Privacy notice

Effective date: 11 September 2026

This is a plain-English description of what Travel Budget Buddy actually does with your information. It isn't legal advice, and we've tried not to claim anything the site doesn't really do.

Before you create an account

You can use the whole planner without registering. Nothing you type is sent to us or stored on our servers until you choose to save, download or print your trip. While you're planning, your trip is kept in your own browser (local storage on your device) so you don't lose it if you refresh the page or need to sign in. Clearing your browser storage removes it. We also keep a small flag in your browser to remember that Buddy has already said hello.

After you create an account

Registering stores your email address and password with our hosted backend provider, Supabase (used through Lovable Cloud), which handles sign-in for us. Passwords are held by that provider, not by us, and we never see them. If you sign in with Google instead, Google tells us the basic profile details attached to that sign-in.

Your account profile

Every account has a small profile: a Travel Budget Buddy membership number allocated by our database, the preferred name you choose to give (optional), your home currency, an optional home country or region, and your default Safety Buffer suggestion. Your sign-in email is shown to you from your sign-in record rather than copied into the profile. We don't ask for your date of birth, address, telephone number, passport or payment details.

You can also pick one of our travel pictures (palm tree, backpack, campervan and so on) as your account picture. Only the name of the picture you chose is stored — there is no photo upload, so we hold no personal images of you.

Freezing your account

If you'd like a break you can freeze your account from the My Account page. Freezing is not deletion: your profile, membership number, Founding Traveller status where it applies, the date you joined, your saved trips, your preferences and your Tracker entries are all deliberately kept exactly as they are. While your account is frozen we won't send you promotional or re-engagement emails; genuinely necessary account or security messages may still be sent. Sign in again and choose “Reactivate my account” and everything comes back with the same membership number and joining date. If you'd rather we removed everything, use Delete my account instead — that is permanent, and it asks you to confirm twice.

Your saved trips

When you press Save my trip we store that trip against your account: its name, total travel fund, currency, departure date, outbound and return travel costs, Safety Buffer, your destinations with nights and daily spending amounts, and any between-destination journeys. You can save more than one trip, rename, duplicate or delete any of them, and saving an existing trip again updates that same trip. Your trips are linked to your account and database rules restrict access to your own rows.

Tracker and spending data

If you use the tracker while travelling, each entry you add is stored against your account: the amount, the category, the date and any note you type. It's there so we can compare what you've actually spent against what you planned.

Feature launch notifications

If you're signed in, you can ask to be notified when a future Travel Budget Buddy feature launches, such as the live budget tracker. We record that request against your account and use it only to tell you about that feature launch — it isn't a newsletter or marketing sign-up. You can withdraw the request at any time, and it is removed if you permanently delete your account.

Cookies and similar storage

We don't run advertising cookies or advertising pixels. The storage we always use is functional: keeping you signed in, holding your in-progress trip on your device, and remembering small preferences like Buddy's greeting and your cookie choice. Analytics cookies are only used if you accept them.

Analytics and your choice

On the live travelbudgetbuddy.com site we use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used — how many people visit, which pages they look at, roughly which country and device they're on, how they found us, and which parts of the planner people actually use. That helps us see where the planner is confusing and what to improve, especially on phones.

Google Analytics only loads after you choose Accept analytics. If you choose Reject non-essential, no analytics script is loaded and nothing is sent to Google — and the whole site keeps working exactly as normal. Your choice is stored in your browser so we don't keep asking, and you can change it at any time using the Cookie preferences link in the footer.

We deliberately keep analytics limited to what you do, not what you type. We send the fact that an action happened — for example that a trip budget was calculated, a plan was saved or a plan was downloaded — plus a simple count of destinations. We do not send your name, email address, password, your budget or Safety Buffer figures, your spending entries, individual costs, your saved trip contents, your destination or itinerary names, or anything you type to Buddy. We also don't use session recording, heatmaps or advertising trackers.

Our hosting platform (Lovable) also records ordinary technical request logs and basic usage statistics for the site, as any web host does.

Any question about analytics or your choices: hello@travelbudgetbuddy.com.

Buddy and AI processing

Buddy is powered by an AI model reached through the Lovable AI Gateway. When you send Buddy a question, that question — and, if you asked for help fixing an over-budget trip, the figures shown in your planner — are sent to that service to generate an answer. We don't attach your email address or account details to those requests, and Buddy conversations aren't saved to your account. Please don't type personal or financial details into the chat.

Who else is involved

The services we rely on to run the site are our hosting platform (Lovable), our database and authentication provider (Supabase, via Lovable Cloud), the Lovable AI Gateway for Buddy's answers, and Google if you choose Google sign-in. We don't sell your data or use it for advertising.

How long we keep it

Your account, profile, saved trips and tracker entries stay until you delete them or ask us to. We haven't set an automatic deletion schedule; if you'd like your data removed, use the controls below or email us and we'll do it.

Deleting your trips, your account and your data

On your My Account page you can delete any saved trip on its own, or delete your account entirely. Deleting your account removes your sign-in record, your profile, all of your saved trips and all of your tracker entries from our database. It can't be undone. You can also email hello@travelbudgetbuddy.com and ask us to do it for you.

We also keep a small administrative view of accounts so we can run the service: membership number, preferred name, email address, sign-up date and method, last sign-in, home currency and country, account status and how many trips you have saved. It does not show the contents of anyone's saved trips, spending figures or conversations with Buddy. We use it to spot test, duplicate, fake or spam accounts and, where necessary, to remove them permanently, which deletes the same data as deleting your own account.

When an account is deleted we keep one anonymous record that a deletion happened, the date and time, and whether the traveller or we removed it. That record holds no name, email, trip, financial or conversation data and cannot be linked back to a person.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected, to get a copy of it, or to have it deleted. Email hello@travelbudgetbuddy.com and we'll help. You can also download your own trip as a PDF from the planner at any time.

Contacting us

Any question about privacy or your data: hello@travelbudgetbuddy.com. See also our contact page.