You may just be getting back from your holiday vacation, and you probably haven't even considered your next getaway yet. But if you can give it a little thought now, you could save yourself a bundle later. TODAY travel editor Peter Greenberg and TODAY financial editor Jean Chatzky share these tips:

Why do you need a budget?
This is the time of year when people are feeling a hangover from the holidays. If you're among them, you know how uncomfortable that is. There's nothing worse than enjoying a great vacation and then spending months feeling bad about it as you're paying it off on your credit card. Interest alone can add hundreds, if not thousands, to the cost of your trip. But if you can figure out how much your trip is likely to cost now, you can put a little money away each week and enjoy the vacation knowing you've already got money to pay the bills as they roll in.

How much will you need?
It depends what you're doing, how long you're staying and when you're going. We took a look at last summer's prices for guidance. According to AAA, the average price of a domestic roundtrip airfare was around $180. The average price of a car rental was $44 a day, and a family of two adults and two kids could expect to pay $270 per day for food and lodging. So that brings the average cost of a seven-day vacation, including rental car, for a family of four to $2,900-$3,000. The average cost of a European tour (again seven days, this time one person) projected for July 2008 is $2,300.

What are the real costs?
As a rule, the travel industry is obsessed about being competitive on official prices. But as consumers, you need to be even more obsessed with determining real costs. In almost all cases, total real costs are never included in total prices, which can really damage your wallet, not to mention your attitude and overall travel experience.

Here are some examples:

Airlines
Watch out for the dreaded asterisk. The airlines are notorious for advertising their lowest fares on certain trips, like Los Angeles to New York, $184, followed by an asterisk. That asterisk can translate to a lot of money. If you look hard enough, there are hidden costs. Generally, it's a one-way fare requiring a round-trip purchase, so your Los Angeles to New York trip isn't $184, and it's not even $368! It's actually more because the airlines are allowed to market airfares without including taxes.

These taxes include:

• Federal Excise Tax: $3.40
• Passenger Facility Charges of up to $4.50 for each flight segment
• September 11th Security Fee of up to $2.50 for each flight segment
• For domestic flights beginning or ending in Alaska or Hawaii, Travel Facilities Tax of $15 per round-trip

And there are other fees as well. For example, at US Airways, the airline has implemented a $5 charge for buying tickets on its own Web site. US Airways also adds a $10 fee for tickets purchased on the phone and a $20 fee for tickets issued at airport and city ticket offices.

On international flights, the sticker shock can be serious. The taxes are even higher:

• U.S. International Air Transportation Tax of up to $30.20 and U.S Foreign user, inspection, security or other similarly based charges, fees, or taxes
• $15.10 international departure tax
• $15.10 international arrival tax
• Up to $17 in immigration and customs fees
• For international itineraries, foreign and domestic fees can total up to $200, depending on your routing and destination.

What about hotels? Do they have hidden fees?
Hotels want to be competitive on quoted rates just like the airlines do, but none includes local taxes, fees and surcharges. Here are some quoted rates for one king room for two people, January 26-28, 2008:

• Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers:
  $279 per night. But the hotel didn't mention a $13.38 citywide tax per night.
• Soho Grand Hotel:
  Quoted a room rate of $354 per night, but this didn't include the $13.38 tax or the $3.50 per night Javits Center fee. (Yes, you're chipping in to help pay the mortgage on the convention center.)

Cruises
Most of them are all-inclusive for the basics, but again, you will be paying more than what the quoted price is thanks to taxes and "extras," like golf lessons or babysitting. Not to mention alcohol, which is never part of the all-inclusive fees ... and there is a lot of drinking that happens on cruises! Many of these larger ships also have chain restaurants and shops, like Ben & Jerry's or Johnny Rockets, which are not part of the included fees either. And one other thing that you will spend a lot of money on that you need to consider is tips, which can really add up. You will shell out money for the wait staff, housekeeping, "stateroom" attendant and so on.

Once you've figured out how much it'll cost, how do you come up with the money?
There are a couple of different ways to do it:

Regular saving
That's where you decide to put aside $50 or $100 a week. Do it automatically by having money transferred from checking into a separate "vacation" account (kind of like a Christmas club). Once you've hit your goal, you go.

Using a windfall
One in five (19 percent) U.S. adults who are getting a federal, state, or local tax refund this year plan to use some or all of it to take a pleasure or vacation trip. But there are other windfalls as well. There are bonuses and there are cash gifts for birthdays, holidays, weddings.

Use your points wisely
Once you know how much your trip is likely to cost, try to reduce that total by using loyalty-program points. Book six months in advance to increase the chance that your points can be redeemed. Try calling the airline directly. If you go online to book a four-leg trip using miles, and one of the legs is unavailable, a Web interface will probably turn you down for the entire journey. Many times an airline agent can point out where the bottleneck is and direct you to nearby cities that might have connections, or suggest other flights that have plenty of open seats.

If miles are plentiful but dollars are short, redeem double miles to secure a seat when all those set aside for rewards are gone. There are also programs, like United Airlines' Mileage Plus Choices, that allow you to book a ticket on the Chase credit card affiliated with the program and then use miles at the rate of one per penny to pay for it. Airfares of $160 cost 16,000 miles, $400 fares cost 40,000 miles, and so on. Often you can "buy" your ticket with these programs for less than it would cost if you had to pony up double miles.

Consider using points from a hotel-affiliated card (rather than one from an airline), like the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card from American Express, which allows you to transfer points to more than 30 frequent-flier programs on a one-to-one basis. You can typically use these points at full value for airline tickets as well as hotel rooms. When you do the opposite — use airline points for hotel rooms — you generally get only half the value.

What about credit cards?
If you're going to book a vacation using a credit card, obtain a low-interest-rate credit card. Paying for a vacation by credit card has a number of benefits. It's safer than carrying cash and easier than obtaining and using traveler's checks. And, you can rack up miles and points for future trips. Just be sure that the card you take on vacation is the one with the lowest interest rate you can find. If, despite your built-in buffer, you exceed your budget, you will be able to pay it off at an interest rate that won't cost you an arm and a leg. After the trip, take the money you were automatically transferring into savings and use it to pay off the credit card.

If you don't like the thought of adding another credit card to your portfolio, call the ones you're already carrying and ask for a reduction in your interest rate. If you're the sort of customer who charges frequently, doesn't bump up against the credit limits, and pays bills on time, they may give it to you.

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