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Booking, Budgeting, International Travel, Travel Guides

A little bit goes a long way (international edition)

  • May 05, 2015
Back by popular demand, we’re going to plan a fake trip.  This time, we’re going on an International excursion.

From Central Ohio, the cheapest international destinations are going to be ones in Central America, the Caribbean, or Mexico.  You can take an inexpensive cruise to any of these destinations, but you know me… I gotta bump it up one step.

Let’s say we don’t want to go on a cruise, but would like to spend a week exploring another country.  I’ve decided to do this trip as a couple, so let’s see how far $2,400 can get.  I have chosen $2,400 because I know that the median household income in Ohio is $46,093, and I’m sure that’s based on the fact that many families in Ohio have two incomes.  So let’s say that you have $46,093 per year.  After taking out 25 percent for taxes, that’s $34,569 a year.  That equates to $2,880 a month.  Experts say that you should be spending about 1/3 of your income on housing so that would be $865.  I would estimate about $300 for utilities.  Let’s say you have two $200 car payments, you spend $150 a week on groceries and fuel, you have a $120 a month cell bill.  That still leaves $595 for whatever other bills you have to pay.  I am guessing there’s at least $200 in there you could save towards travel.  

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by Nina Thomas Leave a Comment
Booking, Budgeting, Group Travel, Traveling

A little bit goes a long way (couples edition)

  • April 04, 2015
Since last week’s post was so much fun, I wanted to try again.  But this time… I’m going to take my husband on my trip.

Let’s say we started saving $100 in January, and by the time the fall comes around, we’re itching to go somewhere.  For starters, I want to handle the objection, “I don’t have $100 to save every month.”  Maybe you don’t, but allow me to help you trim the fat.

Let me give you some examples of things that you DON’T need that equal $100 for a couple:

  • 4 times dining out at $25 a pop (And don’t kid yourself, you know you eat out way more than 4 times a month)
  • 2 movie tickets ($22), 1 trip to Jeni’s ($8), 1 trip to Starbucks ($6), 2 Old Navy t-shirts ($24), one trip to Target where things fly into your cart that you know you didn’t need ($40)
  • 2 bottles of wine ($20), 4 fast food meals ($28), 1 set of new sheets ($45), 1 impulse grocery item ($7)

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by Nina Thomas 2 Comments
Accommodations, Booking, Budgeting, Planning, Sightseeing, Travel Guides, TripAdvisor

A little bit goes a long way

  • April 04, 2015
I’ve talked a few times about the ways I save a little bit of money here and there.  Just for the heck of it, I thought I would see how much I’ve saved from just a few of my tricks and see how far it goes.
 
So, I mentioned that we got rid of our internet at home, which saves us $60 a month.  We started that in November, and it’s now March.  So that has saved us $300 total in the last five months.
 
Additionally, I’ve stopping going to Starbucks so much (my guilty pleasure) and started making coffee and lattes at home.  I looked into it, and in January I spent $80 at Starbucks (I know… yikes) and in March, only $40.  So that means between just cutting out internet and not going to Starbucks so much, I have saved $340.  

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by Nina Thomas Leave a Comment
Accommodations, Booking, Budgeting, North America, Planning, Travel Guides

Travel Guide to Miami

  • April 04, 2015

In February, we visited a friend in Miami and she gave us a great all-around tour of the city.  The city is quite large, and there are so many things that you could go do and see, so I was glad to have a tour guide.  It such a good sampling of the city, that I felt like it was worth writing down for all you Central-Ohioans who need a good 4-5 day trip down south in the dead of winter.  

 
For starters, we rented a house through Airbnb called Quiet Canoe Outpost, which was in, what we didn’t realize at the time, one of the most sketchy areas in Miami: Little Haiti.  We met up with some of her friends and when we told them where we were staying, their eyes got big and they said, “are you serious?  It’s not safe there.”  Well, where we stayed was on a quiet street in the middle of the sketchy areas on a property that had just been rehabbed.

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by Nina Thomas 1 Comment
Budgeting, Planning

Money-saving hacks I’ve been trying recently

  • March 03, 2015


I talk a lot about money-saving on here because it seems that is still the number one reason why people can’t travel.  It’s not that they don’t want to, or don’t have the time, it’s just that they don’t have the funds. Recently, I posted about ways you can cut down on your actual travel budget.  I wanted to share with you ways that I’ve cut down on my every day spending. 

Savings can be used for anything, but we often like to spend our savings on travel. My husband and I have our ups and downs when it comes to getting serious about saving money.  Some weeks we do real well, and other weeks we through caution to the wind and go straight to the mall and out to eat wherever we feel like.

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by Nina Thomas Leave a Comment
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