It's Just Money

Planning our Honeymoon

So, we're getting married next May.  Despite small setbacks such as our florist dropping us, the plans are coming along well.  By the way, we reached out to some friends and were referred to a florist who is going to be fabulous, and within budget.

The next thing on my list is planning the Honeymoon.  We're going big on this.  We are planning to spend two weeks in Italy and Greece.  Neither of us have ever been to Europe, so we didn't want to overwhelm ourselves with hopping around to Spain, France, etc.  We picked the two countries that we wanted to see the most.

Thanks to my massive accumulation of Hilton Honors points, we will have our hotel stays almost entirely covered.  We're actually up to about 330,000 points.  The gorgeous four star quality hotels in Italy and Greece go for either 35,000 or 40,000 points per night.  I'm going to continue to use my Hilton Honors American Express card for most of our wedding expenses, so that total should get close to 400,000 points by the time the wedding rolls around.

Our problem is the flights.  I did a cursory search for airline prices for that time of year, and it looks like about $1,100 per person on the lower end.  Ouch!  Unfortunately, unlike Hilton points, I do not have any significant accumulation of any major airline miles.

If anyone has any tips or advice to help us keep our honeymoon costs down, it would be much appreciated.  I know the obvious answer is to scale our plans down.  Fewer nights, cheaper location.  especially with the current Dollar/Euro rate, it's going to get costly.

Yet Another Timeshare Presentation

A couple of weeks ago we were approached at a wedding expo to attend another timeshare presentation.  A little weary from the last one, we asked what they had to offer.  They were offering $75 in gift cards to a variety of vendors, and two AMC movie tickets.  Well, for 90 minutes of our time on a Saturday morning in which we had no other plans?  Why not.  Besides, I kind of get a kick out of these things.

This time, I made a point to write down some of the pricing details so that I can compare it to resale sites such as Timeshares Only.  So, here was the presentation and the pricing details.  By the way, I plugged the numbers into Brian's Timeshare Calculator.  Awesome tool, Brian.

Here are the details of the presentation.

American Airlines Response

The one good thing that I can say for them is that they responded quickly.  But based on the response, I may soon become a member of this web site.  Essentially, they told me, "It's right there in our policy, tough luck."  Of course, they took three paragraphs to do it.  Here is the email that I recived from their Customer Relations Rep (i.e. automated response).

American Airlines Flight Cacellation Cost Us $292.48

I know I have been blabbing on about our Orlando trip.  We kept our food costs down, we said no to the timeshare salesman.  The one that I have not shared was our flight cancellation, forcing us to stay two extra nights.

So, it was the last day of our trip.  We caught a shuttle to the airport, very ready to come home.  Let's face it, we had been gone for ten days, and had our fill of theme parks for at least a few years.  We entered the airport, only to be faced with a check-in line that wrapped around the corner and back through the shops.  Suitcases crammed the walkways, and travelers had the look not of exhaustion (ready to go home) or excitement (ready to go out of town), but of frustration and panic.

Inspired by our $50 a day success, we're implementing a $20 a day food budget!

Recently, I posted about our success in keeping our food expenditures in Orlando under $50 per day.  Bolstered by the success of that little project, we have embarked on a $20 a day food budget for the two of us. 

When you think about it, $600 per month for food for two people should be very easy.  And most days, we'll be well under the twenty bucks.  But the idea is to accumulate the excess, so that when there's an occasion to go out, or we just feel like it, we can go for it.  This way we will never feel bad about going out, but will also never allow food to overwhelm our budget.

We started it yesterday, March 1.  So far, in a day and a half, we have spent about six bucks.  I love it!

Eating in Orlando for $50 a day

Well, I didn't think we could do it.  My Fiancee suggested before our trip to Orlando, "Let's set a food budget of fifty bucks a day."  I agreed, but inside I was skeptical.  After all, we were planning on spending several days in Disney and Universal theme parks.  Aren't the burgers like nine bucks there?

