Keeping Vacations Frugal : Trading Hawaii for North Georgia

When living a frugal lifestyle, you really can't have it all. What you can have, though, is little chunks and small victories. 

We have a standing invitation to go to Hawaii for Christmas, but since the plane tickets are so expensive, we are probably heading to my favorite bed and breakfast in the North Georgia mountains for three days or so after Christmas. 

It won't be quite the same as exploring Hawaii, but it will save us between $1000 and $2000 so it really seems like a good decision. 

I firmly believe that everyone should try and get out of the house and away from their lives at least a couple of times each year. It helps you reset and gives you personal time with your loved ones that you might not otherwise get. 

It doesn't have to be pricey. Try looking for locations of natural beauty near home, or find a really great hotel, spa or bed and breakfast to spend a couple of days at. You don't have to fly for five hours to go on vacation.... you just have to get out of the area code. 

I personally will look as forward to log fires, great views and giant bath tubs as I would to volcanoes and beaches. It's not necessarily about where, but about why I'm going and who I'm going with. 

A break is a break, regardless of how far away you go. 

Why Are Cell Phones So Expensive?

Here's a question. Why are cell phones so expensive? I have a family plan which I've always thought was reasonable, but now that we have two iPhones, one of which is a new 3G, our cell phone bill is very high. We are paying an extra $50 a month and I am starting to wonder if it's really worth it. I love my iPhone but it's a ridiculous expense. I really don't get why a data plan costs so much. 

Any ideas?

A Menu Planning Experiment

A few days ago, my husband and I sat down with a huge stack of recipe books. I'm quite the collector when it comes to cookbooks, so we had a lot to go through. We each went through the books and marked on a post it note the page numbers of recipes we would like to try. By the time we were done with five or six books, we were a little weary and called it a day. 

However, we had marked more than sixty new recipes that we would like to try. Later this week I will be turning them into a small database and we will start going to the store to get ingredients for three or four of these new meals at a time. Then, we will start the great menu planning experiment. Anything to shake the eating out habit. 

Do you menu plan? Do you have favorite recipes? How do you avoid eating out?

Debt Snowball Progress

When I had my accident it sent me into a giant pit of financial despair. I have medical bills, I had to buy a car, I have to pay car insurance, and many other little things keep surfacing that I have to pay for. 

I decided the only way to get a grip on all of this was to just bite the bullet and get a second job. I am now working seven days a week in order to stay on top of everything. My second job is sales, so I get a base rate plus commission. So far I haven't been doing too badly, and combined with another six month long income stream, I can stay on top of my debt with a little extra to start paying down some bills.

Yesterday I received my first check and was able to pay off the first of seven debts. This was also the first end of year goal that I managed to meet. 

My debt snowball now looks like this:

Banana Republic Card - PAID ($20 Minimum transferred to AmEx)

American Express - Minimum $38

Prosper - Minimum $101.01

Bank of America - Minimum $105

Car - Minimum $200

Medical - Minimum $86.40

Student Loan - No Minimum

There are a couple of non-traditional aspects to my snowball. My car and medical payments carry no interest so although they have lower balances, I am working on the interest bearing debts first. My student loan was a loan from my parents and we have a separate agreement regarding it's payment. My normal job only allows me room to pay $130 in minimum debt payments currently, so the goal is to get all of my debt paid off or my minimums below $130 before I can stop working two jobs. 

Paying off my Banana Republic card is a great first boost. I am very happy that I was able to do that and I think that with some hard work I might be able to pay my AmEx off within another two months. 

My 2008 Financial Goals are:

Get My Networth to -$28000 - Currently at -$30,981

Get my Prosper Loan down to less than $2000 - Currently at $2575

Pay off my Banana Republic Card - DONE

Pay off my American Express - Currently at $1075

Get Emergency Fund to $1000 - Currently at $243

It looks like I am definitely on track to meet all of these goals with the only one I consider questionable being my Emergency Fund Goal. There is definitely a little light at the end of the tunnel though. 

Related Articles

Making Plans to Snowball My Debt

Setting Goals

Saturday Handy Tip : Get a Piggy Bank

When I was a teenager I would always save my change. I had a piggy bank and all coins automatically went into it. When I was about fifteen I finally went to put a coin in it and it wouldn't go. I emptied it out and took that money to buy my first cell phone (pay-as-you-go of course). 

As an adult, I still practice this. There are two piggy banks in my house. One is downstairs and one is upstairs. I put all my change in the one downstairs and my husband sometimes contributes to the one upstairs. When it's full or when I've fallen on harder times, I cash them out and take them to the bank. These coins usually go into my down payment fund. 

This might only add up to a few dollars, but it's hassle free saving that really adds up over time. 

However, be sure that if you do this you count out your change yourself. Banks will happily give you little paper coin rollers. Coinstar machines and other services skim a fee off the top of your money. 

Check out some other Saturday Handy Tips

Power Strip Your TV

Getting the Most out of Citrus

Salad Dressing Hack

July Networth Update

Here is a quick snapshot of my July Networth Update. I've actually decreased in Networth again this month. Most of this was due to my accident and having to put some medical copays and such on my credit card. I bought a vehicle that is worth more, but I still have to pay for some of it. I'll be posting a much more detailed overview of where my finances are shortly, including my savings progress and how I'm doing with my Debt Snowball.





Here is how I did last month.