There are a ton of great budgeting resources on the internet but as you would expect they are mainly based out of the US.  This presents many challenges for running an international budget since the currency exchange rates fluctuate all the time.

With that in mind, it certainly does away with the idea of "tracking everything to the penny".  That method works perfectly fine and is commendable for a budget that is all run out of a household that has accounts in a single currency such as US dollars.  Heck my Dad did this all the time and he was certainly proud of such as skills, as I admired him for it too.  But when it comes to international budgets, different strategies are needed.

What I've figured out from my coin collection is that every country has a penny-like equivalent, the smallest coin that is nothing in isolation but when added together becomes substantial.  Part of this trip is about getting rid of these penny-like coins in their aggregate.  

Still there needs to be a way to standardize the value of all these currencies, as well as the hidden losses involved in bank transfers and exchange rates and so forth.  Technically any currency could be used I suppose, but the US dollar was assigned to me by default since the budgeting app I am most familiar with only has that currency.  If I ran multiple budgets in multiple currencies then things would get even more complex than they already are, so the US dollar it is.

I also got into the habit of allowing a lot of margins in my budget and being liberal with the amounts.  That way with the invariable currency exchange fluctuations, I'm not worried if things don't balance to the penny - they never will.  It also allows for a bit of a fudge factor, that is if I'm under budget on a category, I will roll over the excess to the next month and readjust the categories as I go.  That way it's more or less always changing.  Of course with a dynamic method like this it's totally possible to 'cook the books' but the only person you cheat is yourself if you do that.

The end game is to maintain a budget that is as balanced as possible and to keep clear accounts in light of multiple currencies.

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The previous trip to Texas was ideal for a standard as I found it was a very good middle ground:  not too expensive, but not so cheap either.  The Dallas area in particular was a good barometer of reasonable costs.  Once I got used to those prices, I could then get a reasonable estimate for my trips and daily life whether it was above or below standard.

For example, when back home in Canada I went so Save On Foods, and ironically got taken to the cleaners.  So much for saving.   I dropped $45 Canadian without thinking about it.  The food portions were meager and shitty as well.  I wasn't happy with the value of what we got and then compared to USD:  we spent $33 US on hardly anything.  The equivalent in Texas would have gotten us two hearty meals.  So that helped me get a sense of what was going on and why I would never move back to Vancouver.  Absolutely insane unaffordable place and terrible value for what you get.  You might as well be throwing money into a black hole.