Keep tabs on your tabs – International travel tip

Carry an envelope to keep every charge slip you accrue — but before filing them away, write the date, location, and reason for the charge on them.

Your monthly statement will likely list the charge detail in the language of the country where you traveled. Having your own notes on the receipts will give you a way to reconcile to your statement and provide extra assurance that all charges were legitimate.

[Photo: Flickr | Tim Morgan]

Hotel stationery makes a great (and free) souvenir – Souvenir tip

Instead of buying traditional souvenirs like art, postcards or even a miniature of a famous monument, here’s a great non-traditional way to remember your trips: pick up a sheet and envelope of the hotel stationery.

Most hotels keep some sort of stationery in the rooms — whether they are tiny little scratch-pads or elegant letter-writing paper — and envelopes which have the hotel’s logo and address on them.

You can use these as backdrops in your photo albums or scrapbooks, or even write something memorable about your trip on them and save them in a photo album.