Category Archive

My friend suggested a Vegas trip later this summer. Actually, she booked her trip about a week or two ago, and asked if I was interested in coming on the same days, since I live so close. I wanted to do Vegas this summer anyway, so I was very interested. She is (unnecessarily!) staying at a really fancy hotel, but she located me a 5-night hotel+air package (at a less nice nearby hotel) for $680 (for two people) on Vegas.com. I checked the price just the hotel would be, and it was significantly more. It’s settled then, right? We’d fly to Vegas! Book it!!

Ah, but I wasn’t fooled so easily! When I checked hotels at other sites, they weren’t nearly as inflated. Here is my research:

Package on Vegas.com: $680 for five nights, flight + hotel. Shorter package deals not available
Gas, round trip: estimated $150 (288 each way, 20 mpg, $5/gal: (288 / 20) * 5 * 2 = 144)

Hotel on expedia/hotels.com
Wed-Thursday—- $60.00/nt
Fri-Sat —- $100.00/nt
Sun —- $60.00/nt

Total Estimated cost for transportation/lodging:
Four Nights, driving: $235 each
Five Nights, driving: $275 each
Five Nights, flying: $340 each

I have to take into consideration traffic between LA and Vegas. Feel free to chime in if you know anything about it. Driving isn’t exactly convenient, but neither is flying these days. If we drove, we’d have transportation (is that even necessary if we stay on the strip?) but we may have to think about parking.

Or…. we could make this into something even bigger and drive further to the grand canyon (probably on the fri and sat) and camp! It is another 6 hour drive (yikes) but I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon. A camp site might cost only around $20 a night. Plus firewood…. And… it is the grand canyon!

Vegas+Grand Canyon Adventure
Tues-Thursday night Vegas with friend. Drive. Hotel total: $180, gas $75
Friday morning-ish: Drive to GC. Camp $20, gas $75
Saturady: Explore GC, camp $20
Sunday: Back home, gas $120
Total transportation and lodging: $490
Per person: $245

Ahhh, I miss planning vacations!!! A Vegas+Grand Canyon adventure for under $250?? I swear this is my passion in life! I called T and he was on board, and even more on board for the second Vegas+GC idea. We might try to get a couple friends to come along (besides the friend we are meeting in Vegas), which would drop the gas cost (but I don’t want to share a room!) and they could put a tent on the same site.

Even better, I should be able to do this within my already established travel budget. I’m so happy I’ve been diligently putting $100 in there, despite the fact I don’t have any trips planned. I estimate by August I’ll have right around $300 in there, even after I buy a ticket home some time in June. Exciting!!!

Just after high school (and into the first part of college), I worked in a trendy and overpriced retail store in the mall, a brand that everyone in my school liked to wear.   At the time, I sometimes would measure the price of things in clothing.  The pay was horrible, so after a short shift, I’d joke with my friend “I earned a sweater today!”  It was mostly true, too.  Most of my meager earnings went to clothing.

When I did a semester abroad, my friends and I took a lot of vacations (to brag:  Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand x2 and several trips to mainland China).  I also had some friends with expensive tastes, and we were browsing the Louise Vuitton store one afternoon.  Well, I was browsing, they were actually shopping!  My friend picked up something small, I think it was an ipod case or something like that, and asked if I thought it was a good deal.  Of course she was asking the wrong person if she wanted encouragement to buy designer goods, but my answer was something like “No way.  You could go on a vacation to Vietnam for that price.”  I measured the price of things in travels.

Now, I simply measure things in dollars.  Maybe even more boring, I measure it in savings.  If I want something, I think, “that is $X less for my emergency fund!”

T and I both want to go abroad when he is done with graduate school.  He is gunning for Europe (wavering between France and Italy), but my heart belongs to Asia.  South Asia (Inda, Nepal),  Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia).  Traveling would be best in a cheaper area of the world, though I’ve yet to see much of Europe.  I suppose Europe may be easier for our careers, but secretly, I kind of want to throw off the career for a few years and teach English.  Maybe that would be too much of a derailment though.

I don’t dream of owning a home.  I probably will someday, for financial and security reasons, but I just don’t dream of it.  I don’t dream of owning my own business.  I don’t dream of a nice car.  I just don’t care much.  I dream of traveling.   I’m considering reducing my E-fund contributions and slightly upping my T-fund (I just invented that nickname for it) contributions instead.  I think, someday soon, I’d like to measure things in travels again.

