Expenses - Let's talk about the expenses for a week of vacation. First, the flights around the holidays are about $400 round trip. A rental car can be about $20- 30 per day. We have two dogs, so a kennel or dog sitter can be $20-30 per day. For two adults, that's $800 + $140 + $140 totaling $1080. For a family of four, the total would be about $1880. If we were to stay in a hotel, we'd be adding at least another $400 - $700.
Distance - Live close or really far away to/from your family. If our families lived across town, I wouldn't be writing this article. We'd lose, at most, a half tank of gas and one vacation day in that situation. That'd be easy. If they lived an ocean away, we'd spread out the trips and make it a real vacation by adding in extra cities and sights. Since they live one direct flight away, we try to make one vacation a year. While the kids are under two years old, flights are free for them. As they age, we'll have to readjust the frequency of our trips. [Story about expenses with no family or live near or live-in family] Driving is a less costly, but time-consuming option. For our situation, that'd be about 1,400 miles and an extra day of travel each way. The savings stars to make sense with a family of four as this option would cost at most about $250 in gas and $150 on a hotel. Traveling for an extra day and saving $400 does not make sense at our current salaries. The extra day equates to an hourly rate of about $25 an hour ($400/16 hours). With a family of four, saving $1200 does start to make sense as $75 an hour is far more than we make now. Plus, we wouldn't have to rent a car or lug our luggage through an airport.
Transportation - We're lucky here as family usually picks us up and drops us off at the airport. They will also let us borrow a car. If you aren't so fortunate, rental companies often have member benefits for free days and upgrades. We've also used corporate benefits through our companies and relatives to get these member perks without the membership hassle.
Credit Cards - We make use of travel credit cards. One major hub of Southwest is about a 20 minute drive, so we both use a Southwest Credit Card. We pay for our flights using the card about make the rare purchase with it. About every third flight is free with points and that helps a bunch. For larger, pre-planned vacations abroad, we plan with a specific airline and build up miles ahead of time. We pay property taxes using a couple of these cards and, usually, the flights are fully paid. [Housing expense / property tax story] The same can be done with hotel points and other rewards. [Credit Card Rewards Story]
House and Dog Sitting - A long time ago, we would drop our two dogs off at a kennel for $43 a day. After a few trips, we decided to have a couple dog sitters come to the house instead. They charged $36 a day. The dogs stayed in a comfortable locations, someone was checking on our house, and we avoided adding 30 minutes of travel on our already heavy travel days. The downside eventually hit us though. The sitters weren't very punctual and a dog became ill. We came home to fecal explosions all over the house. The best option took awhile mainly because we're both independent and antisocial. We eventually made friend with a few neighbors who have pets. We trade pet sitting duties, save money, and trust each other. We should've been more friendly early-on as the benefits of having trusted friends nearby are huge. [Support network][Emergencies]
Thanks,
Dan
Transportation - We're lucky here as family usually picks us up and drops us off at the airport. They will also let us borrow a car. If you aren't so fortunate, rental companies often have member benefits for free days and upgrades. We've also used corporate benefits through our companies and relatives to get these member perks without the membership hassle.
Credit Cards - We make use of travel credit cards. One major hub of Southwest is about a 20 minute drive, so we both use a Southwest Credit Card. We pay for our flights using the card about make the rare purchase with it. About every third flight is free with points and that helps a bunch. For larger, pre-planned vacations abroad, we plan with a specific airline and build up miles ahead of time. We pay property taxes using a couple of these cards and, usually, the flights are fully paid. [Housing expense / property tax story] The same can be done with hotel points and other rewards. [Credit Card Rewards Story]
House and Dog Sitting - A long time ago, we would drop our two dogs off at a kennel for $43 a day. After a few trips, we decided to have a couple dog sitters come to the house instead. They charged $36 a day. The dogs stayed in a comfortable locations, someone was checking on our house, and we avoided adding 30 minutes of travel on our already heavy travel days. The downside eventually hit us though. The sitters weren't very punctual and a dog became ill. We came home to fecal explosions all over the house. The best option took awhile mainly because we're both independent and antisocial. We eventually made friend with a few neighbors who have pets. We trade pet sitting duties, save money, and trust each other. We should've been more friendly early-on as the benefits of having trusted friends nearby are huge. [Support network][Emergencies]
Thanks,
Dan
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