Money for the Rest of Us

This is the fifteenth post of the series “15 Tips for Cheap Travel.” You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel index.

Once your trip is over, it’s time to return home. Unfortunately, getting back home will cost money too. Here are some things to think about when returning home:

VAT Taxes. A number of countries (including every country in the European Union) charge a form of sales-like tax which is called the Value Added Tax (VAT). (Here’s the Wikipedia article about VAT Taxes if you don’t know much about them.) This tax may be up to 25% and is charged on everything from jewelery to hotel rooms. Luckily, as a foreigner you can get this payment back on major purchases. When you do make a major purchase, ask for the VAT documents. They will give you some paperwork and special stamps and receipts. Once you are back at the airport ready to go home you will go to the VAT reclaim counter to get your money back. I’ve done it before and it’s not as hard as it sounds. The complicated part is finding out the specific VAT rules for each country and finding the VAT reclaim office in the airport. To find out the country’s specific VAT tax rules ask someone who works at your hotel or consult a guidebook as the VAT Tax laws vary from country to country. Then, just get to the airport a 1/2 hour earlier than normal and ask where the VAT reclaim office is. Usually there is a short line. You also have the option of using a VAT reclaim service through the mail, but these services take a lot longer than just showing up at the airport’s office.

Getting home from the airport. Check out the previous tip about getting to and from the airport to ensure that you’re traveling in the cheapest manner.

Filling out your budget. To know that you have traveled within your budget, fill it out within a week of returning home. If you haven’t already downloaded the sample travel budget that I created, you can download it here.

Photos. Remember the days of film cameras? I couldn’t wait to go to Target and get my pictures developed to see how they all turned out. With the advent of the digital camera, we no longer have to wait as long or pay as much. With digital cameras you can just order the photos you want and you don’t have to order the one you accidentally took of your foot. (Unfortunately, with this philosophy, I sometimes take too many pictures because I know I can just delete them later. But, then I don’t want to actually delete the bad ones– because they’re also the fun and funny pictures.)

So, where do you go to get your digital pictures developed? What do you use to post them online? Several years ago after doing a lot of research I decided on Winkflash. They only charge 12 cents a photo and the shipping is a flat rate of $0.99. I had used Snapfish, but hated paying $5 or $10 for shipping. Plus, Winkflash stores your photos indefinitely. (Make sure you still keep your own backup copy.) I’ve been very happy with Winkflash and would definitely recommend them. But, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t switch if I found a better deal somewhere else.

I would love some comments on this one. What online photo service do you use to get your pictures developed?