Misc Section

A Quick & Easy Money Saving Trick For Foreign Holidays

May 2005

One of the reasons that we all tend to spend far more money than we budget for on foreign holidays is that we're not used to the value of a Euro, Dollar, Yen, Baht etc. It's therefore so easy to overpay.

Look at this scenario -

• You walk into a shop in the UK and ask for a can of Coke, the shopkeeper says '80 pence please'
• Because you know the value of a Pound you instantly realise that it's far too expensive
• But if you're in Greece and the shopkeeper charges you 1.5 Euro, you're likely to pay up without a second thought
• After all it's normally far too much work for our brains to do some simple arithmetic
• It might only be later that you realise who's got the better deal.

So how to quickly work out the value of foreign currency? A day or so before you leave create a simple card with common foreign currency numbers on one side translated back into Sterling. See the table below for the Euro. Also, if you can it's a good idea to laminate the card.

When you want to buy something pull the card out and check the corresponding price back into Sterling. This may look a bit pedantic but if you decide to use the strategy you'll be amazed at how effective it is in saving you money, and making sure you don't overpay.

See Also

• Find's Travel Insurance Links