Travel Tips and Tricks $Weekly Money Check-In$

momofcatan

Feel free to participate in either section or both!

Part I: If you have a savings goal, how is it going? Hit any roadblocks this week? Any success you want to share?

Part II Travel: What are your tip and tricks for saving money on vacations? Any “travel hackers” who make the most of reward points? Anyone ever plan a stay-cation?

momofcatan

Part I: If you have a savings goal, how is it going? Hit any roadblocks this week? Any success you want to share?

 I'm so excited I'm going to burst. I sent out 2 resumes last week and got an interview for one. It's an marketing agency which is 100% the direction I want to go in, and even though 99% of agencies are downtown (1hr commute for me) this one is a 20 min WALK from my house. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, because I think I'm underqualified for the position but I'm excited to get my foot in the door. I still have 2 other resumes I need to send out this week.

(Also scored some great deals with my 10% off at Target coupon, and got free pasta with couponing)

Part II Travel: What are your tip and tricks for saving money on vacations? Any “travel hackers” who make the most of reward points? Anyone ever plan a stay-cation?

I don't have too many tips I'm excited to see what others have to offer. The only one I can think of is if you need to stay in a hotel try to stay somewhere where you can walk instead of renting a car or taxis. You are on vacation so there should be no rush. Has anyone tried Air BnB? It sounds interesting.

 I think with the tight budget there will be some stay-cationing in our future. We live in a great city with so much to do and I've never seen half of it.

itsStackie

So going over our budget Monday did not work since DH went into work.  We tried to go over it before hand and when the sheet was pulled up he sighed and said no.  I wasn't going to get into it, so I will bring it up again Saturday in between his work days.  I think we look good for this month though.

Travel: One way we save is bringing sandwiches, but it definitely gets old fast.  Our supermarket has a deal where you can get $10 off a gas card if you spend $50 on groceries.  I usually pull extra money from groceries/eating out when this happens and get the gas card, and we try to only use the gas card for travel/vacation.  

Lizzybizzy80

I'm excited for you, fingers crossed! @momofcatan‌

Part 1: doing ok on the budget. I think we will have a little extra at the end of the month to transfer to savings. I stopped drinking to lose weight so our alcohol budget is going to go way down in November.

Part 2: something fun we used to do when I was a kid was to rent a shack on a beach with a kitchen. We would eat out some but cook at home, too. It's fun grocery shopping in other countries. I'd like to do this with Beckett in a couple years. I've heard good things about airBnB.

We also camped a lot with three or four families and split up dinner/cleaning duties. I have great memories of just riding bikes/exploring or playing baseball with a tennis ball at a campground. My mom once set up a scavenger hunt in a motel that was a riot. Cheap fun.

momofcatan

@Lizzybizzy80 said:

 I stopped drinking to lose weight so our alcohol budget is going to go way down in November.

But, but, I love drunk bumping Lizzy. 

daffy2k

That's so exciting! Good luck @momofcatan‌ !!

Part 1:  I've been away visiting family and have been pretty bad about checking our budget.  I think I've gone over a bit here and there, so I'll have to crack down next month.  I have started Christmas shopping, and so far I'm very pleased with myself.  I've been watching for great deals and I have bought for all 3 kids (M and our niece and nephew) under budget.  And I got things they really, really wanted!  Hope I can continue my streak to the adults.

Part 2: along the same lines as @lizzybizzy80, when H and I were traveling in Europe and South America we found that we could often rent condos for the same/less as a hotel room. This gave us a kitchen and sometimes even laundry facilities.  We still ate out for dinners, but tried to buy a few groceries so we could eat breakfast before we left in the mornings and depending on our plan for the day we would sometimes pack lunch.  This saved us a ton of money, especially in Europe.  We are planning similar type of accommodations when we go to Hawaii after Christmas.  Plus, I really have no desire to take my 1.5 year old to a restaurant 3x a day.  

I have head of Air BnB from H's aunt.  She was raving about it, but I actually don't think she's ever used it either, lol.  Last spring FIL/MIL rented a house in Phoenix for all of us using vbro.com. They got a really amazing rate for the week.  We had a 4 bdrm two story house with a backyard pool, putting green and lots of space for other activities.  I can't remember the price, but I know it was a really great rate! 

One tip I have is when booking hotels check the hotel website first.  My H is obsessed with finding flights/hotels through travel websites like Expedia or Trivago.  But i have almost always found the same rate on the hotel website as what he finds on Expedia and usually I can apply a promo code to reduce the rate.  My most recent deal was at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, normally a little out of our price range for a weekend away.  The best price H could find on his "deal" sites was over $300/night, I went on the Fairmont and used the PESA promo code (for all my alberta/Saskatchewan ladies, this is the AB/SK resident code and its a better deal than CAA!). I dropped the price to $210.  Still not the cheapest, but nothing in the Rockies is cheap and I love, love, love the Lodge. 

momofcatan

@steamboat123 Reminded me about the amazon.ca credit card. Canadian moms @mesw85 @sympkin @mrsveinotte and whoever I forgot. Amazon.ca credit card - no annual fee and they will charge you the exact exchange rate if you shop in US dollars, no extra fee. You also get 2% cash back when you shop on amazon.ca with it.