For now, it is the 8-5 routine and getting the most out of southern California…

I had a nice four day vacation in northern California this weekend. We toured some wineries, attempted to visit Alcatraz (it was sold out for days!), toured the city, and went for a very short hike in the redwoods. (I would have liked to hike further, but the rest of the group wasn’t very ambitious.)

Here were my traveling costs:

$15: Parking for the day we drove into the city
$20: Wine from Nappa (at a discounted price because of the tasting fee we (my parents) paid
($25): Money from T to reimburse me for random gas money and the fact my plane ticket was mysteriously more expensive
$40: Cash spent on one dinner and other random travel expenses
$13: Airport spending. It is like another country in there with a horrible exchange rate!

$11: Taxi to airport, including tip (a good price, however I had a friend pick me up last night, as the minimum fare from the airport would be $17.50 pre-tip!)

I spent about $75 (plus $175 for the ticket), well under my estimate of $150.  My parents paid for a lot of the more expensive things. I’m torn about that. While I know they make enough money, they aren’t wealthy and I am not sure how much they have saved for retirement. I suppose I just have to trust their judgment.

Vacationing with parents (or any other people) invovles a little more compromise than I would like. I’m very much a “do it yourself” type traveler, and get annoyed at overly “tour” like excursions. I think my parents are more typical American travelers who don’t mind paying a premium to have someone else do all the organizing. That being said, I’m sure they would have allowed me to plan our whole itinerary if I wanted to step up to the plate and do it, but I chose to take a backseat on this trip.

I have no trips planned for the future yet. I’m thinking we’ll do some more small trips, maybe some hiking/camping within driving distance. Eventually I want to go see the Grand Canyon. I don’t know where or when my next international vacation will be, but unfortunately probably not this year.

The month is coming to a close, and I’ll have to figure out exactly where in my budget that $75 can come from. I can use a little from travel, a little from entertainment and a little from “misc” and I think that I’ll be able to come out close to even, but my travel fund will be empty until next month.

One of the most annoying parts of going on trips is getting to/from the airport.  When I lived in Iowa it was about a 20 minute drive, so asking a friend to do it wasn’t a big deal.  Still, I dislike asking for favors.  Parking at the airport was just $5/day, so for short trips I usually just parked and paid.

For this trip, I asked a friend to pick me up Sunday night, but I didn’t request a ride to the airport today.  We aren’t that close and I felt it was an imposition to ask him to leave work early.  I had given him a ride from the airport once before, so now we are “even”.  Or something.

I live really pretty close to the airport, but it still involves either a .7 mile walk + a bus (or 2 buses) to get there.  The online estimate said it would take 30-60 minutes by bus.  Ug.  T lives further, but there is a direct bus for just $4, so he is taking that.  I was going to brave my bus, but decided against it and scheduled a taxi.  It really should be less than $15, but I’m a bit nervous about traffic.

I just wish public transportation was easier and more convenient.  In NYC I took the subway all the way from my friends apartment on wall street to La Guardia.   I felt like such a self-sufficient traveler!  Then again, I would have paid $15 for a taxi if that was all it was going to cost me.

I’ll be out through Sunday, so don’t expect to hear from me until then!

When T and I booked our tickets on Southwest.com a few weeks ago, I complained because he hit “buy” before I did, and I got to a screen that said “Sorry, no tickets left at the price selected” and I had to go through again and repurchase at a higher price. My ticket was $176 and his was about $130, though he did agree to split the difference.

Today he called me at work in a panic because his ticket was backwards–out of San Fransisco and into Los Angeles! Is it possible that there was a technical glitch? He is obsessively careful and I can’t imagine him booking it backwards. It will cost him $144 to change it, according to the website. I told him to get on the phone and talk to a human. I hope he can work something out. Of course, we could have just drove, but I thought it would be worth $130 each to fly since we don’t have to pay for lodging. If the total comes to $130+$176+$144 , driving would have been a MUCH better choice.   [Edit:  He called on the phone and had to pay just $27 to change it, as a "one time courtesy", though he insists he didn't book it backwards in the first place.]

Tickets should have only cost $120 or less, but we procrastinated purchasing (and I fully blame T for this). I think I can get by on spending less than $150 in other vacation spending, depending on whether or not I buy any wine when we go to Napa. My parents are treating us to a couple things, but I don’t want to let them treat us too much. If I have $150 as my goal, I think it’ll keep me from being too stingy when it comes to spending than if I just have a goal of not spending too much. Most of it will come out of my travel fund, but perhaps some can come out of this month’s entertainment and misc categories.

