I am so very excited that I was able to get the deal yesterday for the restaurant that we love so much. However, the stipulations state that it is for dinner only which meant I had to do a little more rearranging. Luckily it didn't cause major changes, just a little bit of shuffling.
At this point, we are getting so close that it worries me a little to do many changes, but I know they are necessary. You have to be prepared for the chance that something good can come along last minute like that did. We are planning on making several stops with our deals. After making those purchases yesterday, we are sitting at 17 for this trip and 2 for our December trip (1 is the additional deal for the restaurant and 1 for a stop that we eliminated from this trip due to time constraints).
That being said, the Old Navy deal went live again today and I just can't turn down a good deal for shopping. I love Old Navy and the best thing about shopping in NJ is there is no sales tax on clothing!!! I'm not sure if that's state wide or by county, but where we will be there isn't any tax. So, of course I picked up 2 more of those, one with my account and one with Shane's.
So, as of right this moment, we have 19 deals for this trip and 2 for the Decemer trip. AMAZING! I really think that I can hit 20 deals...I'd like to have that goal, but I just don't know if it will happen or not. Hmmm...we'll just have to keep watching.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Good things come to those who wait...
Tuesday night Shane and I were going over the itinerary, basically covering everything another time to make sure that we both had an idea of what was going on. There were a couple of stops on the trip that he was a bit concerned about. He was sure if we would be able to afford everything I had planned.
Now, he knows how much of a bargain shopper I am, so he knew that I had purchased several Groupons for the trip. The ones that were sending up the red flags to him were the stops that we did not have a Groupon for. These were places we went to on our last trip and I wanted to revisit them. They are also places that I had a Groupon for on the last trip. I assured him that everything was budgeted and we would be fine.
The first place was a wine and liquor store that I really liked the owner. He even found my youtube page and commented on the video of us talking about his store. That to me, guarantees return business...plus, I really liked the wine I bought and I can't remember what it was...
The second place was to go ice skating. Now, we looked at several rinks all over Northern Jersey and NYC. The place I have planned to go is the all around cheapest, plus we know we like the rink and they have walkers available and a small area set aside for little kids. This is very important to me if we are going ice skating because it will be Caylie's first time and my second time. I want to make sure she'll be ok and that I don't fall. :)
And since we are going to this particular place to ice skate, the third place was a no brainer for me! There was one restaurant that we went to on our last trip that was just AMAZING. We are still talking about it and were practically dying to get back. The thing is, it's not the cheapest place. I mean, there certainly is NOT a dollar menu. Shane was the most concerned about this, but I told him we would go for lunch instead of dinner and that would help out with the cost. We were slightly disappointed because some of our favorite items were not available on the lunch menu, but we were still going to go regardless and pay full price.
I am a bargain shopper by nature. I do love coupons. I love thrift stores. The main reason I do this though, is so when it comes time to do something that we want to do and we DON'T have access to a discount, we are able to. There are certain things that I don't sacrifice on and others that I do. This restaurant, I would spend practically any price to eat there.
So, yesterday, I was talking to the ladies I work with about how great this place is and how much we are looking forward to eating there again. About 20 minutes later, I looked at my facebook feed and saw that the restaurant's fan page had posted there was a DEAL AVAILABLE!!! What's that you say? Did my eyes get wide and mouth drop open? Did I do the dance of joy? YOU BET I DID! One of the local online deal sites had a HALF OFF deal for dinner only and it didn't expire until 12/31/11! Even better, YOU COULD BUY MORE THAN ONE!!! Did I die and go to heaven? So, of course, I bought 2! One for this trip and one for our trip back at Christmas. YAYAYAYAYAY! SOOOO excited! This is proof that good things really do come to those who wait, and pay attention.
Yesterday, the greatest thing happened.
Now, he knows how much of a bargain shopper I am, so he knew that I had purchased several Groupons for the trip. The ones that were sending up the red flags to him were the stops that we did not have a Groupon for. These were places we went to on our last trip and I wanted to revisit them. They are also places that I had a Groupon for on the last trip. I assured him that everything was budgeted and we would be fine.
