How trip budget calculator Works
The daily budget is the anchor
Category budgets (lodging X, food Y) die by day three of a trip; the daily number survives because it is checkable each morning. Style baselines — backpacker ~$60, mid-range ~$130, comfort ~$280, luxury $550+ — vary by region (Southeast Asia runs half; Scandinavia doubles), and one region-adjusted daily number is the whole budgeting system.
The three cost layers
Fixed layer: flights, visas, insurance — paid before you leave. Daily layer: lodging, food, transport, fun — spent one day at a time. Extras layer: tours, rentals, passes — lumpy and bookable. Budgets fail when layers blur; the calculator keeps them separate because each behaves differently (flights are researched, daily spend is felt).
The 15% buffer, defended
Every study of trip spending finds actuals running over plans by 10–25% — the late checkout, the luggage fee, the once-in-a-lifetime dinner. Budgeting the buffer explicitly means the overage is planned rather than guilty. Trips funded to the exact penny break exactly at the penny where the memory was about to happen.