Your Holiday Has a Hidden Cost: Everything You Buy Before You Leave.

The holiday is booked. Then the shopping begins.

A new airport outfit. Three swimsuits. Sandals for an imaginary dinner. Beauty appointments, miniature toiletries and a handbag that somehow becomes essential because you are going away.

Before you have ordered your first holiday coffee, the trip has acquired a second budget.

Try this before your next departure: lay out what you already own and build complete outfits around your actual plans. Include shoes, bags and layers. Photograph each combination so you can see what is ready and what is genuinely missing.

Then write a short shopping list with a spending limit. “Comfortable walking shoes” is a clear need. “Things that will make me feel on holiday” can become an endless basket.

Give beauty appointments the same consideration. Choose the treatments you enjoy and can comfortably afford, rather than treating every possible appointment as part of the ticket price.

There is pleasure in preparing for a trip. Keep that pleasure by deciding where your money will make the most difference.

Perhaps the dress already in your wardrobe deserves another evening out. Perhaps the money saved would mean a meal you will remember.

What is the one thing you always buy before a holiday—and hardly ever use?