Vacationing for Less

March 10, 2009 1 Comment

My girlfriend and I decided that we needed a break from a long and cold Wisconsin winter.  We began looking at islands in the Caribbean and finally settled on the island of Aruba.  Located about 15 miles north of Venezuela, Aruba has consistent warm weather and very little rainfall.  The weather is perfect year round.  Aruba is also considered to be the most expensive island in the Caribbean.

"Aruba" by StevenWe booked our flights and patiently marked the days off the calendar.  After months of waiting, the day finally arrived.  We landed in Aruba on January 1, 2009 and would have two weeks of swimming in the ocean and laying on the beach.  Perfect!

Exactly how much credit card debt did I go into in order to pay for a two-week vacation on the most expensive island in the Caribbean?  ZERO.

A lot of people think that a vacation is a great time to indulge themselves in ways which they normally wouldn’t.  That means ocean side condominiums, room service, steak & lobster, $10 frozen drinks, and spa treatment.  These things can add up to a large bill by the time you go home.

What did we do in order to keep the cost of our two week vacation less than half the cost of an all-inclusive hotel stay for one week?

Get Off the beach-  This is the best way of saving money on a place to stay.  The large chain hotels such as the Raddison, Holiday Inn and the Hyatt are found right on the beach.  While the convenience of these hotels is something to consider, the price tag that comes along with them is absurd.  If you are willing to stay a just a couple of minutes inland you can save yourself a considerable amount of money by staying at motels which are operated by locals.

Travel During the Low Season- Tourism tends to peak at certain times of the year depending on a variety of factors.  Research when the low season takes place at the destination you are interested in traveling to as it is not consistent throughout all areas of the world.  While our trip to Aruba was during peak season we were able to keep our costs low in other ways.

Buy Local- Another way of saving a great deal of money is to purchase groceries at a local store.  You won’t find grocery stores in the tourist areas.  You will have to do a little exploring in order to find them, but once you do you’ve found a great way of saving a small fortune.  We bought very basic foods which we could prepare easily in our hotel room.  Peanut butter and bread for sandwiches and canned soup.  The money that we saved from buying groceries allowed us to eat at the most expensive restaurants on the island.

Souvenirs-  DON’T BUY THEM!  Take photos instead.  When I am traveling I will mail postcards to my friends and relatives, take photos for memories and bring home some local currency for my coin collection.  Nothing more is needed.  We did bring home a small bit of sand from the beach.  Total cost of sand: $0.

Public Transportation- Taxis are incredibly convenient.  You can get to any place on the island and when you are in an unfamiliar country, having the security of a taxi to take you exactly where you want to go can be very helpful.  They are extremely expensive though.  We began riding the public bus whenever we could.  What would have been a $10 taxi ride turned into a $3.00 bus ride.  Incredible savings, especially if you are moving around often.

Be Flexible- When we were planning our trip we considered renting a vehicle to travel around the island.  When we arrived, vehicles were not readily available and were considerably more expensive than the listed price.  We had our hearts set on visiting other parts of the island so we decided to book an island tour.  It was the best part of our entire trip.  Soon after we got off the beaten path we realized that had we rented a vehicle we wouldn’t have been able to visit the places we had on our list anyways.  The terrain was too rugged for most vehicles and I wouldn’t have had the courage to drive a rental vehicle through these areas.

When you consider taking a vacation, consider as well whether you are there for a hotel room or for the culture of the country.  What I found during my time near the high-rise hotel area is that the beaches are crowded with American tourists and generally unpleasant.  We found that the beaches away from the hotels were far superior and less crowded.  Getting away from the tourist areas allows you to get in touch with the local culture and meet pleasant people.

I love vacationing and doing it on a limited budget opens doors to exploring frugality in some of the most expensive locations on Earth.  I can’t wait for my next international trip to see what kinds of great deals I can find.

Filed under Budgeting, Travel

“Where’s My Bailout?”

February 22, 2009 1 Comment

"parachut" by Stef van Haute @ FlickrWith the passing of the Economic Stimulus Package, you may be asking yourself “Where’s MY bailout!??”

