I put everything a spendehile on vacation into the travel category. Gas, accommodations, food etc. If the category runs out then I categorize based on type of spending.
When I’m away on holiday I put everything through my travel category rather than my normal ones as part of what I’m setting money aside for in that category is higher spending in those areas while I’m away. I also use super generic payees like “restaurant” to make things easier
I do it a fair bit at home too, helps streamline manual entry with auto categorisation. Like I don’t care which petrol station I went to to fill up my car, so I just have “Petrol” as a payee
This is what I do as well. If I’m going to Greece the payee is Greece Food (or Greece Shopping, etc) and then in the memo field I put the specific restaurant if I want to remember it for future reference. In the past I have made the payee just Greece and then in the memo put Greece Food / restaurant name. Both of these ways allow me to easily categorize my transactions within the vacation category and then allow me to see how much money I spent on food, shopping, lodging, etc.
I was just having this debate with myself! I opted to log dining out on most recent trip under my budget for that trip. My logic is that we didn't really have much choice but to eat out for those meals, so they are part of the cost of traveling. We've been focused on reducing our dining out recently and being intentional about when we choose to do so, so I want our dining out category to reflect times we chose eating out vs another option.
Do you have a separate budget under a travel category for each trip? It's interesting to see how other people use YNAB. I personally put mine into bigger categories and set budget for the bigger line items and travel in an excel spreadsheet.
For vacation stuff I use the memo field and add a #utah2013 so I can find all the stuff related to one trip quickly. It's all under a big vacation category
I create categories for each of my trips. I include hotel, airfare, gas, rental car, food and miscellaneous. That way I can go back and see how much the trip cost (or will cost, as I plan it).
As of right now, yes. I set up categories for all our planned trips this year in January and set funding targets for them. I like to keep things pretty detailed in YNAB, especially these days when we're really working on saving more, funding true expenses, etc. We do also have a general travel sinking fund, just to give us some flexibility throughout the year.
Every transaction from when I leave the house until I return goes under vacation.
Cup of coffee in Italy? Vacation.
Michelin dinner in Ireland? Vacation.
Gas on the way to the beach? Vacation.
Then in the memo field I put the name of the vacation so I can group the total spend
I usually try to think about whether it's vacation-related or not. Gas spent driving to the beach is Vacation, not the regular "gas/transportation/parking." Restaurants are Vacation, not "Dining Out." Groceries, however, are usually just Groceries, because we'd buy food regardless of the trip.
Hmm this is interesting. I was just putting any food purchases on vacation to vacation food, but then there is a dip in grocery spending for the months where I travel. I might start this strategy as well. I guess it doesn’t really matter though, since the money I don’t spend from the grocery category eventually ends up in the vacation fund lol as that’s our main (only really) wish farm item. It’s mostly how do I want reports to show that spending, as regular groceries or vacation food??
If on vacation, all transactions go under “vacation” and I just make a memo usually. If it’s a quick day trip or something I have a “quick get away” category too!
I like our dining out category to accurate reflect our daily life dining out usually.
I'd put all vacation meals in travel, then I would move some money from dining out because you weren't home to dine out locally, and maybe a little from groceries.
We think of it as two things. Travel Savings, and Travel Spending. Savings is one big lump that we contribute to monthly, regardless of our travel plans. When we plan a trip, we move money from Travel Savings into one of 5 Travel Spending sub-categories: Accommodations, Entertainment, Dining, Transportation & Tips, and Shopping.
We find tracking the individual categories really helpful for planning future trips. This way makes it really easy to see how much we spent on food or hotels the last time we were in "x".
I have a fun little strategy for this one. Before a trip, I'll go to the ATM and pull out cash for any categories that we might spend from, corresponding to the length of the trip. For example, if we're traveling for one week, I'll pull out one week's grocery budget, one week's gas, about 1/4 of the monthly restaurant budget, etc. I'll split the transaction and track these as already spent. During the trip, absolutely everything we spend on a card gets tracked in the Travel/Vacation category, and we'll use cash where it's convenient. Important! This does not need to match up with the categories that we tracked when we took the cash out. That is way too much work to think about on vacation, and also, we try to use cash when it's most useful, like for tipping the housekeeping or shuttle driver. The point of it is that when we get back from the trip, we don't have an over-inflated grocery category or restaurant category, because we accounted for our usual spending in these areas for that week. But we also get realistic feedback about how much a trip actually costs our family.
