Washington DC Trip: The Finances

My husband and I went on a whirlwind tour of our country's capital last weekend. We left late on Thursday for Raleigh, NC, drove to DC on Friday morning, drove back to Raleigh Sunday night, and left Monday morning! We had a blast!

As far as the financial aspect of things, I was actually pretty surprised.

Breakfast was either provided by the friend we were staying with or free at the hotel, but for various reasons, we ate out every single lunch and dinner. I knew that was going to get expensive, but I wasn't sure exactly how it would all come out.

We ended up spending a lot eating out, but almost nothing for entertainment (since all of the DC museums are FREE!). I think it came out as a pretty decent wash. Here's the breakdown:

Food: $175
Entertainment: $39
Parking: $44
Lodging: $100
Transportation: $415

The transportation costs were just the plane tickets. Our friend graciously paid all of the gasoline costs. We tried to make up for it by paying for some of his meals, but I think we got the better end of that deal :) (Thanks, Tom!)

I highly recommend vacationing in Washington DC. A lot of the awesome things to do there are free, and you could have a very frugal vacation if you were to buy your food at a grocery store instead of eating out like we did.

What's your favorite frugal vacation spot?

Getting the Best Deal on Airline Tickets

I'm fairly new to the world of buying airline tickets, and I finally have a system down. I'd love to share it with you and hear back if you know of a way to get a better price.

Step 1
About four months before a trip (provided I know about it four months in advance), I start to watch airline ticket prices for the trip I plan to take. All ticket search sites seem to find the same results, so I just use Yahoo! Travel since Yahoo! is my home page.
I keep a record of the date I checked, the price, and the airline. I'll do this at least once a week for a couple of weeks to get a feel for ticket prices on the trip I'm taking.

Step 2
I check Farecast.com. This is actually a new step for me. I just used it last week before buying plane tickets for an upcoming trip to Arizona. The site is pretty neat because it tells you whether ticket prices for your flight are likely to go up or down in the next seven days and how sure it is of that prediction. There's also a little chart that shows the ticket price history.
This website came in handy because I had been watching the price of the Arizona tickets continually go up over the past couple of weeks. Early last week, they hit a new high and I got really nervous. I checked Farecast, which told me that prices were expected to drop back down. Whew! Sure enough, three days later, ticket prices were back down to their low since I'd started recording them. I checked Farecast again, and they predicted prices would go back up. I decided it was the right time to buy!

Step 3
I went to the airline's website to order the tickets. I have yet to find a website that can give me a better price than the airline itself. It's usually exactly $5 cheaper per ticket when I buy through the airline directly. I'm assuming that $5 must be the "finder's fee" other websites get for booking flights.
I also like the sense of security I get from knowing that there's no middleman to mess things up between me and the airline.

Step 4
Last, I relax and wait for my vacation to begin!

Have you found somewhere to get a better price than directly through the airline? I'd love to hear about it!

The Refund We Didn't Think We'd Get

We just got a refund of $250 onto our credit card, and I have my husband to thank. Here's the story:

As I've mentioned numerous times, my husband and I went on our honeymoon last month. Since we had never done an all-inclusive resort before, we decided to use a travel agent to book our trip. The travel agent told us that there was a promotion going on where we got a $250 spa credit to use at the resort's spa. We booked the trip and signed the paperwork.
Fast forward about 5 months to my husband and I standing at the front desk of the resort (we're in our swimsuits and sandals, of course!). After talking to about four different people, we're informed that the travel agency shouldn't have told us that we had a spa credit because the promotion expired before our trip was even booked.
I was really bummed. I hadn't painted my toenails before leaving for this tropical paradise specifically because of the spa credit. I had imagined myself relaxing amid palm trees with a strawberry daiquiri in my hand and a friendly lady giving me a wonderful pedicure. Now I was stuck with old, half-worn-off nail polish for the duration of my vacation.
I hate complaining to companies and my husband doesn't mind at all, so he called the travel agent when we got home. We expected to get a lame excuse and for someone to hand us a gift certificate to use on our next expensive tropical vacation (which would be completely useless to us). The travel agent didn't sound very hopeful and wanted my husband to call the company that the trip was booked with. He let her know that she should call them on our behalf (jeez, what were we paying her for?).
We were both extremely surprised when the travel agent called a few days later and said that the company would credit our credit card $250!
Despite the travel agent coming through for us in the end, we will probably never book a trip through a travel agency again. They didn't provide us with any better information than we had access to ourselves over the internet. It was a good lesson learned.
Oh, and by the way, I plan on using a little of that refund to finally get that well-deserved pedicure :)

I'd love to hear about any travel-related lessons you've learned the hard way!

Jamaican Honeymoon: The Finances

As I mentioned in previous posts, my husband and I just got back from our honeymoon in Jamaica. We had budgeted $1000 in spending money, which I also mentioned in a previous post. How did we do?

Excursions: $590
Pictures: $40
Food: $10
Parking: $40
Souvenirs/Misc: $50
Cash for tips, etc: $70
Total: $800

To expound a little, the excursions were the reason that we saved as much as we did. We swam with dolphins and went horseback riding in the ocean, two things that weren't included in our package and were very pricey! They were worth every penny, though. Also, we nearly ran out of tip money. If you ever go on a trip like this, I recommend at least $100 (especially if your husband is a big tipper!) and make sure it's almost all in $1 bills :)

I was very happy to come in under budget, especially since I'm worried about getting $4000 into each of our ROTH's before April 15th. The $200 we didn't spend in Jamaica is going right into our ROTH's.

I'm Back and Carnivals

Jamaica was awesome! We had a great time and I wasn't quite ready to come home yet. Luckily, we completely missed a really cold spell here in Wisconsin. I was really glad to be in my swimsuit by a pool in the tropics while my friends and family back home were suffering through temperatures below zero ;)

It's just about bedtime, so I'll keep it at that for now and hopefully do a little longer post on Jamaica later this week. I was included in two carnivals while I was gone:

Carnival of Personal Finance
Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances

I'll post again soon!

I'm Off to Jamaica!!!

...that is, unless the snow doesn't stop and our flight gets canceled. Pray that doesn't happen!

I will not have any internet access while on my honeymoon, and I have yet to figure out a way to have my articles automatically post on a future date (if anyone knows how, please share!). I will be back on the night of Friday, January 25th and will post again by the following Monday. Don't forget about me!

I wasn't going to do a favorite blog post this week, but I found a really neat one. It's a cool story from ChristianPF that highlights the need to balance planning for the future with living life today.
Don't Save It All Up for Retirement

Walk good, mon!