ETA @daffy2k this is great for when you go to Hawaii

daffy2k

Do it @megsw85‌ . My H always thought I was crazy for wanting to stay there every time, but he totally gets it now. There's just something about the atmosphere. There is also always lots of different activities going on, so especially if you take the kids check with the concierge for the schedule that day.

P.S. The AB residents code only works Sun-Thurs.  it isn't good on the weekends.  However, I ended up switching our stay from Wed/Thurs night to Thurs/Fri.  I just called the hotel to make the change and the front desk attendant I spoke to found a similar promo code to give me the same discount for Friday.

kh59

Part I--We're directing all extra money toward student loans right now...the exception being part II

Part II--I've missed a few check-ins because we went to Argentina earlier this month, and then I had to catch up at work.  The trip was so fun, though!  Relatively affordable, too, because we stayed with friends, and they knew the best place for us to exchange money (with the exchange rate we got, we ended up only spending about $250 for food and activities for 10 days!).  I guess the tip here is to go somewhere with relatively weak currency?

We use AirBnB, both as guests and as hosts.  It's been almost entirely great so far.  I'm much more familiar with the hosting side of things, but it's been super easy and nice extra income.

daffy2k

@steamboat123‌ , just out of curiosity, where would you have flown into in canada? I was under the impression Spokane was the closest international airport to Red Mountain?

daffy2k

Spokane is definitely further from Revelstoke, but you'll be pleasantly surprised that it is only about 2.5 hrs from Red Mountain (which is essentially in the middle of nowhere in Canada!). The nearest airport is Kelowna (I think...) and it is easily 4+ hours away. The only issue I've had with US flights vs. Canadian ones is that usually the U.S. flights I check have many stops/layovers whereas I can almost always fly direct, or 1 stop, on a canadian airline to my desired canadian or american location. But you are probably right that I end up paying more.

daffy2k

Oh, and also, if you guys are into skiing Canadian ski hills I have to recommend Marmot Basin in Jasper. It's gotten a bad rap over the years because it hadn't really kept up size-wise and resort village wise with the others, but the last few years they have expanded the skiable terrain drastically, the snow is AMAZING, and what they lack in resort village you can make up for on the hill. The town of Jasper is a great place to hang out après ski. youve already skied Revelstoke, but we also love Kicking Horse and Sun Peaks. If you needed more ideas

daffy2k

@Mrsveinotte‌ I hadn't been paying much attention but googled it after seeing your post. I think I am very excited for this tax break. H is self employed and we were just discussing how we could get away with paying me a portion of what he'd normally pay himself in order to keep both of us in a lower bracket. Since I have no income, and according to my research he could probably share up to $50,000 with me, I think that could potentially drop our total income tax quite significantly.

momofcatan

@mrsveinotte It will probably work for you. assuming your H has income that is higher than the lowest tax bracket. I have not researched this, but I'm assuming this is how it works.

A quick google search pulled this up:

• 15% on the first $43,953 of taxable income, +
• 22% on the next $43,954 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income over $43,953 up to $87,907), +
• 26% on the next $48,363 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income over $87,907 up to $136,270), +
• 29% of taxable income over $136,270.

So say DH makes 60K. Instead of getting taxed 15% on 43K and 22% on the 17K, he would move 17K to be under your name and then it would be taxed at 15%. I think....

momofcatan

@daffy2k article I just read said they might cap it at $2000 tax savings.

daffy2k

Yeah, I just read that too @momofcatan‌ . I'm bummed now, lol. But I think I still qualify as a "bookkeeper" who deserves to be paid. So I'll play around with the numbers a bit and see how I can work it.

daffy2k

It does not sound like Harper's plan has been met with a whole lot of enthusiasm, and I can definitely understand why. I hate paying taxes as much as the next guy, and I try to find every break I can, but when it comes right down to it I'm ok paying more as higher income household than the people who are struggling down the road. I also know what my tax dollars are used for, and while I may not agree with all of it I am definitely happy for a lot of the things that our taxes pay for. I'd hate to see some critical services be cut due to a significant reduction in income tax revenue. I also tend to be inclined to agree with some of Harper's critics that he is catering to a very small group on this one, and should probably focus a little more of that tax saving energy to helping those who are really struggling.

momofcatan

@daffy2k I am usually pro-Harper, but this one bugs me. I agree that it services so few I just don't get it.