PS - My check engine light went off, leading me to believe it was just the gas cap or something equally benign. Whew!

I noticed that the “Budgeting” category of this blog was becoming one of my most frequent topics, while “Travel” has scarcely been mentioned. That makes me sad, because travel is my passion and budgeting… well, it is just a tool to help me follow my passions. In case budgeting doesn’t pan out, I optimistically entered this sweepstakes–you can too, if you are 26 or under! My four countries? Cambodia, Italy, South Africa and New Zealand. (It doesn’t matter what you pick, the real prize is a $12,000 travel certificate).

I spent a lot on travel last year–at least it seems like a lot to me. According to Yodlee, I spent roughly $2,500 between march and December. This was spent on a trip to North Carolina, to New York City, and two pre-move trips to Los Angeles, plus a nice New Years Eve vacation (also to LA). I think I also included money spent on trips back home (500 mile drive) and a short weekend excursion we took to Madison, WI. Considering all the fun I had and places I went, that isn’t that bad of a price. I always stayed with friends, so that saved a bunch on hotel costs. Plane tickets were the largest portion, running about $320 for most trips and up to $460 (yikes) for the holiday trip. In 2006 I spent even more, finishing my last semester in Hong Kong and visiting Thailand, Malaysia, mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Bali. I’m glad I don’t have the numbers for 2006 readily accessible, but I can say my plan ticket to/from Hong Kong was about $1300 alone. (I did get a $5000 scholarship though.)

Doing the math for last year, I spent an average of $200/mo on travel. I only budgeted $100 each month for this year. I was in a long distance relationship for part of the year, so two of those trips were due to that. Thankfully, the distance has been reduced to about 7 miles, so no plane tickets necessary (just gas and patience with traffic). I now live in a new part of the country, so I don’t feel the need to buy plane tickets to explore because there are a lot of great things to see within driving distance.

Despite the fun to be had around here, we are planning a short trip next month. San Fransisco, here I come! Plane tickets should be pretty cheap, about $120 round trip or less, but we might take the train one way just for (11 hours of) fun/scenery. It is the same price, roughly. Again, we won’t pay for lodging–my parents are currently living/working a ways outside of the city, so a free place to stay and quite likely a lot of free meals and stuff too. The expenses probably will just be some wine tastings and any other activities that cost money.

My tips for cheap travel? Visit friends/family! If you have a place to stay, your costs will be a lot lower. That really is my only tip, anything else I add would be even more obvious.

Travel is the one area in which spending money never pains me the way it does with other expenses. Though I’m scaling back my travel spending this year, I am always going to make it a priority to go new places and see new things. This is what money is for, at least in my case.

Now, though this isn’t strictly personal finance related, I leave you with a favorite poem:

where we are

i envy those
who live in two places:
new york, say, and london;
wales and spain;
l.a. and paris;
hawaii and switzerland.

there is always the anticipation
of the change, the chance that what is wrong
is the result of where you are. i have
always loved both the freshness of
arriving and the relief of leaving. with
two homes every move would be a homecoming.
i am not even considering the weather, hot
or cold, dry or wet: i am talking about hope.

-gerald locklin

It has been a hectic few weeks, and I hope to have some serious posts as life returns to normal. However, normalcy probably won’t truly settle in for awhile–I’m moving over 2000 miles to a new home this month! Still, vacation mode is over and things should be more normal around here. Here is a round up of my financial status for the past couple weeks.

I spent roughly $410 on Christmas presents

• $60 for my mom: Contributed to a GPS with my sistesr
• $55 for my dad: XM radio subscription
• $25 for my grandparents: Applebees giftcard
• $20 for a drinks for my friends
• $60 each for two of my sisters: Mostly clothes and make-up
• $40 for my boyfriends family (including shipping): A nice blanket and random treats
• $70 for the boyfriend: A nice zip up university sweatshirt he had coveted
• $30 for my sisters boyfriend: Sweatshirt
• $30 for my brother in law: Gift card to best buy
• $20 for my nephew: A baby bible and color book

There was an additional $100 in other random Christmas expenses: Gas to get to my sister’s and back, a cheap Christmas day train ticket, and a few meals for me and my sister.

