How do you actually budget for a cruise when the final number keeps changing on you
We have 15 cruises under our belt and I still cannot nail this down. Every time I build out a spreadsheet before we book, I feel good about the number, and then by the time we're back home and I look at the credit card statement I'm like... where did that come from.
The base fare is the easy part. It's everything else that creeps up on me. Gratuities I account for. Port fees I account for, and for what it's worth those drive me a little crazy for reasons I've posted about before. But then there's the drink you bought at the pier because it was hot, the upsell at the spa that felt reasonable in the moment, the specialty dining you didn't plan for because the main dining room had a weird menu that night.
My spouse and I do a pretty tight pretrip budget and I track everything in a running spreadsheet, but the onboard spending is where I consistently underestimate by like 20 to 30 percent
What I'm curious about is whether people here do a daily cash envelope situation, or set a hard number on the onboard account ahead of time and just stop there. Or does your family just kind of... let it go and reconcile later. I've tried both approaches and neither has felt perfect for us. Just my experience, but I wonder if there's a system I'm missing