Some of the money is going to be coming your way, in the form of a $400 tax credit dispersed through your payroll checks.  By my calculations, if you get paid bi-weekly, that will be about $14 per pay period.  Not a great deal, but it is better than nothing.

I have to say, though, that we ought not be counting on the government to be bailing us out.  While the reality of our economy is that big corporations are holding their hands out to big brother expecting a huge chunk of cash, we shouldn’t feel as though we are owed anything.  We are responsible for our own financial situations and it is time that we start acting that way.

What can you do to give yourself a “bailout”?

Run your home like a business- If you were to hire someone to take care of your household finances and they were doing the job as well as you have been doing it, would you fire them?  It is time to get serious about getting your money under control.  Gather all of your bills and other expenses and create a budget.  Figure out exactly how much money is coming in and going out every month.  This is no time for estimates.  Take an afternoon to figure it out.  If you are in a relationship be sure that your spouse or significant other is involved in this process.  They need to be aware of the situation as well.  By creating a budget together you are also eliminating the confrontation that would likely occur when you spring your new budget on them.

Pay your bills- On time, every time!  Late fees and over-limit fees are the worst type of fee you can encounter.  Why?  Because you could have avoided them altogether had you simply paid your bills on time.  If you find yourself in a cycle of never having enough money at the end of the month then you need to find ways to trim the excess off of your expenses or find ways to bring in extra income.  In today’s economy it will probably be easier to do some budget cuts.  Cut the cable, the gym membership, the landline, the internet.  Anything that you don’t need to survive should be cut if you can’t make it through the month while still having a little something left over.

Sell something- People hate this one.  They don’t want to get rid of their toys.  The truth of the matter is, many times these are the reason that people are broke.  Sure, they can make all of the payments, but in doing so there is no money left for anything else.  I’ve heard all sorts of excuses about why someone won’t sell their extra vehicle or their motorcycle.  As long as these people continue making excuses, they will continue to be broke.  The fastest way to turning your financial situation around is to stop letting your money slip through your fingers.  Paying for something year round that you use 3 months out of the year doesn’t make any sense.  Get rid of it!

Put away the credit cards- Credit cards are not the cause of your suffering, you are.  The problem with credit cards isn’t that they charge insane interest rates, slam you with fees or can change your contract without a moments notice.  The problem is that people continue to use them despite having full knowledge of all of the previously mentioned facts.  People are maxed out to their eyeballs, but as soon as there is a little available credit on the card, what is the first thing they do?  That’s right, they charge it right back up and lose all the progress they had made towards getting out of debt.  By putting the cards away and working on getting your finances on track you won’t need to use credit cards to get through the month.

Have a goal- This website is all about accomplishing goals, be they financial, personal, spiritual or otherwise.  No matter what your goal, when you begin to focus on accomplishing it, nothing else will matter.  Having purpose and drive will help to align your money with your values.  You will find yourself prioritizing differently and a lot of that prioritizing has to do with finances.  So unless your goal is to be broke the rest of your life because you don’t want to learn how to properly manage money, goals can help you to give yourself a bailout as well.

Adjust your withholdings- I wrote an article about how to adjust your withholdings on your W-4.  If you are having trouble making ends meet, this is a good way of bringing home a little extra money every paycheck.  Make sure that you have selected the correct number of withholdings so that you won’t be stuck paying in at tax time.

I hope this list can help you as a jumping off point to giving yourself a “bailout”.  Do you have any other ideas for giving yourself a bailout that I missed?  I’d love to read your suggestions or stories about what you are doing.

Filed under Budgeting, Debt, Money

Results of the $10 Grocery Experiment

February 15, 2009 5 Comments

Last week I decided that I would conduct an experiment to try and spend only $10 on dinner meals for two adults for an entire work week.  How did I do?  I will let you be the judge.

