Travel Hack: Have A Body Pillow On Vacation Without Packing One

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My wife has certain things she prefers to bring on vacation. One of those things, her body pillow, is a little size prohibitive to take on vacation. Especially when space in our car is a premium for a cross country road trip. However, prior to our recent trip to Florida she found a way to have a body pillow without actually bringing it with. Option 1: Pack It The simplest solution is to simply pack the body pillow. However, fitting the suitcases for four people (2 others rode with us) for a week’s vacation in the back of a mini-SUV […] Read more »

Talking Finances While On Vacation

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You might go on a vacation, but you should never take a vacation from paying attention to your finances. My wife and I are currently on vacation, but we continue to have financial discussions every couple of days, just as we do at home. How We Talk Finances On Vacation Just like when we’re at home, our financial discussions cover several areas: Recent Spending: The first thing we do is discuss what we’ve spent, We make sure we’re both aware of what we’ve spent our money on, and how much we’ve spent. We also review how our spending matches up […] Read more »

Vacation Spending Planning 101

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In the near future my wife and I will be going on vacation to sunny Florida. We’re renting a house with a group of people, and driving to and from our destination. A vacation of this magnitude will require a lot of planning, and careful budgeting. As soon as we booked the vacation we started budgeting. We also made sure our saving was on track to match our projected spending. Breaking down our projected vacation spending, we separated the trip into three major segments. Then, for each segment we made an itemized list of planned expenditures. Segment 1: The Trip […] Read more »

Hotel Stay: Get What You Pay For

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We all work hard for our money, and deserve to get exactly what we pay for. My wife takes this statement to heart, letting anyone know if she feels let down in any way, shape, or form. One of her favorite phrases is, “How are you going to make this right?” This mindset displayed itself perfectly during our recent trip to Florida. The Dirty Comforter During our road trip to Florida, we stayed at a hotel in Illinois. In the morning, she noticed a makeup smear on the white comforter. The comforter that is supposed to be washed after each […] Read more »

Group Vacation Money Saving Tips

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My family and I are currently vacationing in Florida with a group of friends. We’ve done this several years now, and always have a great time. Over the years we have developed a portfolio of ways to save money. Previous Vacation Money Saving Articles Some techniques I’ve already written about here on Enemy Of Debt: Road Trip: The more people in your family, the more it costs to fly across the country. We take a few days to drive down instead. Not only does it save us money, it provides opportunity for family bonding and adventure. Group Meals: Several people […] Read more »

Vacation Meal Planning Adventures

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My family and I are currently on vacation with some friends and family. We packed up our vans and started our adventure last Thursday, taking a couple of days to drive from Minnesota to Florida. During our 3 day trip across the country we had no choice but to eat out. Eating at restaurants is not my idea of a great use of my funds, but in this case there wasn’t any way of avoiding it. However, once we got to Florida, we’re staying in a large rental house with a full kitchen. On the night of our arrival, we […] Read more »

How To Have an Inexpensive Mid-Winter Getaway

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The weather forecast says that we may not break zero degrees today, and the wind chill will make it feel like -15F to -30F outside.  That’s the kind of cold that makes your teeth HURT. You can also do this really neat trick where you can watch boiling water turn to ice crystals instantaneously.  While it hasn’t been a very harsh winter, today is the kind of day that makes me long for the warm days of summer.  It’s for days like this that several months ago we began planning a little outing. Later this week a we’ll be heading […] Read more »

Hidden Costs of Vacations and How to Minimize Them

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Recently I went on an amazing vacation. It was a 5 day cruise with stops in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and Key West, Florida. (It also had my favorite band of all time on it!) A large portion of it was a gift from a friend but I was still responsible for some expenses and I set a budget early to deal with them. However, I realized very quickly that there were a number of expenses that I did not account for when I was making plans. Most of us budget for vacations and we plan for travel expenses, hotels, […] Read more »

Paper or Plastic: Taking a Family Vacation without Credit Cards

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If you are like most American families, with the stagnant recession, escalating gas prices, and unstable job market, you’ve chosen to forgo vacations for in-home activities. Believe it or not, there is a way to stick to a no-credit card spending mentality, and still provide a wonderful family vacation to your family. Because booking hotel, airplane, and car rentals often request a credit card as payment, it takes a little more creativity to make a family vacation possible with using plastic. Sometimes, it might involve using family and friends who still use credit cards. Do not hesitate to give close […] Read more »

Frugality Tips – Spending Less Before and During Vacation

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Are you planning a vacation? Everyone looks forward to going on vacation. It’s the time of the year when people can cut loose and enjoy some quality time with friends and family. However, it’s an easy mistake to make to ‘enjoy’ yourself a little too much before you realize upon your return that you’ve spent too much. Being frugal on vacation can be tricky because you don’t want to be watching every last dollar all the time and you’d much rather have a relaxing time creating memories that will last a lifetime. But you can do both and have a […] Read more »

Headed Out of Town…

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Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you know I am headed out of town for about 7 days. I will not be back until late next week and I will be completely unplugged. Okay not completely because I have the iPhone but I’m not going to be blogging that’s for sure. I’m going to see my 15 year old daughter! This is a last minute trip so I have had to be pretty creative to keep the costs down. When I get back I will write about how I did. Until then feel free to check out the archives […] Read more »

What is Your Approach to Vacation Spending?

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  Hello everyone! Last week my family and I went to North Carolina for a short vacation. My wife has family in Florida that has been planning this Nags Head trip for about a year. When they first started planning, we were asked if we wanted to make the commitment which would of meant a down payment for the luxurious cottage a block from the beach. As most of you know, last year at this time, my wife and I were in the final stages of paying off our debt, so we could not make the commitment that was needed. […] Read more »