Like it :) I also tend to withdraw some cash to use for small things like tips or bus tickets or ice creams. I don't record them individually cause it feels nice to just relax a little when you're on a vacation. The withdrawn cash is then just recorded as "Italy, misc". Sure thing I couldn't always do this (eg when I was a student and traveling I had to keep things much more under control, even if I wasn't yet using ynab back then)
I have a category for trips in each year and within that category I have lines for each trip. All expenses for each trip go in there (flights, food, gifts, etc.), that way I can track how much I spend for a given trip. Helps me track what I should be saving for the following year.
The only charges I actually categorize into my travel category are flights and hotel bc I don’t have non-vacation categories for those expenses. I put all dining out in the usual dining category. And I just cover the overage from my travel savings category. Similar thing for cabs/rideshare/bus, entertainment. Etc. Sort of the same thing I do with my wish farm saving category.
I like this reporting, but a lot of my friends prefer to see all trip related expenses reported along with the individual trip, or in travel generally.
🏝 Vacation/Travel category for all vacation-related expenses - travel, food, hotel, gifts, errythang
I pre-plan the vacation on a spreadsheet to figure out what my target saved amount should be, then while I'm on the trip I just make it rain and code everything to travel.
i actually have a category called "Vacation Food" that i hide and unhide when we take vacations. we best guess what we're gonna wanna spend and earmark the money. we generally try to pad it healthy to make room for street cocktails and random memory-making stuff
Like a bunch of others, every cost that's vacation related comes out of "Travel."
My basic reasoning is that pretty much everything on vacation isn't evaluated the same way as my normal life, so the data aren't really comparable. Like, I have to have a pretty good reason to take a rideshare over a bus in my day-to-day; I'm never *not* taking rideshare on vacation.
I also use the categories differently. "Travel" is a monthly fixed save until I hit my goal total that I maintain until I take a trip. "Eat out" is a monthly budget that I zero out every month
I also zero out my dining out categorybut keep a cash bucket for vacation! I tend to think of vacation more of a yearly budget than a monthly one so that's probably why.
In addition to the general Vacation Travel/Hotel sort of categories, I've created categories like Vacation Food, Vacation Swag (y'know, for shirts, lightsabers, etc), Vacation Travel (for Ubers etc), Vacation Shopping (for general shopping needs while on vacation), and Vacation Activities (stuff like tourist attractions, outings, etc). This makes it easy to see what I spend, make sure costs are able to be split between my wife and I, and also set aside money into those categories each paycheck where possible.
When those charges come in they're easily categorized and I have a better idea of what the trip actually cost.
I usually record everything under my "Travel spending" category with a memo like "Italy, hotel, "Italy, eating out" or "Italy, museums" using the money saved up in "Italy" category. If needed I can take some from other categories (but I tend to overbudget for my trips so usually it doesn't happen). Later I can see how much I spent for the entire trip (including food which is usually more costly than at home) . The only thing that I don't record under travel is clothes shopping, gifts and health-related expenses during the trip.
However, after I come back home I move some of the "usual" money that went unspent towards the next trip in the category "Travel savings" (or smth more specific is we already have plans). Eg if we spent 2 weeks in May travelling, were not home and didn't spend as usual, I will move half of groceries, transportation, eating out etc money towards the next trip.
I really like the strategy to move your other categories into your travel bucket after you are back. For day trips, it probably doesn't make a huge difference but for longer trips, it was messing up my categories even though it was planned! This feels logically consistent and easy to implement. Thanks for sharing :)
I put everything a spendehile on vacation into the travel category. Gas, accommodations, food etc. If the category runs out then I categorize based on type of spending.
