Budgeting for travel can be tricky, but there are some helpful apps out there to guide you (and your bank account) to the best vacation ever.
Many people out there struggle to find the extra dough to put away for future trips. Between bills, rent or mortgages, student loans, groceries, other essentials, and a general “weekly fun” fund, having a nest egg for travel can often be overlooked. So no matter how much money you make, you’re probably looking to save more money so you can go on the best trip of your life. Or maybe you just want to be able to save enough for a yearly road trip or to see your extended family during the holidays. Whatever travel you need to save for, planning for these trips always seems to be left to the last minute.
Planning for an upcoming trip can be tricky. Luckily, there are great apps that can guide you (as well as your bank account) to have the best vacation in your life. Most people barely get that extra cash to save for their next trips. With student loans, rent/mortgages, groceries, other bills, and daily essentials saving seems impossible.
Regardless of how much cash you make monthly, you must look for ways to save money for your dream vacation. Here are 5 of the best apps that can help you save some serious cash. Some can assist you to monitor your monthly expenditures. Others can help save money automatically via your investment account.
WinWin Saving
Saving money for your next trip should be fun. The WinWin Saving App will help you beef up your savings. In life, you will get lots of chances to distract yourself using games on your smartphone. When you are on a commercial break, grabbing a coffee or on the train, you can play games. The best part is that this app will give you cash rewards every time you play these games. However, you must create auto savings in your connected bank account. The catch here is that the more your savings, the bigger the prizes. If, for instance, you save 5 dollars, you can play games to win 5 dollars. Once you accumulate enough savings, WinWin Saving app lets you withdraw any time. For the first two months, the app is free. But after that period, you will pay 2 dollars every month.
Digit
Perhaps the smartest of all the apps, Digit links to your bank account and strategically takes out small amounts of money to put towards your savings, amounts that you wouldn’t miss but that add up over time! Digit sends you text updates and adjusts to your lifestyle, meaning that it will not take money out of your account if you’ve been spending a lot and it’s gotten a bit low (saving you from overdraft fees!). Digit is a money-saving genius! This app is free for the first 100 days, $2.99/month after. This popular app lets you set up several funds for whatever your needs may be, from paying off your credit card to planning that epic trip to Thailand. Without even changing how you spend, Digit automatically takes out tiny amounts of money directly from your bank account every day and stores it away. And don’t worry about Digit over-saving for you. You can always pause saving or set up a minimum balance protection, so you’re always safe.
Acorns
This desktop platform is a micro investing app that takes your spare cash and uses it to help you build a portfolio of investments, kind of like Digit, but also with the added bonus of a diversified stock portfolio. It’ll help you with your stocks and bonds while buffering your losses when the market changes, so you can stay secure.
Acorns is a crazy-easy way for you to start saving up some money, while dipping your toes in the metaphorical waters of investing. Acorn’s model is to round up the money from your everyday purchases to the next dollar, and invest the rest (say you spent 5.65$ on a latte at Starbucks – Acorns will round the purchase up to 6.00$ and invest 0.35$). You are also able to add the option of investing 2x, 3x, 5x, or 10x the amount of your round- ups, allowing your money to grow faster. What’s great about Acorns, is that it’s saving without even thinking about it! Acorns also allows you to choose the different types of Investment portfolios to put your spare change in – whether it be Conservative to Aggressive, you can choose how you want your money to grow. Best part is – Acorns if free to use if you register with a university email and/or are under the age of 25!
Kayak
With the KAYAK mobile app, available for Android, Blackberry, and iPhone, you can search for the best price on flights, hotels and car rentals. The app has a clean and simple to use interface that lets you search, view, and book right from your smartphone.
Once you book, you can track your flight information or manage all of your bookings through the flight tracker and trip management features. The app also provides a list of important airline information including contact numbers and a list of extra fees. As an added bonus, it has an integrated Twitter feature so you’re always only a tweet away.
Best Feature: No more waiting around, staring desperately at airport monitors. This app will track your flight and notify you of any cancellation so you can quickly search for, and book another cheap flight.
Mint
Meet the No. 1 budgeting app that will teach you how to track your spending like a pro. It was even created by the makers of Turbo Tax, so you can manage your money and find places where you can tighten your belt easily.
If you want an app that offers more than budgeting capabilities, then Mint is just perfect for you. With Mint you will be able to group all of your expenditures. So you will set your budget for different spending. The idea behind this app is to help you track your monthly expenditures like a professional. You will then decide on what expense to cut back and save that money for your dream vacation.
Final Word
The future of travel is here. There’s no longer a need to purchase multiple travel guides or do extensive research prior to leaving on your trip. With the advent of smartphone apps, everything you need to have a fantastic, organized, vacation on a budget is available at your fingertips.