Well, I'm happy to report that we not only kept our total combined food budget under fifty dollars a day, but we almost made forty dollars a day!  Not only that, but we didn't hold back.  We ate out, I had beers at EPCOT's World Pavilion, wine or beer with a few other meals.  So, how the heck did we do it?  I'm still not sure I know, but basically, it's like this...

Timeshares: Should we buy one?

During our trip to Orlando, we stayed at a Hilton Grand Vacation Club Resort.  The price was right:  $330 for four nights.  It was the sort of resort that you would expect to pay at least $150 per night.  The catch?  Sit through a 90 minute timeshare presentation, of course.

If you haven't been through one of these, I'll try to recount the experience with as much detail as I can remember.  It's a remarkable sales presentation, with answers for every question/objection.  So, here's how it goes.

Been in Orlando This Week

Hey folks, I have been in Orlando since last weekend, and won't return until this weekend.  My Fiancee and I are completely theme parked out.  I am finally at a computer with working internet.  There have been some very interesting stories to share that relate to personal finance, and I can't wait to get back to share.  A short preview:  our $50/day experiment has gone very well.  In fact, we're under budget, and not holding back at all.  I have had beers with meals, and eaten pretty well.  I'll definitely share all about how we managed to spend less than fifty bucks a day for food while staying in Disney and Hilton hotels.

Also, we attended a time share presentation at the Hilton vacation resort.  As always, it was very enticing, but we didn't buy.  I had a question for the guy that he didn't really answer.  "Why are timeshare sales so profitable for the resorts?"  I backed this up by saying that we routinely get email and phone call invitations to attend presentations.  They give us free dinners, weekend getaways, and movie tickets.  There is always "no pressure to buy."  So, that must mean that they are making a tremendous amount of money on the ones who actually buy.

I'll have a whole post up later about our timeshare presentation.

It's late here in Orlando.  I'll post more when I return to Los Angeles.

We're going to Orlando, Florida! Advice please!

This Thursday morning my Fiancee and I will be leaving for Orlando, Florida for nine days.  We are going for a family wedding on Sunday, and staying through the next week to make a vacation out of it.  If you have been there or are from the area, any advice that you can offer us in terms of how to save money, what is worth spending some money on, and must see/take a pass things to do, would be very appreciated.

Our itinerary at this point is pretty straightforward.  We're getting in on Thursday and staying at one of the Disney property hotels through Tuesday.  During that time we will be getting a two day park hopper to hit all of the Disney parks.  We will also have wedding stuff during that time.  On Tuesday, we will be heading over to the Hilton Grand Vacation Club closer to Universal Studios.  We got a great deal, and will be staying there until Saturday morning.  We plan on spending a day or two at Universal Studios and the wild animal park.

We plan to go to the Kennedy Space Center at some point as well.  We are only planning on renting a car for that one day.  In a tribute to Rachael Ray, we will attempt to operate on a $50 a day budget for food.  Believe me we'll be spending enough on park passes that we'll need to find ways to save on food.

So, any great hidden gems?  Hole in the wall places?  Anything we should pass on?

Would you pay for a flight today for a free flight in the future?

It sounds counterintuitive.  Why would you pay for a flight that you don't need to take, just to get a free flight later on.  Why not just pay for that other flight?  Well, here's the deal.

Southwest is currently offering a promotion called "Fly 3, Get 1 Free" that applies specifically to California.  If you take three intrastate flights before the end of February, you get one free flight to any of Southwest's 62 nationwide destinations.  The reason that I am considering this is that I have already taken one LAX to Oakland trip, and have another LAX to San Jose trip planned for February.  Those are both on the company dime.  I don't have a business reason to take a third trip.

But here's what I'm thinking.  I have friends in San Francisco.  I could fly to Oakland, stay overnight, and fly back.  I could get the internet special fares of $49 each way.  After taxes and security fees, I would be paying $108 for the trip.  I get a short visit with some friends out of the deal, and a free ticket to use over the next year.  That free ticket would most likely be used for a flight to Portland, Baltimore or Chicago.  These are flights that generally run a minimum of $99 each way, and more.

So, What do you think?  Would you do it?