The first place was a wine and liquor store that I really liked the owner. He even found my youtube page and commented on the video of us talking about his store. That to me, guarantees return business...plus, I really liked the wine I bought and I can't remember what it was...
The second place was to go ice skating. Now, we looked at several rinks all over Northern Jersey and NYC. The place I have planned to go is the all around cheapest, plus we know we like the rink and they have walkers available and a small area set aside for little kids. This is very important to me if we are going ice skating because it will be Caylie's first time and my second time. I want to make sure she'll be ok and that I don't fall. :)
And since we are going to this particular place to ice skate, the third place was a no brainer for me! There was one restaurant that we went to on our last trip that was just AMAZING. We are still talking about it and were practically dying to get back. The thing is, it's not the cheapest place. I mean, there certainly is NOT a dollar menu. Shane was the most concerned about this, but I told him we would go for lunch instead of dinner and that would help out with the cost. We were slightly disappointed because some of our favorite items were not available on the lunch menu, but we were still going to go regardless and pay full price.
I am a bargain shopper by nature. I do love coupons. I love thrift stores. The main reason I do this though, is so when it comes time to do something that we want to do and we DON'T have access to a discount, we are able to. There are certain things that I don't sacrifice on and others that I do. This restaurant, I would spend practically any price to eat there.
So, yesterday, I was talking to the ladies I work with about how great this place is and how much we are looking forward to eating there again. About 20 minutes later, I looked at my facebook feed and saw that the restaurant's fan page had posted there was a DEAL AVAILABLE!!! What's that you say? Did my eyes get wide and mouth drop open? Did I do the dance of joy? YOU BET I DID! One of the local online deal sites had a HALF OFF deal for dinner only and it didn't expire until 12/31/11! Even better, YOU COULD BUY MORE THAN ONE!!! Did I die and go to heaven? So, of course, I bought 2! One for this trip and one for our trip back at Christmas. YAYAYAYAYAY! SOOOO excited! This is proof that good things really do come to those who wait, and pay attention.
Yesterday, the greatest thing happened.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Creative Vacation Financing
Ok, if you're like me, you don't have an endless supply of money coming in that you can just throw away on a vacation. So I decided after the success of our last big vacation that I would continue with what I like to call, "Creative Vacation Financing".
I talked about using Groupons for vacation. There are many great reasons why you should do this.
#1: Know what you're doing!
How many times have you gone somewhere on vacation or even a weekend trip with no plan in mind? What usually ends up happening? You get there, unload the car and then what?
"What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?" "Well, I don't know what there is to do here or what place there are to eat!"
You want to AVOID this AT ALL COSTS!!! This can lead to arguments and potentially ruin your trip! By having a plan and pre-purchasing deals for activities and meals, this can eliminate these problems from arising.
#2: Try new places!
I don't know about you, but I LOVE to try new places. You go on vacation to get away from your everyday life....why would you want to end up at those same places you go to all the time? Getting this online deals can open you up to a whole new world of places! Skip the big chains and check out some Mom & Pops!
#3 You can do more!
If you have a budget for what you can spend on your vacation, this is the thing for you! Most deals are a 50% discount, some are even more than that! This means with the same budget, you are able to do twice as many things as you would if you waited til you got to your destination and paid full price.
#4 It's already paid for!
THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE!
When you pre-purchase those deals, you pay for them then. This allows you to have a portion of your vacation aready paid for before you even leave your driveway. This is my Creative Vacation Financing. Most people have a hard time saving up money for vacation. You have a very small amount of money left over from each paycheck and you put it in your savings, but then something comes along and you have to spend it. Then what do you do?
Most people will waste $25 a week by eating out or buying snacks or items they really don't need simply because the money is available right then. What I propose you do instead of "banking" the money, is go ahead and buy those deals for things you will want to do on your vacation!
Look at this as a different form of "banking". You are pre-paying for things and then setting them aside just like you would a savings account. OH, and by the way, did I mention that you DOUBLE your investment? With the deals being a 50% discount, you are going to DOUBLE what you put in! If I purchase a deal for $10 on a meal, but I receive a $20 voucher, I just DOUBLED my money that I "banked" for this trip. I don't know of any savings account that will double your money.
