About three months ago I finalised a draft budget. It was perfect, giving me a 10% buffer for the entire four month trip, 50 euro spending money every day for the 3 month backpacking portion and an amount put aside for accomodation.
This morning, it being the first morning I've not been rushing out of the house in about a month, I decided to get the prepaid travel card that will be my lifeline for the next however long, and I discovered the first few cracks in my perfect budget.
Firstly, tax. Despite the fact I am well under the tax threshold, try telling the tax department that. I will be. Unfortunately, I will be telling them at the end of the tax year, a good two to three months after I finish my trip. So from the very beginning I'm a good $750 down on my expected income.
But that's alright. I mean, that's what I had a 10% buffer for.
Then along comes currency exchange. My only weakness, besides fire, bullets and chocolate.
I looked at the numbers, not really understanding whether they were good or not. In the end, it was about 1 cent per dollar off what I was expecting. "Well, that's alright" I thought. Then I did the calculation. I was likely to lose about $80.
"I guess this is what my buffer was for," I nodded sagely to myself. "And that just accounts for their 1% commission."
I go to the next page where they tally up the final cost.
It's 1% higher than the previous page.
"Oh, guess that didn't account for the 1% commission."
There goes another $80.
"Thank God for my buffer," I muttered to myself as I calculated how much I had left over. Turned out my buffer had gone into the red about $150.
There go my dreams of being an accountant.
On the plus side, who really wants to go on a balls-to-the-wall backpacking venture with plenty of money, right? Injecting a little risk into proceedings will make things far more exciting.
The moral of this story is making a budget is pointless since it'll just make you feel bad when you don't keep to it. Oh, and screw exchange rates.
