As the beloved midyear holiday season draws closer, many Aussies are packing their bags and opening their wallets.
Excluding us of course, as we’re already itching to lodge our tax returns.
New research from Commonwealth Bank has revealed that poor holiday planning and budget blunders are leaving the average traveller out of pocket from blowing their budgets by more than $1,554 per person.
This equates to a whopping $4.6 billion a year for the nation.
And with the mid-year holiday season dawning upon us, the 58 per cent of travellers who blow the budget are likely to return home with an unwanted financial souvenir: trying to rectifying their bank balance.
To understand exactly why Aussies over spend on holidays, the research discovered that the relaxed attitudes to travel budgeting is causing these money mishaps, with a quarter of Aussies admitting to not saving any spending money beforehand, and one in five travelling without a holiday budget.
With vacation mode in full swing, Aussies seem to truly implement the motto ‘treat yo self’ as overspending easily goes unnoticed, particularly since only 36 per cent of travellers check in on their spending each day.
Michael Baumann, general manager of everyday banking and payments at Commonwealth Bank said: “Despite advice from family and friends and budgeting tips and tricks for travellers online, over half (55 per cent) said they made an educated guess when working out their holiday spending money.”
“Even more concerning was that a third (33 per cent) aren’t putting aside extra spending money for unexpected expenses or overspend,” he added.
And since every action has its consequences, there are knock-on effects for budget blunderers once they return home, with over a quarter (28 per cent) making sacrifices such as staying in on weekends and eating cheaply.