Now, there are things that you need to keep in mind if you are going to try this method of vacationing.
#1: Are your dates set in stone?
If you do not know exactly when you are going on vacation, I would not suggest this for you. Each individual deal has it's own expiration date and terms and conditions. If you don't know for certain when you are going, you could lose money on deals expiring before you can use them.
#2: Is your location set in stone?
Again, this is pretty much the same concept as #1. If you don't know for certain where you are traveling to, you can't possibly purchase deals for that area.
#3: Are you flexible?
Are you the type of person that falls apart when you have set backs, or do you bounce back? When you purchase these deals, you need to know that you may have to rearrange things based on traffic, weather or other outside influences.
#4: Are you organized?
I'm not gonna lie to you and say this is the easiest thing in the world to do. Yes, it can be easy if it's a short trip or you only purchase a handful of deals. However, if you are going to maximize your dollar and time and purchase several deals for a long trip, you need to be at least a little organized.
#5: Are you decent at using a Map?
Now, when I say map...I'm talking digital age map... Mapquest, bing, googlemaps, etc. You need to be able to look up each deal on a map and determine if it will fit within your driving radius. Is the town near another town that I will be in? You don't want to make things harder on yourself just to get a "great deal".
#6: Do you have some form of GPS?
You can print out your directions ahead of time by using one of the map softwares listed above, but what happens when you get lost or take a wrong turn? What if there is a detour due to road contruction or weather? This is when it comes in handy to have that nice GPS. When you are in an unfamiliar area, you need to prepare to get lost. We do not have a standalone one, only the googlemaps app on our phones.
I talked about using Groupons for vacation. There are many great reasons why you should do this.
#1: Know what you're doing!
How many times have you gone somewhere on vacation or even a weekend trip with no plan in mind? What usually ends up happening? You get there, unload the car and then what?
"What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?" "Well, I don't know what there is to do here or what place there are to eat!"
You want to AVOID this AT ALL COSTS!!! This can lead to arguments and potentially ruin your trip! By having a plan and pre-purchasing deals for activities and meals, this can eliminate these problems from arising.
#2: Try new places!
I don't know about you, but I LOVE to try new places. You go on vacation to get away from your everyday life....why would you want to end up at those same places you go to all the time? Getting this online deals can open you up to a whole new world of places! Skip the big chains and check out some Mom & Pops!
#3 You can do more!
If you have a budget for what you can spend on your vacation, this is the thing for you! Most deals are a 50% discount, some are even more than that! This means with the same budget, you are able to do twice as many things as you would if you waited til you got to your destination and paid full price.
#4 It's already paid for!
THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE!
When you pre-purchase those deals, you pay for them then. This allows you to have a portion of your vacation aready paid for before you even leave your driveway. This is my Creative Vacation Financing. Most people have a hard time saving up money for vacation. You have a very small amount of money left over from each paycheck and you put it in your savings, but then something comes along and you have to spend it. Then what do you do?
Most people will waste $25 a week by eating out or buying snacks or items they really don't need simply because the money is available right then. What I propose you do instead of "banking" the money, is go ahead and buy those deals for things you will want to do on your vacation!
Look at this as a different form of "banking". You are pre-paying for things and then setting them aside just like you would a savings account. OH, and by the way, did I mention that you DOUBLE your investment? With the deals being a 50% discount, you are going to DOUBLE what you put in! If I purchase a deal for $10 on a meal, but I receive a $20 voucher, I just DOUBLED my money that I "banked" for this trip. I don't know of any savings account that will double your money.
Now, there are things that you need to keep in mind if you are going to try this method of vacationing.
#1: Are your dates set in stone?
If you do not know exactly when you are going on vacation, I would not suggest this for you. Each individual deal has it's own expiration date and terms and conditions. If you don't know for certain when you are going, you could lose money on deals expiring before you can use them.
#2: Is your location set in stone?