First, the numbers:  Here is a list of all ingredients I purchased and their cost:

 

  Whole Chicken $3.64   Roma Tomatos $0.49
  Onion $0.48   Corn Tortillas $1.25
  Carrots $0.84   Tomato Sauce $0.27
  Celery $1.36   Enchilada Seasoning $1.00
  Cheddar Cheese $2.18      
  Jalepeno Peppers $0.17   Total $11.68

 

As you can see, I went over my $10 budget.  It wasn’t until I picked up the packet of enSon of Jim Norris, homesteader, tying corn into bundles, Pie Town, New Mexicochilada seasoning that I went too far off budget.  In retrospect, the seasoning wasn’t probably something that I really needed.  I had purchased the tomatoes and jalepenos in order to prepare my own sauce, but at the last minute my inner voice of self-doubt began calling out to me saying I was crazy to think I could make my own enchilada sauce.  I needed that packet of seasoning.

Looking at that grocery list, some people are probably wondering what meals I chose to prepare for the week.  I decided that chicken would be my base ingredient for the week.  I decided that in order to make the chicken last for at least 3 different meals I would have to plan accordingly.  Obviously if I wanted to make a meal of chicken breast, I need to do that before I tear the chicken to shreds for enchiladas.

I decided that the plan would be to have chicken breast and rice for the first night.  Luckily we have rice around the house, so it wasn’t factored into the overall grocery cost.  For the sake of argument I chose not to include the cost of spices as everyone prefers to season their meals differently.  Total cost for chicken breast, excluding the rice we had in our cupboard was $1.21; $0.60 each.

Tuesdays meal would be enchiladas.  Since we had only eaten the chicken breast, there was plenty of meat left on the chicken.  We used it to make chicken enchiladas.  Surpringly to me, this ended up being our most expensive meal.  I had figured it would be the cheapest, but buying cheeses and a seasoning packet put the cost of the meal at $6.08.  Nearly half of my budget!  When I preparing this meal, I forgot that it was supposed to last for 2 days, and I portioned it for one.  Stupid me!  My girlfriend was able to make her’s last for 2 days, while I ate mine in one.  The result, 3 meals at a cost of $2.03 per meal.  Not great, but not too bad either.

Because of my error in portioning the enchiladas, I had to make Thursday’s meal Wednesday.  No big problem.  I’d just have to eat the same thing 3 days in a row instead of 2.  All I had left was a chicken carcass and some vegetables.  We had 3 more days to go and it looked like we might starve to death.  Not really.  Thursday & Friday I planned to make soup.  I went to my mom’s house to learn how to make homemade noodles.  It is very easy and inexpensive as well.  Thanks mom!  Total cost of the soup: $3.89, making the cost per meal for two (and a half) days $0.78.  Having your mom teach you how to create great tasting and inexpensive noodles: Priceless.

So while it is true that I went over my $10 budget, I did learn some things from this experiment.

Lesson One: Plan Your Meals in Advance- When you know what you are going to be making for the week, make a list of exactly the ingredients you will need.  A list helps to keep you from buying things that you think you might need.  You know exactly what you need so there is no question.

Lesson Two: Use What You Already Have- We were able to use some rice that we had in our cupboards to compliment our meal with a nice, simple side dish.  Some people may think that rice is boring, and I suppose that it could be if someone eats it often, but since we don’t eat much rice it was a nice change of pace.  I also recommend keeping a spice rack of a variety of spices.  Spices will help improve a dull flavored meal, and will also inspire you to try new things.

Lesson Three: Sales & Coupons- Unfortunately there were no sales or coupons for the ingredients I was buying.  Had there been, I might have made my budget.  Some people think that coupons are a waste of time, and sometimes they are, but if you keep an eye out and clip coupons for things that you use regularly, why not save yourself a little bit of money?  Also, looking at the flier from the grocery store and planning your meals for the following week from that is a great way to save some money.  Keep your eyes open for deals on things you eat regularly.

Lesson Four: Buy Fresh- If you look at my list, most of it is fresh meat and produce.  The processed foods like the cheese and the seasoning packet are the most expensive.  Not only is processed food more expensive, it is loaded with sodium and other things you probably don’t want to put in your body.  By no means am I health food nut, but what in the heck is a tripolyphosphate anyways?  Guess I’ll Google it.

In the future I may attempt to successfully complete this experiment under budget as now I know where I made mistakes.  Keeping a meal budget low, and healthy, is not impossible, $11.68 for 10 meals is a great bargain, but it takes time, planning and effort.

Filed under Budgeting, Experiments, Food

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