I spent $555 (not including previously purchased $400 plane ticket) on new years eve vacation which lasted about five days. About $100 of it was due to me paying for my boyfriends share of things, since he is a poor grad student and I have a real job, and I wanted him to join us on all activities. Luckily, there was no hotel costs since we stayed in his apartment. (I do not currently live in the same city as him, hence the move.)

• $170 on food
• $125 on car rental and gas
• $200 on alochol and going out (yikes!), including a somewhat pricey New Years Eve
• $60 on general entertainment

My net worth increased by about $3000 in December despite all that spending and despite my $500 security deposit for my new place being taken out. Not only did I have my regular paychecks, I had about $5000 in a year end incentive bonus as income. That definitely helped things along. Anyway, I did update my NetworthIQ page, so feel free to click on over for details.

Did I meet my year end goals? What are my new goals? I have to review whether or not I met my 2007 goals. I think I met some of them, but not all. I need to rework my 2008 goals and decide what I want to do financially this year.

The last thing to mention is today’s small impulse buy. In a spur of the moment decision, I raced to Walmart and picked up a humidifier and cold medicine at about 11:00 pm tonight. Yes, I’m a little sick. The humidifier was only about $25, but I obviously did not buy quality, nor did I research the best deals. I also sort of dislike Walmart, but nothing else was open and I felt really crappy. Now, time for bed, as it is back to work tomorrow for my last few days.

I went on a long weekend to visit a friend this past weekend. We didn’t do any major vacations this year, so I am enjoying several little vacations. Spending money on travel is something that usually doesn’t pain me, as friends and new places are something I value highly. The trip was pretty inexpensive, considering plane tickets out of my city are rarely less than $300. After that, the costs were minimal.

Cost of vacation:
$309 - plane ticket
$5 “breakfast” at airport (is potato chips and iced tea really breakfast?)
$11 lunch for me and friend
$15 a rather disappointing sushi dinner.
$9 brunch at a really cute organic restaurant
$10 magazines at the airport (Hmmm, sort of regret this one!)
$5 for Pride and Prejudice (A good deal for a book, and one I want to read anyway)
$5 lunch at airport
$20 parking (could have asked a friend, but the convience was worth it to me)

That is a total of $384, which is not bad at all. Our activities were mostly outdoorsy free things, so that was inexpensive, plus that is also more enjoyable to me.

The cost of carelessness
The previous summary neglects to mention the fact that I left my digital camera on the airplane. I tried to chase it down, but I am now certain it is lost into the abyss. It was a nice camera–a Kodak Easy Share Z740, with 10x optical zoom –but at the same time, I sort of hated it. It was too bulky to easily fit into my purse and sort of embarassing to bring out in social settings. It was a gift from my parents, and while it took amazing pictures while I was abroad last year, I did want a smaller one. Still, I would have waited. And kept this one for more professional shots. Looking online, it sells new for $279, which is painful to know. I’m not even counting the 1G memory card that was inside of it.

I also recently started a photography class, so waiting to buy a camera was sort of out of the question. It was Monday, I needed one by Tuesday at 7:00. I did some research and quickly determined I wanted a canon SD850, a subcompact which sells for about $350 in local stores and just over $300 online. I also looked at the SD750, SD1000, and some in their A series (not as small). I ended up settling for the SD1000, at $250 in local stores. I didn’t think I could wait for shipping, but at 5:27 pm, I noticed that amazon.com said if I bought it in the next 3 minutes, I could have it the next day. Even with shipping, the total was only $225, and I didn’t have to pay the sales tax I would have at Target or Best Buy. I had about 20 seconds to think about it, so I did it. I then found a 2G SD card for $18, which is on the way (slowly, due to free shipping)

In summary:
Cost of vacation - $389
Cost of carelessness - $243

And the vacation money was much much much more fun to spend. Ug.

My next major expense is yet another plane ticket… It looks like it will be $315 for me to fly to Los Angeles to visit the boyfriend for a long birthday weekend in October, so I estimate about 400 total, but I might be low-balling it. I’m going to do better with the airport purchases by planning ahead, and maybe have a friend to drive me to the airport (though $5/day really is a bargain).

After that, I would like to say, no more vacations for months (they eat into my savings goals), but then it is Christmas season (present time), and we are considering new years in Las Vegas. After THAT, no vacations for quite some time!