Earned an A+ in fun and a C- for my Budget: Vacation Report Card

Me and my big brothers

Me and my big brothers

I am back from vacation.

This trip was perfect; from the house we rented to the weather, everything about this trip gets an A+.

My family has not had many opportunities to spend quality time together being spread out across the country.  I know that my brothers feel the same way I do about how amazing this experience was for all of our children and it was pretty awesome for my Mom too.

BUT

Our vacation budget took a bit of a beating.  Although we did not completely break the bank, there were several key lapses in judgment where spending was concerned.  The worst part about these lapses…they were all MINE!

Arghhh, I was the weakest link.

I was so vested in maintaining the A+ good time being had by the family that I started spending above and beyond to cover community expenses.  Nobody asked me to do this…

I repeat…NOBODY asked me to do this.

So really, had I NOT made some of these extra purchases, nobody would have noticed.  I just wanted to do something nice for everyone, which sounds harmless.

It went something like this, “Ohhh I need to make such and such for my brother, because he loves this dish.” Or, “What Darlene? You have never had Sangria, let me go and buy all of this fruit etc. to make it.”

Never mind that the fridge was FULL and we had more than enough to drink, trust me, we had more than enough to drink. Despite this fact, food and drinks just kept magically appearing.  We were all contributing so you could not really be sure who bought what.

I was not really aware of what I was doing until the final days of the vacation. 

That is when people started to leave and with fewer people in the house, the amount of food and drinks left behind seemed an enormous quantity.

Everyone remaining made jokes about feeding an army, but I know I was not alone in looking at all of the perishable stuff and feeling regret.  None of us could take the perishable stuff home.  We were looking at a fridge and freezer full of food that we could not possibly eat in the remaining two days.

What a waste.

So, that is why I give myself a C- on the budget.  I should know better than to spend for the sake of spending…yet I was so caught up in the excitement of the trip I lost the connection to my better judgment.

Oh well, the trip was still AH-MAY-ZING.  I will just note this as a valuable learning experience and be sure to take inventory before buying more stuff at the next family vacation.

How have you done with your vacation budgets?

About Suzanne Coblentz

10 Responses to “Earned an A+ in fun and a C- for my Budget: Vacation Report Card”

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  1. Michelle says:

    As long as it was fun time, that’s all that matters! 🙂

    • Hi Michelle,

      It really was fun and I did enjoy everything about the trip. I learned a valuable lesson from this trip that will serve me well in the future I am sure. Thanks so much for stopping by!

  2. C- is better than a complete fail if your vacation was “AH-MAY-ZING!”

    I only spent $40 on my latest vacation. Gotta love when your relative wins money at the casino and can buy your plane tickets!

  3. I don’t know what it is about being on vacation, but my sense of frugality goes out the window! It’s alright, as long as you had a great time and as long as the damage wasn’t too bad.

    • @Lisa, I know you are right, I mean this was one of those trips that will talked about for years. But yes, the damage was not extreme, I think just seeing all of that food go to waste kind of killed me. Thanks for stopping by!

  4. I’m glad you had a really good time! Honestly don’t worry about the bad grade in budgeting. You work really hard and deserve a nice time every now and then!

    • @BudgetBlonde,

      You are all taking it so easy on me! LOL Thanks Cat, I am trying very hard to just let it go and focus on the good time we had. Thanks for the positive perspective 🙂

  5. Travis says:

    There’s a big difference between spending more money than you’d LIKE to and spending money you don’t have. I know you, Suzanne, you’re one of those people that want to make sure everyone is having a great time, and will do everything you can to make that happen (Hmmm, I seem to know someone else like that….I won’t name any names, but it starts with V and rhymes with Connie). You just need to make sure you don’t cross that line. 🙂

    • You are right @Travis. It is tough to mitigate that need to make everyone happy and that need to keep my budget happy LOL. At any rate, it was not too terrible. I am (as you well know) also quite fond of food, so seeing it wasted is like the twist of a knife. *sigh* Thanks for the support 🙂

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