Plan a Dream Trip Budget

Your child plans a dream trip within a fixed budget, looking up real-ish costs for travel, stay, food, and activities, and making trade-offs to fit the total. A playful way to work with money and planning.

How to do it

1. Agree a destination your child dreams about and a fixed total budget in your local currency.
2. Break the budget into rough categories together, such as getting there, somewhere to stay, food, and things to do.
3. Have your child look up or estimate real costs for each category and write them down.
4. When the total goes over budget, ask them to find trade-offs (a cheaper stay, fewer days, a different way to travel) until it fits.
5. Let them present the final plan and explain the choices they made to stay within the budget.

What you need

• Notebook
• Pen or calculator
• Device

Make it yours

Younger, 9-10 years: Use a small number of round-number costs and a simple total with your help. Older, 12 years and up: Add currency conversion for an overseas trip or a per-day spending limit. Siblings: Each plans a trip to the same place with the same budget, then compares the choices they made.