Again, this is pretty much the same concept as #1. If you don't know for certain where you are traveling to, you can't possibly purchase deals for that area.
#3: Are you flexible?
Are you the type of person that falls apart when you have set backs, or do you bounce back? When you purchase these deals, you need to know that you may have to rearrange things based on traffic, weather or other outside influences.
#4: Are you organized?
I'm not gonna lie to you and say this is the easiest thing in the world to do. Yes, it can be easy if it's a short trip or you only purchase a handful of deals. However, if you are going to maximize your dollar and time and purchase several deals for a long trip, you need to be at least a little organized.
#5: Are you decent at using a Map?
Now, when I say map...I'm talking digital age map... Mapquest, bing, googlemaps, etc. You need to be able to look up each deal on a map and determine if it will fit within your driving radius. Is the town near another town that I will be in? You don't want to make things harder on yourself just to get a "great deal".
#6: Do you have some form of GPS?
You can print out your directions ahead of time by using one of the map softwares listed above, but what happens when you get lost or take a wrong turn? What if there is a detour due to road contruction or weather? This is when it comes in handy to have that nice GPS. When you are in an unfamiliar area, you need to prepare to get lost. We do not have a standalone one, only the googlemaps app on our phones.
More deals!! YAY!
Now, you didn't think I'd stop looking for deals did you? Just because we are less than a week out from the trip and the intinerary is complete does not mean that we can fit more things in or fill in holes.
Today there were 2 nice deals available. 1 for breakfast and 1 for lunch. The best thing about the breakfast one is that it's in a town that we are already going to early in the morning. YAY! 1 more meal taken care of!
The lunch is not in a town that we are already going to, but it's not "out of the way" either. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having meals planned and taken care of before the trip. There is nothing better than going out of town on vacation and KNOWING where you will eat the entire time. OH, and you don't have to spend a dime out of pocket either!!! I like to call it "Creative Vacation Financing".
Today there were 2 nice deals available. 1 for breakfast and 1 for lunch. The best thing about the breakfast one is that it's in a town that we are already going to early in the morning. YAY! 1 more meal taken care of!
The lunch is not in a town that we are already going to, but it's not "out of the way" either. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having meals planned and taken care of before the trip. There is nothing better than going out of town on vacation and KNOWING where you will eat the entire time. OH, and you don't have to spend a dime out of pocket either!!! I like to call it "Creative Vacation Financing".
Revisions...Revisions...and wait, what? More Revisions?
So, I had my basic outline of our trip planned out. Since I felt pretty good about it, I started entering everything into my tripit account. I LOVE tripit.com. I have used this site for 3 trips now, and it is so helpful and amazing. You can input every possible thing you would need all onto 1 itinerary. SO GREAT!! It also keeps a record of how many miles and what cities you have been too. Best of all, it is FREE to use! They do have a version that you can upgrade to for $50 per year, but honestly, it doesn't have anything that I need on it to make it worthwhile. I'd rather stay with the basic version. Another neat thing about tripit is that you can add travelers to your trip and they can access the information. You can also share your trip with non-travelers. This is a great feature because I am able to have everything all together and sent to anyone that would need to know where we are. On this trip, I sent it to my mom, Shane's mom and Caylie's dad. Anytime we travel over 300 miles we are required to provide an itinerary to the other parent so that they know how to contact us in case of an emergency. This is so much better than having to type it all out in an email.
After I got all of the stops entered in on the appropriate days, I began adding our driving directions. It wasn't long after I started that I realized there was another deal that I wanted to purchase. This would cause some major changes. I looked at the whole trip overall and started moving things around to accommodate it. Then, as I was going over all of the changes, I realized that one of the deals I purchased could only be used on certain days...so that caused even more changes.
Finally, I got frustrated and said to myself that I needed a break. I would come back to it the next day. The next day rolled around and I started printing out all of my deals. That's when I realized that the first deal that caused all of the trouble, wasn't even going to be available until AFTER our trip. Luckily, instead of it being a "1-day" deal, it was a "3-day" deal and I was still able to cancel my order and get my money back.