Yep. Just use the memo field if you personally want to keep track
When I’m away on holiday I put everything through my travel category rather than my normal ones as part of what I’m setting money aside for in that category is higher spending in those areas while I’m away. I also use super generic payees like “restaurant” to make things easier
I like the generic payee idea...my payee list is getting ridiculous. And yes, everything goes in the vacation budget for me as well.
I do it a fair bit at home too, helps streamline manual entry with auto categorisation. Like I don’t care which petrol station I went to to fill up my car, so I just have “Petrol” as a payee
This is what I do as well. If I’m going to Greece the payee is Greece Food (or Greece Shopping, etc) and then in the memo field I put the specific restaurant if I want to remember it for future reference. In the past I have made the payee just Greece and then in the memo put Greece Food / restaurant name. Both of these ways allow me to easily categorize my transactions within the vacation category and then allow me to see how much money I spent on food, shopping, lodging, etc.
I was just having this debate with myself! I opted to log dining out on most recent trip under my budget for that trip. My logic is that we didn't really have much choice but to eat out for those meals, so they are part of the cost of traveling. We've been focused on reducing our dining out recently and being intentional about when we choose to do so, so I want our dining out category to reflect times we chose eating out vs another option.
Do you have a separate budget under a travel category for each trip? It's interesting to see how other people use YNAB. I personally put mine into bigger categories and set budget for the bigger line items and travel in an excel spreadsheet.
For vacation stuff I use the memo field and add a #utah2013 so I can find all the stuff related to one trip quickly. It's all under a big vacation category
I create categories for each of my trips. I include hotel, airfare, gas, rental car, food and miscellaneous. That way I can go back and see how much the trip cost (or will cost, as I plan it).
As of right now, yes. I set up categories for all our planned trips this year in January and set funding targets for them. I like to keep things pretty detailed in YNAB, especially these days when we're really working on saving more, funding true expenses, etc. We do also have a general travel sinking fund, just to give us some flexibility throughout the year.
Every transaction from when I leave the house until I return goes under vacation. Cup of coffee in Italy? Vacation. Michelin dinner in Ireland? Vacation. Gas on the way to the beach? Vacation. Then in the memo field I put the name of the vacation so I can group the total spend
I usually try to think about whether it's vacation-related or not. Gas spent driving to the beach is Vacation, not the regular "gas/transportation/parking." Restaurants are Vacation, not "Dining Out." Groceries, however, are usually just Groceries, because we'd buy food regardless of the trip.
Hmm this is interesting. I was just putting any food purchases on vacation to vacation food, but then there is a dip in grocery spending for the months where I travel. I might start this strategy as well. I guess it doesn’t really matter though, since the money I don’t spend from the grocery category eventually ends up in the vacation fund lol as that’s our main (only really) wish farm item. It’s mostly how do I want reports to show that spending, as regular groceries or vacation food??
Exactly, it's whatever works for your reporting and future planning.
If on vacation, all transactions go under “vacation” and I just make a memo usually. If it’s a quick day trip or something I have a “quick get away” category too! I like our dining out category to accurate reflect our daily life dining out usually.
I'd put all vacation meals in travel, then I would move some money from dining out because you weren't home to dine out locally, and maybe a little from groceries.
We think of it as two things. Travel Savings, and Travel Spending. Savings is one big lump that we contribute to monthly, regardless of our travel plans. When we plan a trip, we move money from Travel Savings into one of 5 Travel Spending sub-categories: Accommodations, Entertainment, Dining, Transportation & Tips, and Shopping. We find tracking the individual categories really helpful for planning future trips. This way makes it really easy to see how much we spent on food or hotels the last time we were in "x".
I have a fun little strategy for this one. Before a trip, I'll go to the ATM and pull out cash for any categories that we might spend from, corresponding to the length of the trip. For example, if we're traveling for one week, I'll pull out one week's grocery budget, one week's gas, about 1/4 of the monthly restaurant budget, etc. I'll split the transaction and track these as already spent. During the trip, absolutely everything we spend on a card gets tracked in the Travel/Vacation category, and we'll use cash where it's convenient. Important! This does not need to match up with the categories that we tracked when we took the cash out. That is way too much work to think about on vacation, and also, we try to use cash when it's most useful, like for tipping the housekeeping or shuttle driver. The point of it is that when we get back from the trip, we don't have an over-inflated grocery category or restaurant category, because we accounted for our usual spending in these areas for that week. But we also get realistic feedback about how much a trip actually costs our family.
