Summer of 2013 has my wife and I travelling to italy and an un-named lost archipelago.
The thought of pulling together funds to have 2 extended international trips in one summer is overwhelming. Just coming up with budgets for the trips is an exhaustive leap of faith, but then comes the hard part; actually saving up for them.
My wife and I have enjoyed travelling the world together for the last 10 years together and more recently with our son (including San Jose del Cabo Mexico, Oaxaca Mexico, Austin TX, Palm Springs and much more of California), however for our next “big” trip we really found ourselves headed in different directions (literally). My wife and her mother have been dreaming of the once in a life time trip to their family’s homeland, Italy. I on the other hand have visions of straying way off the beaten path and importing a small inflatable boat to a small island group where english is a second language (at best) and I can conserve cash by staying in rustic accommodations while maximizing my time on the adventure (if you’re reading this and interested, I still need to find a like minded surf companion to join me – at least that’s what my wife tells me). So, two trips in one summer; divide and conquer. The trips also allow us to revisit how we travelled in our youth, before we were parents, while the other takes care of our responsibilities back at home. Is a 3 year old really going to enjoy the vatican or flirting with the risk of contracting malaria? Nope, he’d much prefer a picnic at the park or a trip to the beach. Now that the plot is framed out, how are we actually going to make it happen financially?
Step 1: Ride more bike, train and skateboard. We both drive gas guzzlers that get less than 20 miles per gallon but we live walking distance to a couple grocery stores and every other daily necessity. Although both these vehicles were sound investments from a reliability and safety perspective, they are less than ideal commuter vehicles. So, we’ll be working to cut down the miles outside of our work commutes, which will save in maintenance costs (oil, tires, etc.) and gas. Its hard to say how much this will save but I know it won’t hurt.
Step 1 and 1/2: In addition to reducing gas, I’ve started changing the oil and using full synthetic to double the mileage between changes (better for car, environment and wallet). Assuming 2 cars, and a standard oil change interval of every 4,000 miles (now going 8,000 miles), this should save $440 per year.
Step 2: Stop eating out for the sake of eating out. It is so easy to fall into a habit of eating out whenever we’re running short on time to make dinner. But I think that even though we have about 50 restaurants within walking distance of our home that eating out takes just as much if not more time that eating in. So we ordered a CSA box for organic veggies that we’re hoping to inspire us to get more creative and deliberate with our meal plans to minimize those moments of weakness that lead to making poor meal / budget decisions. If we can keep it to no more than once a week, we’ll be in better shape. Assuming we were eating out 1 and 1/2 meals out per week and $50 per meal this should save $1,200 per year.
Step 3: No drinks at restaurants. We enjoy a glass of wine or a beer with dinner, especially when we’re out on the town, but the markup is obscene and you’re going to add tip and gratuity to the price of that drink. So in addition to cutting back the meals out, we’ll be cutting back the drinks at meals out. Except I think we’ll still have a beer at Wednesday happy hours at rock bottom though; pizza and a beer for $10 is pretty hard to beat. Assuming 4 meals out per month and 1 drink per person per meal this should save $672 per year.
Step 4: Stop buying stuff. This is a hard one. Toilet paper is a necessity in my book but what about the clothes, electronics, golf balls, souvenirs, linens, and everything else that comes up. So, I decided that unless it is replacing something that is unusable or it is going to save us money (like the synthetic oil and filters that I’m using to service our cars instead of paying the mechanic to do the work), then it has to be a birthday or christmas to warrant the purchase. This focuses us on only spending money on what is important. We’ll probably go bigger than we ever did on these occasions and holidays, but if we cut out the stuff that we don’t really want but ended up buying during the months between these occasions, I think we’ll be in better shape on our trip savings. Again, not sure how much this will save, but it is a step in the right direction.
Step 5: Kill the reoccurring bills. We just killed our direct tv subscription for $65 a month and are getting Netflix and a Roku for $11 a month. Not as convenient and not as many selections for shows, but I was tired of paying this bill (seeing it show up on my credit card bill) and even more tired of the 2 year old saying “I want my show”. He’s on the verge of being a TV addict and it has to stop. This will save $658 per year. We had already killed our reoccurring phone and internet bills (you’ll have to ask me if you’re interested), so this was the last one that I could find a way out of.
I’m still working on this but wanted to share my 5 and 1/2 tips to reallocate the family budget to travel. Although some of my tips don’t have concrete dollars associated with them, the ones that do add up to $2,970 per year which should cover the flights to our respective destinations.
Got any more ideas? Let me know!
If only I could bike to the island instead of fly…
rocking the boats 