I cannot stress enough to make sure you read every single word in the deal restrictions. I was almost out of $15 because I didn't realize there was a redemption window on it. I saw the expiration date, but not the "you cannot use this before" date.
So, here I was again..back to square one. Trying desperately not to lose my mind. I began shuffling things around again.
Honestly, I'm kind of glad in a way that I wasn't able to use that deal. While I know Caylie would have really enjoyed it, it really was going to cause us to be on a tighter schedule than I liked and a bit more driving that we really wanted to do.
So finally, I felt confident that my itinerary was not going to have any more drastic changes and I sent out the email links to everyone that needed it.
After I got all of the stops entered in on the appropriate days, I began adding our driving directions. It wasn't long after I started that I realized there was another deal that I wanted to purchase. This would cause some major changes. I looked at the whole trip overall and started moving things around to accommodate it. Then, as I was going over all of the changes, I realized that one of the deals I purchased could only be used on certain days...so that caused even more changes.
Finally, I got frustrated and said to myself that I needed a break. I would come back to it the next day. The next day rolled around and I started printing out all of my deals. That's when I realized that the first deal that caused all of the trouble, wasn't even going to be available until AFTER our trip. Luckily, instead of it being a "1-day" deal, it was a "3-day" deal and I was still able to cancel my order and get my money back.
I cannot stress enough to make sure you read every single word in the deal restrictions. I was almost out of $15 because I didn't realize there was a redemption window on it. I saw the expiration date, but not the "you cannot use this before" date.
So, here I was again..back to square one. Trying desperately not to lose my mind. I began shuffling things around again.
Honestly, I'm kind of glad in a way that I wasn't able to use that deal. While I know Caylie would have really enjoyed it, it really was going to cause us to be on a tighter schedule than I liked and a bit more driving that we really wanted to do.
So finally, I felt confident that my itinerary was not going to have any more drastic changes and I sent out the email links to everyone that needed it.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Things are coming along...
Last night I was determined to get at least an outline of the trip planned. After I ate dinner and took a moment to relax, I began compiling all of my information. Luckily, I previously had printed all of my Groupons that I will be using on the trip as well as my pre/post trip Groupons. Shane took Caylie to the pool to swim for a bit and I seized the oppurtunity for quiet and rational thought.
With all of my information there beside me, I began making my two outline lists. The first list had each Groupon with what city it was in. I tried to group them together by location. The second list was a day by day breakdown of the plans. Basically, I wrote down each day that we would be on vacation and left a few spaces in between to write in the plans. This works well for me because the first thing I do on that list is place the definites. Those items that are at a specific date and time that cannot be moved.
This is what it looked like with the bare minimum of information:
Sunday:
Leave, driving at 3 pm
Monday:
Shane: Dr appt 4 pm
Tuesday:
Brooke: Graduation 5 pm
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Melissa: Graduation 5 pm
Friday:
Shane and Danny: Village Pourhouse
Saturday:
Me and Sandy: Manhattan by Sail
Sunday:
Leave, driving at 6 am
Once I had my minor outline, I was able to see which towns we would be in on what days and start "filling in" the activities and meals. I also could clearly see which days I had more freedom and less time restrictions. Being able to place this sheet side-by-side with the first listing of all the Groupons really helps bring everything together. This way you don't have to keep flipping through papers and get frustrated.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) it was around this time that Shane and Caylie got back. After he got Caylie settled, he came downstairs and offered to help me. (He didn't realize I was this far behind on the planning!) Now, you can look at this as a half empty/half full scenario. While I love the fact that my husband was willing to help me, it felt like I couldn't think! I couldn't keep everything straight in my mind while I was sorting it out. I felt so helpless, my ADD had kicked in and my brain was going a thousand different directions.
Finally, after much discussion about each deal, the location and what we would be doing...we were able to get almost all of the items placed on the daily list.
I felt accomplished. My trip now had an outline. I no longer had this feeling of dread and fear of getting lost. So, I took my winnings and left it at that.
