How to save for a 10-day European trip in 1 year (with 4 cheat weeks!)
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Inspired by the 52-week savings challenges going around, I decided to create my own travel-themed savings blueprint — with a few twists.
- While I kept the decremental* pattern of the amounts to be saved per week, I adjusted the intervals so that the savings burden isn’t too heavy during the first few months. (*It’s actually incremental in most of the 52-week challenges I’ve seen, but I like to get the hard part out of the way first. You can reverse the order if you want to start small.)
* - Cheat weeks! There are only 48 weeks in this blueprint even though a year has 52 weeks. The reason for cheat weeks is to allow for emergencies, or for those times when it’s harder than usual to save — Christmas, for example, or birthdays, or enrollment week (for those who have kids). You can even use a cheat week on the first month if the PHP 15,000 total for that month still feels too heavy.
The goal is to save PHP 100,000 in 1 year, which should be enough for a 10-day multi-city European trip, including airfare, train tickets, admission fees to attractions, accommodations and food. Your actual budget will depend on a lot of things — how many cities you want to visit, whether or not you are able to get cheap plane tickets, etc. — but PHP 100,000 is a good starting estimate. You can also adjust your plans to fit your circumstances: for example, if you didn’t luck out on a seat sale for your airfare, you can make up for it by choosing cheaper accommodation. (My other post How Much Does A European Trip Cost? discusses this budget in more detail.)
Of course, if you aren’t actually planning to travel to Europe, you can always use this savings blueprint for other goals: down payment for a condo, say, or a wedding, or an emergency fund, or…anything really. Whatever it’s for, whatever your plans, good luck and happy saving! 🙂
| WEEK | SAVE | TOTAL | WEEK | SAVE | TOTAL |
| 1 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 25 | 2,050 | 65,875 |
| 2 | 4,000 | 9,000 | 26 | 2,025 | 67,900 |
| 3 | 3,000 | 12,000 | 27 | 2,000 | 69,900 |
| 4 | 2,950 | 14,950 | 28 | 1,950 | 71,850 |
| 5 | 2,900 | 17,850 | 29 | 1,900 | 73,750 |
| 6 | 2,850 | 20,700 | 30 | 1,850 | 75,600 |
| 7 | 2,800 | 23,500 | 31 | 1,800 | 77,400 |
| 8 | 2,750 | 26,250 | 32 | 1,750 | 79,150 |
| 9 | 2,700 | 28,950 | 33 | 1,700 | 80,850 |
| 10 | 2,650 | 31,600 | 34 | 1,650 | 82,500 |
| 11 | 2,600 | 34,200 | 35 | 1,600 | 84,100 |
| 12 | 2,550 | 36,750 | 36 | 1,550 | 85,650 |
| C H E A T W E E K 1 | C H E A T W E E K 3 | ||||
| C H E A T W E E K 2 | C H E A T W E E K 4 | ||||
| 13 | 2,500 | 39,250 | 37 | 1,500 | 87,150 |
| 14 | 2,450 | 41,700 | 38 | 1,450 | 88,600 |
| 15 | 2,400 | 44,100 | 39 | 1,400 | 90,000 |
| 16 | 2,350 | 46,450 | 40 | 1,350 | 91,350 |
| 17 | 2,300 | 48,750 | 41 | 1,300 | 92,650 |
| 18 | 2,250 | 51,000 | 42 | 1,250 | 93,900 |
| 19 | 2,200 | 53,200 | 43 | 1,200 | 95,100 |
| 20 | 2,175 | 55,375 | 44 | 1,150 | 96,250 |
| 21 | 2,150 | 57,525 | 45 | 1,100 | 97,350 |
| 22 | 2,125 | 59,650 | 46 | 1,050 | 98,400 |
| 23 | 2,100 | 61,750 | 47 | 1,000 | 99,400 |
| 24 | 2,075 | 63,825 | 48 | 600 | 100,000 |
Need to cram for a trip (or a big purchase) later this year? Follow this 6-month savings blueprint instead.
“How to save for a 10-day European trip in 1 year (with 4 cheat weeks!)” was created by LSS for travel site Small-Town Girls, Midnight Trains. All rights reserved.
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Awesome post! Very informative.
Thanks flong! ^_^
This is wonderful! Really anybody can look at this and adjust a little for their currency, it’s a great guide. What better motivation than a 10 days European trip?!
Right?? I’m hoping to stick to this plan and finally save enough to see Scotland. 🙂 People could also just move a decimal place or two to fit their currency/income.