Vacation budgeting is something Jessica Moorhouse thinks about professionally. She still went to Italy for three weeks, blew past her carefully built spreadsheet, and came home with zero regrets and a slightly rejigged budget.

Jessica is a personal finance expert and the author of Everything But Money, and this conversation is as honest as it gets about what travel actually costs versus what we plan for. She covers how she and her husband used a WISE account instead of credit cards to stay out of debt while still going over budget, why a plan that bends isn't a plan that failed, and how the money rules from her childhood, the ones that said don't buy the souvenir, don't get the trinket, followed her all the way to an Italian gift shop and had to be actively unlearned. She also has a few quiet tricks for keeping costs down mid-trip without feeling like you're cutting corners.

A five-euro bottle of wine helps.

Topics: vacation budget Canada, travel overspending, WISE account, flexible budgeting, childhood money stories

GUEST: Jessica Moorhouse | http://jessicamoorhouse.com

Originally aired on 2026-07-03