How do I not feel guilty about spending money on a trip?

“Curb feelings of guilt during your vacation by setting a budget and sticking to it,” Ally's Bell said. “If you're second-guessing your vacation expenses, it might mean that you're spending above your means or that your spending might not be aligned with your priorities.



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The thing is, there's absolutely nothing wrong with guilt-free spending and splurging -- as long as you don't splurge in every area of your life and you make a plan to do it wisely.

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But when you're feeling that guilt about spending money on a vacation or spending money on this or that nice thing or whatever, that guilt can come from one of two places: 1) the spending is out of line with your priorities, or 2) your priorities are out of line with your spending.

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While you do need to cut spending if you're trying to save more money, Ramsey's advice to give up travel may not be the best way to do that. Studies have found that spending money on experiences tends to make people happier than spending money on buying things.

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Traveler, beware: Having too much cash with you can be just as frustrating as having too little. Carrying wads of money can make you a target for foul play. In most cases, you should not need over $200 per day with you. If you do end up with a large sum of cash on you, make sure to split it up between your bags.

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Advantages of using cash If your spending discipline breaks down when you use credit cards, cash may be a better choice while you let loose on vacation. No foreign transaction fees: Many credit cards charge an extra fee of up to 3% on purchases made outside the country, although you can find cards that don't.

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Carry $100 to $300 Depending on your spending habits, a couple hundred dollars may be more than enough for your daily expenses or not enough. Regardless, the idea here is that you have some back-up cash on hand should you need to pay for something but you can't use a card or app.

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It can be as simple as when you're given an annual number of hours or days for vacation but you don't use them because you fear something may happen at work while you're away.

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This is so entirely dependent on your own travel preferences that it's tough to estimate but we recommend putting aside roughly €700 to €1700 for spending money for one week in Europe.

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So how much cash can you fly with? You can fly with any amount of cash. No law prohibits you from bringing any amount of money on a flight. Likewise, TSA has no rules that limit how much money you can bring through security.

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It all depends on where you're going and what you plan to do during your trip. As you can see from our travel costs table above, some European cities are cheaper or more expensive than others. As a general rule, though, it's a good idea to budget at least $100 a day for your vacation.

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