TravelMuse’s calculator helps you find travel money in your shrinking budget

I know I have to say it. It’s the calculator’s official name, for Pete’s sake, but I don’t want to say it, let alone write it. OK, here I go — Yaycations Calculator. TravelMuse, the glossy magazine-like website that acts as your travel matchmaker, has come out with a new tool to help you find money for travel that you didn’t know you had.  Answer questions on which avenues in your life you can save money, on any budget, then it calculates your savings and offers you options for where you can go with that amount of money.

The first thing it asks is, how much coffee can you cut back on? Assuming you buy two lattes a week at $3.50 and then cut them out for all 52 weeks of the year, you’ll have $364 travel dollars.

If you go out to lunch once a week at $12 a pop, and give it up, you’ll save $624 a year.

Other things they ask: Can you cut back on pampering (manicures, pedicures and massages), going to the movies, eating out, buying gadgets, gym memberships, sporting events, buying jewelry or yearly purchases such as makeup, clothing and more.

Wait a sec, you say that those aren’t things that you even spend money on in a down economy? Well, they also have a page that asks if you can cut back on your cable bill, and how much you spend on groceries. Once you’re done adding up what you can give up, it calculates your annual savings and suggests places you can go with that money.

Where can you go on $1,488? What kind of trip do you want to take? I chose three-day beach vacations for two people including flight and hotel in Carmel, San Diego, La Jolla and San Luis Obispo. If you want to get out of Dodge and go camping, they found options in Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Tucson and Flagstaff, Ariz. You can search and re-search time and again adjusting days, flight times and what kind of travel you’d like to take via their Inspiration finder, which connects to your budget after taking the Yaycations quiz.

It’s not all plug and play in dreamland. TravelMuse offers articles on budget travel too. Here are 8 affordable alternative vacations from Jill Robinson.

How much do you think you can save for travel this year?

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Image: travelmuse.com]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 2:40 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under News, Tips & Advice, Travel Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.