodation. The nightly rate plus taxes and fees you can already see in the total.
3. Food and drink. Every meal, coffee, and snack, for every day, for every person.
4. Activities. Entry fees, tours, and anything you would be sorry to skip.
5. Local transit. Passes, local rides, and parking. The long ride to get there belongs in Transport, not here.
6. Buffer. About 10-15% of the cap, assigned to nothing. The reason for that range is in how to budget for a trip. This page is the grid.

Add a seventh row only for a large prepaid cost that fits nowhere else, such as insurance or a visa. If you insert that row, extend the total formula so the new row is inside the sum.

Three columns do the rest of the work:

Column	What you put there	The question it answers
Planned	The amount you are allowing, from a real quote	What did we agree?
Actual	What you have spent in that category	What is already gone?
Left	Planned minus Actual	What is still available?

Use one currency for the whole sheet. This example uses US dollars. When a price arrives in another currency, convert it with one rate, write that rate in Notes, and enter dollars. Mixed currencies make the total meaningless.

Copy this blank travel budget template

Two downloads, same categories. The CSV is for Google Sheets. The PDF is the one-page paper version.

Budget tab

Category	Planned	Actual	Left	Notes
Transport
Accommodation
Food and drink
Activities
Local transit
Buffer
TOTAL

Log tab. One row every time money leaves.

Date	Category	Amount	Note	Who paid

The category on the log has to be identical to the category on the budget, including spaces. Food and drink matches. Food does not, and the Actual cell will stay at zero while the money is gone.

How do you build the travel budget template in Google Sheets?

1. Create a spreadsheet and rename the first tab Budget.
2. Add a second tab named exactly Log.
3. On Budget, row 1 is the header: Category, Planned, Actual, Left, Notes. Put the six category names in A2:A7 and TOTAL in A8.
4. On Log, row 1 is Date, Category, Amount, Note, Who paid. Amounts go in column C. Categories go in column B.
5. In Budget cell C2, the Actual for Transport, paste this formula. SUMIF adds column C on the log only where column B matches the category in A2:

=SUMIF(Log!B:B,A2,Log!C:C)

6. In D2, Left is Planned minus Actual:

=B2-C2

7. Fill C2 and D2 down through row 7.
8. Row 8 holds the totals:

=SUM(B2:B7)
=SUM(C2:C7)
=B8-C8

The CSV already has those formulas in the Actual and Left columns. In Google Sheets choose File → Import → Upload, then import as a new spreadsheet. Add the Log tab yourself. The tab must be named Log, or SUMIF has nothing to read and shows an error. If a formula lands as plain text, click the cell and press Enter so Sheets runs it.

SUMIF checks text exactly. After your first logged purchase, if Actual is still 0, compare the spelling on the two tabs before you change the formula.

For a shared trip, this second formula totals one person’s rows. It keeps a log row only when the category matches and Who paid matches the name:

=SUMIFS(Log!C:C,Log!B:B,A2,Log!E:E,"Alex")

Change Alex to the name you actually type in column E.

How do you print the travel budget template as a PDF?

The blank PDF is one page: a line for the cap, the six categories, and a short daily log. Print it and use a pencil if you will not carry a laptop.

If the paper should show your numbers, fill Planned in Google Sheets first, then choose File → Download → PDF Document. Paper does not recalculate. Each evening, add the day’s purchases to the log and write the new Actual and Left on the printout, or type them into the Log tab the next time you open the sheet. Either way, Left has to be visible before the next day starts.

A worked example: fitting a trip into $2,400

Two adults, seven nights, eight days. One shared cap of $2,400. One sheet, in US dollars. No separate sheet per person.

The buffer is 10% of the cap, and it stays unassigned:

0.10 × 2,400 = 240

The buffer row is $240. Every other category together has to fit in the rest:

2,400 − 240 = 2,160

First quotes, before any cuts

Transport is $760.

2 × 310 = 620    two fares
2 × 35  = 70     two checked bags
70               transfers at both ends
620 + 70 + 70 = 760

Accommodation is $700.

7 × 100 = 700

The $100 is the full nightly price, taxes included, so the last morning does not add a fee you never planned.

Food and drink is $480.

8 × 60 = 480

That $60 is the couple’s day, which is $30 each (60 / 2 = 30). One way to split the $60:

10 + 18 + 26 + 6 = 60

Breakfast $10, lunch $18, dinner $26, snacks $6.

Activities are $200.