With all of my information there beside me, I began making my two outline lists. The first list had each Groupon with what city it was in. I tried to group them together by location. The second list was a day by day breakdown of the plans. Basically, I wrote down each day that we would be on vacation and left a few spaces in between to write in the plans. This works well for me because the first thing I do on that list is place the definites. Those items that are at a specific date and time that cannot be moved.
This is what it looked like with the bare minimum of information:
Sunday:
Leave, driving at 3 pm
Monday:
Shane: Dr appt 4 pm
Tuesday:
Brooke: Graduation 5 pm
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Melissa: Graduation 5 pm
Friday:
Shane and Danny: Village Pourhouse
Saturday:
Me and Sandy: Manhattan by Sail
Sunday:
Leave, driving at 6 am
Once I had my minor outline, I was able to see which towns we would be in on what days and start "filling in" the activities and meals. I also could clearly see which days I had more freedom and less time restrictions. Being able to place this sheet side-by-side with the first listing of all the Groupons really helps bring everything together. This way you don't have to keep flipping through papers and get frustrated.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) it was around this time that Shane and Caylie got back. After he got Caylie settled, he came downstairs and offered to help me. (He didn't realize I was this far behind on the planning!) Now, you can look at this as a half empty/half full scenario. While I love the fact that my husband was willing to help me, it felt like I couldn't think! I couldn't keep everything straight in my mind while I was sorting it out. I felt so helpless, my ADD had kicked in and my brain was going a thousand different directions.
Finally, after much discussion about each deal, the location and what we would be doing...we were able to get almost all of the items placed on the daily list.
I felt accomplished. My trip now had an outline. I no longer had this feeling of dread and fear of getting lost. So, I took my winnings and left it at that.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Time to finish planning...
Ok, I've waited long enough. It's been touch and go the last couple of weeks with our trip planning. Not knowing when certain events would be and also not knowing how much money would be available to spend.
We are within two weeks of departing for our adventure and I haven't mapped or planned out a single stop. I think after admitting that, my brain is actually going to explode!
So, here I am, 12 days til we leave, finally getting the plans together. I have my Groupons already printed and in the travel folder. I have started the packing lists. I've set up someone to grab our newspapers ( I will be very ill if someone steals my coupons!). And appointments are set to get everything in order.
I am still debating on if we will need to stop at a hotel on the way. I'm really not sure how well Caylie can handle driving 13 hours straight and it would be nice to have a break to rest. However, doing the calculations, it will cost us anywhere from $38-$44 to stay 1 night in a hotel. That will include breakfast, but still. That's a lot of money to spend on a hotel when we could just drive straight through and spend $10 on breakfast. I know what my options are and where the hotels are located, but I may wait to make a reservation until closer to time. I had hoped that maybe 1 other person would come with us on the trip so it would take some of the pressures of driving off of myself and Shane. So far, I haven't had any takers...you'd think people would jump at the oppurtunity.
So, now, here I sit...with a general outline of the places we are supposed to be and things we intend to do. Somehow, I will make sense of it all...
We are within two weeks of departing for our adventure and I haven't mapped or planned out a single stop. I think after admitting that, my brain is actually going to explode!
So, here I am, 12 days til we leave, finally getting the plans together. I have my Groupons already printed and in the travel folder. I have started the packing lists. I've set up someone to grab our newspapers ( I will be very ill if someone steals my coupons!). And appointments are set to get everything in order.
I am still debating on if we will need to stop at a hotel on the way. I'm really not sure how well Caylie can handle driving 13 hours straight and it would be nice to have a break to rest. However, doing the calculations, it will cost us anywhere from $38-$44 to stay 1 night in a hotel. That will include breakfast, but still. That's a lot of money to spend on a hotel when we could just drive straight through and spend $10 on breakfast. I know what my options are and where the hotels are located, but I may wait to make a reservation until closer to time. I had hoped that maybe 1 other person would come with us on the trip so it would take some of the pressures of driving off of myself and Shane. So far, I haven't had any takers...you'd think people would jump at the oppurtunity.
So, now, here I sit...with a general outline of the places we are supposed to be and things we intend to do. Somehow, I will make sense of it all...
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