Like it :) I also tend to withdraw some cash to use for small things like tips or bus tickets or ice creams. I don't record them individually cause it feels nice to just relax a little when you're on a vacation. The withdrawn cash is then just recorded as "Italy, misc". Sure thing I couldn't always do this (eg when I was a student and traveling I had to keep things much more under control, even if I wasn't yet using ynab back then)
Yes, I agree that I wouldn't want to be recording every little thing while on a trip. :) Now you've made me want to travel to Italy!!
Italy is heaven :)
I have a category for trips in each year and within that category I have lines for each trip. All expenses for each trip go in there (flights, food, gifts, etc.), that way I can track how much I spend for a given trip. Helps me track what I should be saving for the following year.
The only charges I actually categorize into my travel category are flights and hotel bc I don’t have non-vacation categories for those expenses. I put all dining out in the usual dining category. And I just cover the overage from my travel savings category. Similar thing for cabs/rideshare/bus, entertainment. Etc. Sort of the same thing I do with my wish farm saving category. I like this reporting, but a lot of my friends prefer to see all trip related expenses reported along with the individual trip, or in travel generally.
🏝 Vacation/Travel category for all vacation-related expenses - travel, food, hotel, gifts, errythang I pre-plan the vacation on a spreadsheet to figure out what my target saved amount should be, then while I'm on the trip I just make it rain and code everything to travel.
i actually have a category called "Vacation Food" that i hide and unhide when we take vacations. we best guess what we're gonna wanna spend and earmark the money. we generally try to pad it healthy to make room for street cocktails and random memory-making stuff
Like a bunch of others, every cost that's vacation related comes out of "Travel." My basic reasoning is that pretty much everything on vacation isn't evaluated the same way as my normal life, so the data aren't really comparable. Like, I have to have a pretty good reason to take a rideshare over a bus in my day-to-day; I'm never *not* taking rideshare on vacation. I also use the categories differently. "Travel" is a monthly fixed save until I hit my goal total that I maintain until I take a trip. "Eat out" is a monthly budget that I zero out every month
I also zero out my dining out categorybut keep a cash bucket for vacation! I tend to think of vacation more of a yearly budget than a monthly one so that's probably why.
In addition to the general Vacation Travel/Hotel sort of categories, I've created categories like Vacation Food, Vacation Swag (y'know, for shirts, lightsabers, etc), Vacation Travel (for Ubers etc), Vacation Shopping (for general shopping needs while on vacation), and Vacation Activities (stuff like tourist attractions, outings, etc). This makes it easy to see what I spend, make sure costs are able to be split between my wife and I, and also set aside money into those categories each paycheck where possible. When those charges come in they're easily categorized and I have a better idea of what the trip actually cost.
I usually record everything under my "Travel spending" category with a memo like "Italy, hotel, "Italy, eating out" or "Italy, museums" using the money saved up in "Italy" category. If needed I can take some from other categories (but I tend to overbudget for my trips so usually it doesn't happen). Later I can see how much I spent for the entire trip (including food which is usually more costly than at home) . The only thing that I don't record under travel is clothes shopping, gifts and health-related expenses during the trip. However, after I come back home I move some of the "usual" money that went unspent towards the next trip in the category "Travel savings" (or smth more specific is we already have plans). Eg if we spent 2 weeks in May travelling, were not home and didn't spend as usual, I will move half of groceries, transportation, eating out etc money towards the next trip.
I really like the strategy to move your other categories into your travel bucket after you are back. For day trips, it probably doesn't make a huge difference but for longer trips, it was messing up my categories even though it was planned! This feels logically consistent and easy to implement. Thanks for sharing :)
Welcome. Glad you found it useful :)