16 × 2 = 32    first museum
14 × 2 = 28    second museum
22 × 2 = 44    a walking tour
48 × 2 = 96    a day outing
32 + 28 = 60
60 + 44 = 104
104 + 96 = 200

Local transit is $160.

4 × 40 = 160

That is four taxi rides and no pass.

Add the categories.

760 + 700 = 1,460
1,460 + 480 = 1,940
1,940 + 200 = 2,140
2,140 + 160 = 2,300

The quotes total $2,300. The room for categories is $2,160.

2,300 − 2,160 = 140

The first pass is $140 over. Counting the buffer does not change the gap:

2,300 + 240 = 2,540
2,540 − 2,400 = 140

Same $140. Do not “fix” it by cutting the buffer from $240 to $100. The quotes are still $140 too high. You have only made the reserve look smaller.

Two cuts that land on $2,400

Cut 1: drop the checked bags. Save $70.

A carry-on only packing list is what makes the cut real, because the bags were the fee. Transport becomes:

760 − 70 = 690

Still over by:

140 − 70 = 70

Cut 2: keep one taxi and buy passes for the rest. Save $70.

22 × 2 = 44    two weekly passes
46             one taxi left in reserve
44 + 46 = 90
160 − 90 = 70  saved

Local transit is now $90. The remaining gap is:

70 − 70 = 0

The plan that equals the cap

Category	Planned
Transport	$690
Accommodation	$700
Food and drink	$480
Activities	$200
Local transit	$90
Buffer	$240
TOTAL	$2,400

Check the category subtotal, then add the buffer back:

690 + 700 = 1,390
1,390 + 480 = 1,870
1,870 + 200 = 2,070
2,070 + 90 = 2,160
2,160 + 240 = 2,400

Per person, the shared cap is 2,400 / 2 = 1,200.

The starting percentages did not survive contact with the quotes, and they should not. Transport is 690 / 2,400 = 0.2875, or 28.75% of the cap, not the 30% guess. Accommodation is 700 / 2,400, a bit over 29%, not the 25% guess. The rule of thumb only exists to get the first numbers onto the page. The quotes are the plan.

Day 3: food is $15 ahead of pace

Food is $480 across eight days:

480 / 8 = 60

The log after three days, category typed exactly as Food and drink:

Day	Amount
1	$58
2	$72
3	$65

58 + 72 = 130
130 + 65 = 195

SUMIF returns 195. Three days at the planned pace would have been:

3 × 60 = 180
195 − 180 = 15

Food is $15 over pace. What is left in the category:

480 − 195 = 285

Five days are left:

285 / 5 = 57

The new daily food number is $57, which is $3 under the original $60:

15 / 5 = 3
60 − 3 = 57

You do not spend the buffer to absorb $15. You eat a slightly smaller dinner. If a later day goes past $57, you either move money out of Activities on purpose or log the extra with the category Buffer, so Left on the buffer row falls in the open.

Card fees belong in the same habit. A foreign transaction fee is money your card issuer adds when a purchase is in another currency, happens outside the United States, or goes to a foreign merchant. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines that charge as a finance charge in Regulation Z. At 3%:

0.03 × 100 = 3

A $100 purchase costs $103. On $1,000 of card spending, 0.03 × 1,000 = 30, so the fee is $30. Put that estimate in the category you will actually charge, or leave it inside the buffer on purpose. This example is in US dollars for a card that prices the fee that way. If your card is issued somewhere else, read that card’s fee and convert it into the currency of the sheet before you type it.

Keep the Actual column current while you are away

Write each amount the day it happens. You will not rebuild Tuesday from memory on Friday, and the $15 food gap is invisible if you only see it at home.

The pencil log on the PDF is enough when you will use the pencil. The Log tab is enough when you will open it.

Where a travel budget template usually goes wrong

• One total and no rows. $2,400 with no categories cannot tell you that food is the line that slipped.
• A buffer you already spent in your head. If the $240 is secretly the expensive dinner, you do not have a buffer. You have a seventh category with a vague name.
• Names that do not match. Transit on the log and Local transit on the budget. SUMIF returns 0. The purchase was real. The sheet disagrees.
• Prepaid costs left off. Insurance, a visa, an eSIM, bags you paid when you bought the fare. Enter them in the right category when you pay, or the trip looks cheaper than it is.
• A new currency on every row. Convert first, write the rate in Notes, then enter one currency.

Set the cap when you plan the trip step by step, and look at Left again during the week you run through the list before you leave. The template is finished when every category has a Planned number, the total equals the cap, and you know which version — sheet, PDF, or both — you will update on day two.